SPOTLIGHT: The Chilluns

New Orleans has long had a tradition of musical families, the Nevilles and the Marsalis being the prime examples.  But a band I caught at last year's Jazz Fest follows that legacy.  Honestly I thought the band was more or less a one time chance for some musical family members to get together and play some great tunes, but here we are almost a year later and the group is playing Tipitina's this Friday night.  All the members have day jobs, so to speak, in other musical acts, but it's nice to see them continuing on in this form.

                                                                              The group is called The Chilluns and its members come from three New Orleans' musical families, from both generations.  The groups consists of the musical Fathers and their musical offspring.  The Fathers are Dave Malone, Spencer Bohren and Cranston Clements.  The offspring are Johnny Malone, DarcyMalone, Andre Bohren and Annie Clements.

Dave Malone is a founding member of one of New Orlean's best loved bands, The Radiators.  As a group they have recorded over a dozen albums and tour constantly.

Spencer Bohren has recorded over a dozen albums under his own name and many more with other artists.  He has performed on A Paririe Home Companion and teaches.

Cranston Clements is another long time guitarist that has played with many other musicians such as Maria Muldar and Irma Thomas.                                                                 

Even though all the 'kids' sing in the group, Johnny Malone is more of the front man and handles the majority of the singing chores, sharing them with his sister Darcy and handing off some songs to Annie Clements.

Darcy sings in a local band called The Tangles with her husband.  She has sung with the Radiators, The Pfister Sisters, Theresa Andersson and others.

Andre Bohren is the drummer in the group, which he also does for the group Johnny Sketch and the Dirty 

Notes.

The final member of the band is Annie Clements.  Currently Annie is a member of the country group Sugarland and tours with them.

The group does mostly covers of British invasion hits and songs from Motown, but throws in some songs from the various members.

This is a group that the members come together for the fun and joy of it and the audience can tell.  Where they go with it from here, if they even want to do more than just get together irregularly and play is up to them.  With this much talent in one group they could produce some really amazing music on their own if they wanted to.