GULF Coast Highway

[balcony girls]

So nobody knows the name of the female singer that sings with Jimmy?

Evangeline

Is Evangeline the name of a band or a person? I'm getting more and more confused.

. .Evangeline is the name of their band . . all girls . .about 5 of them, I think . . ! !

. .sorry . .never knew their names. . .

[pleiades97]

Jimmy with Evangeline and Nanci with John Prine. Both versions are great to me.

[ragtopW]

So nobody knows the name of the female singer that sings with Jimmy?

Evangeline

Is Evangeline the name of a band or a person? I'm getting more and more confused.

. .Evangeline is the name of their band . . all girls . .about 5 of them, I think . . ! !

. .sorry . .never knew their names. . .

sorry BG... When I saw them they had a male Keyboard player..
but the CDs credit only women

[conched]

Ragtop, the liner notes for Evangeline Cd has a guy named Dudley Fruge on drums for the album that was produced by Jimmy Buffett.

Burny,
The girls listed in Evangeline 1992 are:
Nancy Buchan -- Fiddle and Mandolin
Sharon Leger -- Bass, Washboard, and Vocals
Rhonda Bolin Lohmeyer -- Guitars, Fiddle, and Vocals
Beth McKee -- Keyboards and vocals
Kathleen Stieffel -- Acoustic Guitar and Vocals

There was no way to tell who was singing with Jimmy on Gulf Coast Highways.

On their 1993 Evangeline French Quarter Moon
They are:
Sharon Leger
Rhonda Bolin Lohmeyer
Beth McKee
Kathleen Stieffel
Produced by Michael Utley and Justin Niebank
There are numerous other players on this cd, but just the four girls.

Looked at the Margaritaville CDs Late Night Menu New Orleans and Cafe...and NO Gulf Coast Highway on there.

I guess there is someone out there who may be able to answer this one tho.

[conched]

Gulf Coast Highway has been on Nanci's CD with Mac McAnally. I'll pull out the CDs if you want to know which ones it is on. Maybe MCA years?

Nanci also sings it with James Lee Hooker, I think on one of her DVDs.

There is a also a version of Nanci with Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish on Blue Roses From the Moons. They also sang together on Austin City Limits.


Now the female singer who is with Evangeline and duets with Jimmy is still a big ???

[shrimper dan]

evageline is or was and all female band from new orleans that jimmy discovered and signed them to his margritaville record label,they made 2 records or cds the 1st one simply titled evangeline,contained gulf coast hwy,the 2nd titled french quarter moon,i own em both and and think both are pretty darn good!

[conched]

sorry BG... When I saw them they had a male Keyboard player..
but the CDs credit only women

Michael Utley plays keyboards on their second CD.

Good stuff. They also played on a video that Jimmy did in New Orleans Cafe. Iguanas were there and so was Todd Snider. It was a show with newcomers to Margaritaville Records I think.

[conched]

evageline is or was and all female band from new orleans that jimmy discovered and signed them to his margritaville record label,they made 2 records or cds the 1st one simply titled evangeline,contained gulf coast hwy,the 2nd titled french quarter moon,i own em both and and think both are pretty darn good!

Agreed. I also remember a Coconut Telegraph that had a feature story about them. It must be from 1992. Researching.

[ragtopW]

sorry BG... When I saw them they had a male Keyboard player..
but the CDs credit only women

Michael Utley plays keyboards on their second CD.

Good stuff. They also played on a video that Jimmy did in New Orleans Cafe. Iguanas were there and so was Todd Snider. It was a show with newcomers to Margaritaville Records I think.

let me go look.. and see what I was thinking of..

[ragtopW]

Ragtop, the liner notes for Evangeline Cd has a guy named Dudley Fruge on drums for the album that was produced by Jimmy Buffett.

Burny,
The girls listed in Evangeline 1992 are:
Nancy Buchan -- Fiddle and Mandolin
Sharon Leger -- Bass, Washboard, and Vocals
Rhonda Bolin Lohmeyer -- Guitars, Fiddle, and Vocals
Beth McKee -- Keyboards and vocals
Kathleen Stieffel -- Acoustic Guitar and Vocals

There was no way to tell who was singing with Jimmy on Gulf Coast Highways.

On their 1993 Evangeline French Quarter Moon
They are:
Sharon Leger
Rhonda Bolin Lohmeyer
Beth McKee
Kathleen Stieffel
Produced by Michael Utley and Justin Niebank
There are numerous other players on this cd, but just the four girls.

Looked at the Margaritaville CDs Late Night Menu New Orleans and Cafe...and NO Gulf Coast Highway on there.

I guess there is someone out there who may be able to answer this one tho.

