“Darlin’ You Know I Love You” Lil Ray Neal
American Routes original recording at the West Baton Rouge Museum
Lil Ray Neal: Just a little bit of the blues. Thank you.
Nick Spitzer: Alright, Lil Ray! Now you must be feeling pretty good because you came up right near here.
LRN: Yes, a lot of people don’t know but it’s a little town on the outskirts of Port Allen they call Erwinville.
NS: Yeah.
LRN: That’s right.
NS: And Port Allen is on the outskirts of Baton Rouge.
LRN: That’s right.
NS: And of course in New Orleans, they think that everyone’s on the outskirts of them.
LRN: Well, New Orleans, that’s right.
NS: [laughs] But what was it like growing up in Erwinville?
LRN: Oh boy, well I tell you, to have a mom like we got–
NS: Yeah here she is.
LRN: A lot of people don’t know, Miss Shirley Neal, would let us–we used to be in the room rehearsing because that’s all we did was play music. My dad would come in and say, “Man, y’all get off the instruments and go outside and do something." But my mom would let us play all day and all night and wouldn’t say a word. She would come in there and make sure we done ate and closed the door and go on about her business. So, we have to give a lot of this to my mom.
NS: Ten kids.
LRN: Ten kids.
NS: How bout it?
LRN: So you know there was a lot of noise.
NS: [laughs]
LRN: Cuz now people tell me, “Man, I got to kids, and they’re about to run me crazy.”
NS: [laughs] And you also had, the brothers were in a band together.
LRN: We all, we all was musicians, and we all played together until we like, you know, went on our own and started doing other things.
NS: Now what is it that made you want to go on in blues in the family, for you and your brothers and sisters?
LRN: Really we didn’t have a choice because we didn’t get bicycles and toys and stuff like everybody else. When we was coming up, it was guitars and drum sets and amplifiers. My dad would rehearse at the house, and his musicians, they would be fumbling trying to learn the song. My dad would call us in there and say, “Show ‘em how that go.”
NS: [laughs]
LRN: I’m serious we were thirteen years old, maybe twelve. And we would pick the guitar up and play the song to show my dad’s musicians how it went.
NS: Is there any song from, you know, your childhood days with your family or out with the brothers, does any song come to mind that you used to do together?
LRN: Well, see when you say that, it was Jimmy Reed, “Big Boss Man.”
NS: Nothing wrong with that.
LRN: “Big Boss Man” by Jimmy Reed.
NS: I haven’t seen any objections in the crowd.
[laughing]
“Big Boss Man” Lil Ray Neal
American Routes original recording at the West Baton Rouge Museum
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