Getting to Know… Lee O’Nell Blues Gang | Interview 🎤

In the 329^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from the five-piece, French contemporary blues-rock band,  Lee O’Nell Blues Gang.

“In a way, Lee O’Nell Blues Gang is often and most of the time qualified as “the band that has it all figured out when it comes to put some rock into blues and vice-versa,” 🎙️ Lionel Wernert asserts regarding 🎙️ Lee O’Nell Blues Gang, the band which he is a member of.  He expounds, “We are a band with 5 artists all coming from different musical universes.” Cool! Like our many other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on Lee O’Nell Blues Gang: the genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Lee O’Nell Blues Gang: Interview No. 329!

 For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Lee O’Nell Blues Gang distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 Lionel WERNERT: In a way, Lee O’Nell Blues Gang is often and most of the time qualified as “the band that has it all figured out when it comes to put some rock into blues and vice-versa.” We are a band with 5 artists all coming from different musical universes which allows me as the only composer to be able to play on all fronts. Each time, I give the band a new song, I know exactly what the result will be. To explain a little more, I want to offer a contemporary blues- rock to the audience with a vintage sound, and I know that 🎙 Pierre Alain DELAUNOY, our drummer is able to put some accents in the rock pulsation I need. Our bass man, 🎙 Philippe DANDRIMONT, always sticks to him and the groove is there. And 🎙 François BARIZAUX, on keyboards, who comes from classical, and jazz, can add the touch necessary to increase a bit more the mix that I had in my mind. Then, 🎙 Gipsy BACUET, on lead vocals has got all the space she wants to put sassy, strength and powerful, or jazzy and sweet sound.

🎤 Gipsy BACUET: Lionel is a self-taught child of rock. He studied all the riffs and the phrasings of the guitar players he grew up with, from rock to metal (yes, he was a teenager too with long hair haha!). He studied and still studies all the Blues legends like Eric Clapton, BB King, Peter Green among others. He integrated and digested such a sum of different styles that now his own style is a mix of all. It’s modern, rock, blues and vintage combination with always a riff which will stay in your head after the first listening.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Lee O’Nell Blues Gang form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

🎤 Gipsy: Lionel and I, we met each other 20 years ago, playing with other artists and other bands. In 2012, we decided to work together and formed a duet based on blues standard covers: Etta James, Beth Hart, Joe Bonamassa, Freddie King, Albert King, and some of Fred CHAPELLIER, who is here in France considered as the number one of Blues . He has a 25 year career, and he also is the best and the oldest friend of Lionel. They grew up together, Lionel was 5 and Fred was 8 when they met and became neighbors. They start music together, listening plenty of vinyls, practicing every day , they used to slow down the vinyls to study every riffs, every phrasings.

🎤 Lionel: And in 2019, he invited us as guests to play with his own musicians. He told me: “You play my titles as a duo, so now I lend you my musicians and you will play them, without me.” That was such a great experience, so exciting to be on stage , playing my brother’s songs with him listening while he was in backstage. At the end of the show, he just tell me : “‘Bro’, you have so many things to say, you’re a very great guitarist, you’ve got in Gipsy the voice you need, so form your own band!”

🎤 Gipsy: that was the beginning of Lee O’Nell Blues Gang! Lionel chose the best musicians in our area, for their experience, their universe and human qualities. Less than 6 months after, Lionel took us to the studio to record our first album, 💿 Different Shades Of Love, released in September 2020.

🎤 Lionel: Yes, I wanted some guys who knew what I was talking about, and above all I was looking for the guys who can understand and respect the fact that I would be the only composer of Lee O’Nell Blues Gang. I use their knowledge and experience, but I didn’t want someone who acts during composition. There is only one composer: me, and Gipsy, wrote the lyrics with the help of some friends.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

🎤 Lionel: From the beginning I wanted to make a kind of meet between 70’s rock and the sound of blues. Gipsy adds the jazzy touch sometimes, and that’s great. I wanted to express that to the French audience. It seems that they like it even if sometimes some are pretty disturbed, intrigued or lost just because French people use to categorize every song. This one is too much rock, this one sounds too much [like] roots etc..; You know, French people are a very conservative people, and afraid to discover the universe of an artist. When they cannot identify something new to something that already exists, that is not a good product. Yes, in France, we are products, bankable or not. And booking agencies are above all interested by the fanbase you have than by the new universe you can bring on stage.