I was thinking of the Wrong CD..
if you open the CD of French Quarter Moon (done after GCH)
the pic has four ladies..
the Drummer may have been male.. But the second.. and third..
annnd fourth time I saw them (all the same weekend at a Country fest)
the Keyboard player was male.. circa...1995??
I do remember that the Video shot with Jimmy
was out.....

[conched]

ragtop, cool that you got to see them.

Good questions like this always make me pull out the cd liner notes and relisten to the cds.

There is a lead vocalist on all the tracks, but never says who sings the main vocals on each track.

Rhonda Bolin Lohmeyer seems to always front the photos.

The girls seem to take turns with lead vocals. They all sound good and do blend vocals.

Still a mystery to me.

[conched]

Liner notes lyrics, etc. for Evangeline

http://www.luma-electronic.cz/lp/e/Evan ... geline.htm

http://www.luma-electronic.cz/lp/e/Evan ... vangel.htm

EVANGELINE
This New Orleans-based band blends good-time, bayou country tunes with sweetly sensitive balladry. Their first album features a quintet headed by the smooth vocals of guitarist Kathleen Stieffel and the rowdier vocals of bassist and washboard specialist Sharon Leger. Austin keyboard vet Beth McKee also contributes vocals, lead guitarist Rhonda Lohmeyer wrote the bulk of the original songs, and Nancy Buchan filled out the sound on fiddle and mandolin. Buchan left before the recording of their second album.



Other good stuff at that site.
http://www.luma-electronic.cz/lp/elpe.htm

http://www.luma-electronic.cz/lp/b/Buffett/buff_cov.htm

[Pleasin & Teasin]

This is such a dynamite number....every time i hear it I marvel that it never became a giant hit....it obviously never got the right kind of promotion. Is it too late???

[Dezdmona]

Gulf Coast Highway

[conched]

From The Coconut Telegraph Margaritaville March-April 1992 Volume 8, NO. 2

Evangeline

I suppose I can understand why there are those who would envy my position. A sunny Thursday afternoon in February would find the majority reading this quite far removed from the sundeck of Shrimpboat Sound, Jimmy Buffett’s recording studio in Key West, FL. But I was there, tellin’ lies with Kathleen Stieffel, lead vocalist for EVANGELINE.

Evangeline has been described as an “All Girl Band with a Louisiana Flavor.” They are indeed an all woman band, with the exception of Dudley the drummer, and they do possess a certain Gulf Coast flavor; however, to be referred to as an all-girl band is an unfair label, as if a gimmick were necessary. So we won’t call them that.

Evangeline is composed of 5 women, well versed in the music “bidness,” well versed in live performing, and possessing talents ranging from opera singer to washboard player. The present, and stable, membership includes Kathleen Stieffel, [rhythm guitar & lead vocals] Rhonda Lohmeyer, [lead guitar & harmony] Sharon Leger, [bass player & lead vocals] Nancy Buchan, [rock violin] Beth McKee, [lead vocals & keyboards] and Dudley Fruge, [drummer].

Kathleen, a Dixie Darling from her college days at The University of Southern Mississippi, was designated spokesperson for Evangeline simply because of her proximity to the door. Kathleen studied classical music while attending USM on a dance scholarship. Oddly enough, she flunked music theory, switched majors and received a B. S. [in the truest sense] in Business. A brief stint in the business world convinced Kathleen to “apply her vocal instruction to make money.” She learned to play guitar, and began performing in and around the New Orleans area.

Rhonda Lohmeyer witnessed the conception and birth of Evangeline. It was her concept to assemble a Cajun band featuring all women. In between writing songs and playing country music, Rhonda found time to obtain a law degree. Her husband and three children provide support in many ways; her fifteen year-old son, Janson, held the band together [that summer] while we searched for just the right keyboard player. Rhonda is giving it all to Evangeline, leaving the law firm she was with in New Orleans to pursue her musical career.

Sharon “Go ahead, tell me a blonde joke” Leger enjoys a tiny body with a big voice. She played bass and sang with Bruce Daigrepont in New Orleans, where she came to Rhonda’s attention. As mentioned earlier, Rhonda was the catalyst for the group, and was scouting for talent. Rhonda approached Sharon, who was a friend of Kathleen, etc. etc.

Nancy Buchan is originally from the classic midwestern town of Witchita, KS. She studied violin for years, always with a slant toward rock ‘n roll and bluegrass. A budding movie star, Nancy, and her talent, have been showcased in an Irish documentary titled the Magic Fiddle. Somewhere between Bourbon St. in New Orleans and Duval St. in Key West, Nancy realized, “She wasn’t in Kansas anymore.”

******
ONE EVENING WE WENT SKINNY DIPPING IN JIMMY’S POOL...BUT DON’T PRINT THAT.
*******

Beth McKee, a Jackson MS. native and an authentic R&B player is the latest addition to Evangeline. Eagle-eyed Parrot Heads may recognize Beth as one of Fingers Taylor’s Lady Fingers, the opening band for Jimmy’s 1991 Outpost Tour. Beth was in Austin, TX assembling a band, when she got the call to jump aboard the “Evangeline Express.”

