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Hash Cabbage makes up canceled Durango date

By Bryant Liggett Staff reporter

Thursday, Jul 15, 2021 4:01 Updated Thursday, Jul. 15, 2021 4:01

Most bands tour in support of one record. New Orleans-based band Hash Cabbage is currently out on the road supporting two, the result of a pandemic-thrown wrench that landed right on their touring schedule.

Two years back, the band dropped its self-titled debut and were all set to hit the road, which included a stop in Durango, in support of the record. You know what soon came along, pulling every touring band off the road. While some musicians waited things out, Hash Cabbage founder, guitar player and vocalist Kenny Jefferson spent his pandemic downtime writing and recording another record. “The Gospel According to Hash Cabbage” dropped back in April, and Hash Cabbage will make up that canceled Durango date from 2020 when they perform Friday (July 16) at the Animas City Theatre.

“We did our record release show at world famous Tipitinas, and we were all set to come out your way to promote that record, and son of a gun if circumstances didn’t change, and we kept having to put it off. We decided to cut another record because we can’t tour, so why cry over spilled milk? Let’s just make another record. I had more songs ready to go, we got everybody back in the studio and cut another record,” Jefferson said. “Now we’re getting out, and we’ve got two records to promote, and we’ll play music off both of those records.”

If you go

What: New Orleans band Hash Cabbage.

When: 8 p.m. Friday (July 16).

Where: Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive.

Admission: Free.

More information: Call 799-2281 or visit https://bit.ly/2Ubwspb.

Jefferson founded Hash Cabbage in 2017. Music at that time had been on his back burner, until personal changes found him “needing to spark that flame again.” He soon found himself sorting through the many players a city like New Orleans can provide. Hash Cabbage is now made up of some of the best the Big Easy has to offer – music teachers who moonlight as musicians, or musicians who moonlight as music teachers, teachers who at times are teaching Jefferson, who cites himself as the weakest musical link in the bunch.

“I’m the worst, least talented musician in this band, and that’s a great position to be in,” he said. “You want to be pushed. You’re not going to get any better by playing with people who can’t keep up with you, you want to be able to keep up with them. But hey, I can write songs and sing, and it all works great together.”

Despite being a New Orleans band, they do more than play the music of The Neville Brothers, Dr. John or Kermit Ruffins, as New Orleans is a city that’s more than horn-heavy music providing a score to suck down Hurricanes. “The Gospel According to Hash Cabbage” pulls from all the corners of American music, from funk and jazz to rock and country. It’s high energy, exploratory rock music that will fill a dance floor, a brand of Americana influenced by myriad musicians whose sounds have influenced the gumbo that is 21st century, high energy rock ’n’ roll. There’s also an improvisational nature with an indie flair, a loose sound for fans who will ignore any musical flavors of the week. Despite the word “improvisational,” they’re not a jam band.

“You know, it’s kind of a love hate, give and take with that term. It’s a catch-all phrase, like all genres now, that you use to pigeonhole and label things so that the ultimate consumer can know what they’re looking for. I think a lot of bands that just play music from traditional American music genres, rock ’n’ roll, Americana, country and Western, classic funk, a lot of these festival bands they just get thrown in,” Jefferson said. “It doesn’t mean much, other than you’re not going to be on commercial radio.”

Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.