🎤 Gipsy: With 💿 This is us , our second album released in September 2022, which is a bit more produced, more guitars, backing vocals for example, we now reach the international public. Some radio shows in Canada, USA, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium got interest in our music, and that is a very good thing.

🎤 Lionel: So now, my goal is to play everywhere as much as possible.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 Gipsy: I love voices that can be as sweet as powerful for example. I need to hear many shades. I like Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, Joanne Shaw Taylor, and above all Jade MACRAE. She is an amazing Australian singer, and also backing vocalist for Joe BONAMASSA. When I listen his album, Handle me with care, I can feel the serenity, it calms me down. And I’m so happy that now she is a friend who accepted to co-write a song on our album. I am a sum of lot of little things I can find in a lot of voices, even male voices; David Coverdale as an example, and the rhythm and swing of Stevie Wonder…

🎤 Lionel: That is the same for me, all the guitarists I have heard, studied is now a part of me. There is a shade of each one of them. I like the legends of course, but I pay a lot of attention to the guitarists of the contemporary blues like Christone Kingfish Ingram, Eric Gales, and Joe Bonamassa, of course.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

🎤 Gipsy: We are not a fun band !! Haha !! No in reality, we are yet a young band even if the average age is mostly 45 than 20!!

🎤 Lionel: Yes, for the moment every gig is fun and exciting but it’s too early to tell you more… Let’s talk again in few years!

🎤 Gipsy: A little one; when we were on tour last summer, I thought I was the first to be woken up, so decided to go for croissants for the band for breakfast. So, I left with the van. The fact I didn’t know is that Philippe, our bass man used to go for a walk every morning.

🎤 Lionel: He knocked my bedroom door with a lot of calm and serenity saying, ‘Well Lionel, I think we’re gonna have a problem. Someone has just stolen the van !’  The rest of the group heard that of course, and they were frightened and started to make plans to look for the van with all the instruments inside, to call the police… I answered, ‘Don’t worry Phil, it’s only Gipsy who decided to get some croissants.’

🎤 Gipsy: From that day, they let me drive, but hide the keys during the night. They don’t like to be woke up with such a fear!

 Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?  

🎤 Lionel: 🎵 “Never again”. It’s from our first album. Gipsy wrote this song about violence made to women. There is such an emotion in this song, of course thanks to the lyrics.

🎤 Gipsy: Yes, I was helped in the lyrics by a friend of us, Neal BLACK, who is a Texan, guitar player, songwriter with a 30 year career here in France where he’s lived since the 90’s. But Lionel succeeded in transcribing what I wanted to express. The beginning of the song is a sad fact: a young woman finally realizes after too many years that her boyfriend is a violent manipulator making her feel that she is nothing. So, the song starts slowly like something haunting, and then there are some kind of wake up calls from this woman till she find the strength to confess her like to her parents and ask them for help to run away from this hell. The guitar solo is wonderful with such lyricism.

🎤 Lionel: The public loves this song because of the meaning I guess, but also because of the way we play it.

 Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 Lionel: Haha!! Gipsy is a kind of mother for us when we are on tour…Always remembering the schedules, reminding us of if we forgot something in the hotel. She can save us with medicine we didn’t think about , she can sew on a button just before going on stage…but she also and above all is the driver of the van!!

🎤 Gipsy: I also prefer to eat after the show that is (when I can manage it) the baddest thing that could happen for the guys! Can you imagine that the first thing they are looking for when we arrive for an outside concert, is : where is the ice cream man!!

 Closing out, what is Lee O’Nell Blues Gang currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

🎤 Gipsy: Lionel is already and to be honest, since we were in the studio for the second album, he is working on the third one! He’s a kind of, no he is really a hyper-active person with always a guitar in his hands, always a new riff in his mind…

🎤 Lionel: She said it all except that, yes we are working on promoting this new album, we’re looking for great concerts, and we have some beautiful stage to share soon. With Ana Popovic or The Cinelly Brothers for example.

🎤 Gipsy: We are also waiting for a little tour in Germany, and we’re gonna ply in Belgium soon.

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

🎤 Lionel & Gipsy: Thank you so much for your interest in Lee O’Nell Blues Gang. And keep on like you do it, thanks to people like you, new bands can be discovered by the whole world! Please follow us, listen to us, and get our albums! See you on the road !

Getting to Know… Lee O’Nell Blues Gang: Interview No. 329 [📷: Brent Faulkner/The Musical Hype; Lee O’Nell Blues Gang; Darkmoon_Art, luis2500gx, OpenClipart-Vectors via Pixabay]