The first stop on the “Express” was in New Orleans. Quint Davis, the founder and chairman of The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is a personal friend of Jimmy Buffett. Quint Davis has also been an Evangeline fan since they copped first place in a Jazz Search contest in 1988. Late last year Quint Davis encouraged Jimmy to see Evangeline...Their appreciation for Quint Davis’s support must be stressed, “We feel we owe everything to him. Without his support and belief in us, we simply would not have the record deal.”

Jimmy suggested Dudley Fruge, Zachary Richard’s drummer, and Evangeline’s lineup was complete.

Justin Niebank is producing Evangeline’s pivotal first release. Affectionately referred to as “The Reducer,” Justin Niebank has the ability to conquer the recording studio nemesis; to much stuff. He brings out the best in everyone.

Evangeline has been in recording studios, but none quite like Shrimpboat Sound. A state of the art studio surrounded by “local color” has kept their creativity peaking, that plus the Cuban kicker in a styrofoam cup, Cafe con Leche. The attitude in Key West is very conducive; the relaxed atmosphere allowing Evangeline to focus on their music.

Most of the tracks on the album are original; the writing chores are shared by all. Kathleen sings Gulfcoast Highway, a duet with Jimmy, and the group delivers an outstanding acapella rendition of Jimmy Cliff’s Rivers of Babylon.

Fast forward to Saturday night. Duval St. was rockin’. The biiiiiggggg rumor mill prize wheel was spinning and seemed to be headed for the “Jimmy Buffett’s gonna play tonight” slot. We knew he wasn’t even in town, so what the hell was going on? The word was out. The Margaritaville Cafe was literally packed to the rafters; I know because I was in the rafters. Evangeline sounded terrific. There we were, hobnobbing with the brass from H. K. Management; of course all the hobbing was centered at the “celebrity table,” while my nob and I were in the aforementioned rafters.

The folks from H. K. were in Key West to offer their unparalleled services to Evangeline, a real coup for recording rookies. The ladies were understandably elated.

Evangeline has been nominated by and will perform at The Big Easy Music Awards to be held in New Orleans in March. An April 24th appearance at the New Orleans Jazz Fest will follow, and the “Evangeline Express” continues this summer, serving as opening act for Jimmy Buffett & The Coral Reefer Band.

Webster’s New World Dictionary defines Evangeline as: Gr. evangelion good news. Evangelism can best be described as, “any zealous effort in propagandizing for a cause.” Somebody print a t-shirt!

[ragtopW]

I still would travel for many miles to see just one more show..

[Burny Charles]

Most of the tracks on the album are original; the writing chores are shared by all. Kathleen sings Gulfcoast Highway

We have a name!! Thanks Nancy! Somehow I knew you'd research it till you found the answer. It was driving me nuts because I knew it wasn't Griffith, as the song database suggests.

It seems this question might not have ever been answered on this board, because I searched through many pages before I posted it. I can now sleep at night.

[conched]

You're very welcome!

I don't remember ever really discussing who was actually singing with Jimmy except for Evangeline. Period!

Now you know!!!!

[SchoolGirlHeart]

I believe Mac McAnally sings it with Nanci.

On Nanci's version, yes, it's Mac singing a duet with her.

On the version Jimmy sings, I don't know who the female is.

[Evangeline1985]

