Loose cattle
Drivers of southern backroads know those bullet-riddled yellow signs that warn wanderlust motorists about the “Loose Livestock” which claim roadways as their own. One of those signs, slightly misremembered, was the inspiration for LOOSE CATTLE, the five-piece roots rock outfit declared “favorite Americana cowpunks in New Orleans” by OffBeat Magazine.
Led by the double-barreled frontperson duo of Kimberly Kaye and Michael Cerveris, the band is as passionate about stampeding through wild, Southern rock barn-burners as it is ambling through their gentler, harmony-drenched folk ballads. Their rootsy, worn-in original songwriting likewise veers between wry observations of human frailty, and stalwart objection to the injustices of these times. As a band and individuals, Cerveris, Kaye, and fellow members Renè Coman, Doug Garrison and Rurik Nunan work to make music that matters, aligning themselves with, and advocating for, people at the margins of our society. In the band’s mind, if “Americana” is to mean anything, it should mean inclusion and a diverse music scene populated by the people the American Dream crushed. The misfits and outcasts are who they sing for, and choose to dance with.
Loose Cattle’s background is a very New Orleans melding of histories and musical styles. (Just don’t call it a gumbo.) Native West Virginian Michael Cerveris served as a sideman for Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould, and shared stages with Pete Townshend, The Breeders, The Pixies’ Frank Black, Teenage Fanclub, and more.A two-time Tony and Grammy Award-winner, he also co-starred in films with Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini, and John C. Reilly; Broadway shows from The Who’s Tommy to Sweeney Todd; Hedwig in NYC, LA and London’s West End; and the TV series Mindhunter, Gotham, Fringe, Treme, and HBO’s current hit The Gilded Age. New Jersey-born Kimberly Kaye—a relapsed arts journalist, functional medicine practitioner, and LGBTQ activist—first cut her musical teeth on the road, traveling the Warped Tour circuit as a member of a ska band before shifting her attention to roots music. NOLA locals know her as the Big Easy Award-winning director/co-star of a wildly successful revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and the cohost of The Best of New Orleans-winning podcast Human F*ckery. Bass player and native New Orleanian René Coman, and Memphis-raised drummer Doug Garrison, are both members of beloved, genre-crossing groups The Iguanas and Alex Chilton’s band. Georgia-raised fiddler and vocalist Rurik Nunan tours with Crackerand Dave Jordan, and is a former member of roots rockers The Whisky Gentry.
Loose Cattle spent its winter hunkered down in the Louisiana swamp at Dockside Studio and New Orleans’ Marigny Studio, recording the follow-up to their Best Of The Beat-nominated debut album Heavy Lifting (Low Heat Records). Their newest blood harmony-heavy creation, produced by John Agnello (Son Volt, Dinosaur Jr.), is slated for a 2024 release on Single Lock.