The singer who accompanied Jimmy on Gulf Coast Highway was Kathleen Stieffel, the wonderful lead singer from my band Evangeline..she's from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, guitar player and I are from, and band was based in ~ New Orleans. I was the genius brain who was working my butt off playing piano and singing harmonies on Bourbon Street (and I, cough cough, still am... ) Anyway - it occurred to me, that instead of being just another token female in just another Bourbon Street "cajun-y" country band, wouldn't it be a great idea (and potentially earn us more than 10 bucks a set,) if we banded together and formed our own all girl country/cajun style band!?! Well, actually it occurred to me AND the lead singer in that band (this band had 2 token females,) so singer Jane Pharr and I decided to walk down the street from our gig at the 500 Club and ask guitar player and harmony singer Rhonda Lohmeyer, who was working in "The Silver Spur Band," I believe at a place called "Your Father's Mustache," right next door to Big Daddy's strip club, complete with a mechanical bull in the courtyard for the strippers, to get people in on slow nights. This was all holdover "outlaw" style music post-Urban Cowboy era music. But Jane and I were singing a lot of Emmy Lou Harris, Nicolette Larson, CCR kind of stuff. Rhonda was game, so we rehearsed some 3 part harmony stuff, and booked a steady gig at the Old Opera House on Bourbon and Toulouse. We couldn't afford a bass player or drummer yet, so I played keyboard bass with my left hand and we used Rhonda's drum machine. On the first day of that first steady gig, I threw the idea of the name out to them, EVANGELINE, like the Robbie Robertson sung so sweetly by Levon Helm AND Emmy Lou Harris. Also like Evangeline, the cajun woman from the Longfellow poem, and like the parish and Evangeline oak tree, and the more I thought about it in the months to come, the more references kept popping up. It was the perfect name! Well, after several years of hard work, thousands of hours of stage time together, a few personnel changes ~ Jane gone to Georgia, N.O. singers Carolyn Odell and Suzy Malone in and out, never could find a female drummer in New Orleans back then, so we hired some of the finest man-drummers in the city, thanks to my then husband, the late Mike Polopolus, who was the house recording engineer at Allen Tousaint's SeaSaint Studios. One Sunday, while Mike was mixing sound for Cajun singer/accordionist Bruce Daigrepont's weekly Cajun Dance Party at Tipitina's Uptown, Mike found us the perfect bass player - Sharon Leger, 20 years old, pretty, talented "prairie" cajun gal from Marksville, Louisiana (also the hometown of former Louisiana governor and ex-con, Edwin Edwards. ) Around the same time, Rhonda and I discovered a singer with a simply golden country voice, (and as Rhonda remarked, the first Evangeline member with "curves") We heard her singing with singer/guitarist/pedal stell player, Dwight Breland, and hit songwriter/singer/guitarist Karol Winton's great country band called Mississippi South, at Bronco's, a dance hall club on the west bank of the river from New Orleans. To our good fortune, Kathleen was getting ready to leave both that gig and the city, to pursue her career in Nashville.So we nabbed her...Kathleen would turn out to be the perfect singer for Evangeline, and now with Rhonda on low harmony and me on high harmony, we developed a really pristine vocal harmony chemistry. We hired Allen Toussaint's studio manager, Mary Ledbetter, as our manager, won local "Jazz Search contest, played N.O. Jazz Fest, made it to the Nashville for finals of contests sponsored by True Value Hardware and Marlboro ~ (Brooks & Dunn took first place,) opened shows at arenas for Alabama, Restless Heart, Patty Loveless, Ronnie Milsap, passed over production deal offer (no!!!! I got out-voted! bands... from legendary producers Ray Bunch & Mike Post, who were in town for a taping of the Dolly Parton Show that my ex happened to be engineering with and slipped them our cassette, etc., at one point in about 1988, Bruce Springsteen actually came into one of our many house gig Bourbon St clubs after making a bet with wife Patty Scialfa over whether it was live or memorex, lol, Patty being quite impressed that a bunch of women could rock out and hold down a music gig and raised a whole bunch of children simultaneously, which she later did herself! (but with nannies...) Well as far as the band Evangeline, as with all bands, things got weird on the journey and this writer found herself left out of a decision made by Rhonda (guitar) and Kathleen (vocals, as in Gulf Coast Highway,) to hire un-Cajun fiddle player and "un-country" keyboard player, leaving me out in the cold,to "un-reap the rewards of hard work and making great music" um, a couple of months before our friend and Jazz Fest founder, Quint Davis, brought Jimmy Buffet to the Bourbon Street bar where he naturally signed "us" up to a multi cd deal with a major label and a massive tour opening up for him on the road with "our" own tour bus..., but "I" was no longer "my band's keyboard player." A couple of years later, my interview with their manager in the ladies room of the House of Blues proved that indeed, "the seasons change the jobs would come the flowers fade." And how! I still love the song! I've played some fantastic gigs, I'm still playing! I live in the Musician's Village! Oh, I've worked with the girls in the years since, and have been told they made a very bad decision concerning yours truly. but ya know, "when we die we'll say we'll catch some blackbird's wing, then we will fly away to heaven, come some sweet bluebonnet spring." I think Kathleen and Jimmy did a great job with the song, as did Nanci Griffith and Mac McAnally. Hmmm, I'm going to start singing this beautiful duet with my fiance' and musical duo partner, singer/guitarist Frank Fairbanks, at our gig at Tropical Isle on Bourbon and Orleans. Wow ~ I just remembered another serendipitous Jimmy Buffet event ~ when I was about 15 years old, I was volunteering at Tulane University's McAllister Auditorium as a stage hand. The place seats about 2,000 people, I believe. Anyway, when everything was set up and it was time for sound and light check, Fingers asked me to sit at the piano and he stood in the spot where he would play harmonica. I started playing a blues song and the Coral Reefer band joined in with me, and that was pretty much the sound check, and I thought that it was really a nice thing for those guys to do for a teenager just starting to get out and play. (that was a little under 40 years ago, lol)