A New Orleans Blues Rock Album Recorded with a Four-Piece Band and Three Local Guests
Rising by Jeb Rault opens fast. Pretty Pictures is a rock’n’roll track about a relationship gone wrong. Layered guitar leads and harmony vocals carry it, and it runs to two minutes and 54 seconds. It sets the tone for a 10-song album released on 15 September 2023.
Jeb Rault’s Rising now sits in our Classic Rock, Rock n Roll, Blues Rock playlist below, and his full run of coverage sits on his artist profile. The album reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Press play, then read on.
Three years on, the record still says plenty about where blues rock lives now. It also shows one New Orleans guitarist’s place in it.
Recorded at Marigny Studio in New Orleans, Where Bayou Blues Rock Meets Funk and R&B Roots
Rault tracked the album in spring 2023 at Marigny Studio, one of New Orleans’ main recording rooms. Sound engineer Ben Lorio ran the sessions. Rault wrote and produced all 10 songs, according to both Musikepool and Music Arena GH.
The band is the one he takes on the road. Logan Emory plays rhythm guitar, Matt Wisdom plays bass and Lee Schwartz plays drums. Rault handles lead and rhythm guitars, acoustic and electric, along with the vocals and the songwriting. In addition, three New Orleans musicians guest. Wayne Lohr plays keys, Joe Crachiola plays saxophone and Charlie Denard plays grand piano.
That line-up explains the sound. Rault is New Orleans-born. His own site describes guitar-driven blues rock with roots in classic R&B, funk and 1960s and 1970s rock. The banner over it all reads Blues Rock from the Bayou. As a result, the keys, the sax and the piano put the city’s R&B tradition back inside a guitar record.
He has been at it a long time. Artisti Online traces his start to the age of 17. Back then he played with a band called Speakeasy at Jimmy’s Club, before moving on to the Carrollton Station. The Jeb Rault Band formed in 1996, and the debut album Yin Yang From the Mire followed in 1997. Sweet Dancer came next, which makes Rising the third album, as Music For All points out.
A Central European Touring Circuit, Two Louisiana-Leaning Reference Points and the Next Jeb Rault Recordings
Rault’s scene is split between two continents. The band has toured internationally since 2013, with regular stops in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and the UK. Musikepool credits him with making a mark on the Central European circuit over the past decade. That is a familiar road for American blues rock players, and Rault has worked it for more than ten years.
For reference points, two acts sit close. For example, Little Feat took a California rock band towards New Orleans rhythms on Dixie Chicken. Piano and slide guitar traded lines on that record. Rising does something similar, with Lohr’s keys and Denard’s piano under Rault’s guitar. Meanwhile, Tab Benoit, the Louisiana guitarist, has spent decades proving that swamp-flavoured blues can carry a rock show. Rault works the same lane from the other side of the Atlantic.
So who is it for? Listeners who like their blues rock with a groove under it. It also suits anyone who has followed Americana into its rockier, AOR-leaning corner. The longer tracks are the place to start. Rocket Me runs to four and a half minutes. On The Top of the Mountain closes the album at a similar length. Both give the guitar room to stretch out.
The shape of the record varies around them. Church Song is the shortest track, at two minutes and 45 seconds. By contrast, Step Aside (For Your Sister) and Meet You On A Better Day both run past four minutes. Musikepool also hears darker, layered material in places. It reads the title itself as a career statement, too: an ascent, after hard lessons in dealings with labels and management.
New Jeb Rault Band Sessions Start in Switzerland in November 2026
The next chapter is already planned. Recording on new original Jeb Rault Band material begins in November 2026, in Switzerland. The songs will come out as singles first, starting with Just a Song to See You Through. Once 10 are finished, the band will gather them on an album, Jeb Rault Band: Fire Horse.
From the RockRevival.News curator team: “The guests are the tell on Rising. Keys, sax and grand piano from New Orleans players pull a four-piece blues rock band back towards the city it came from. That is what keeps the record from sounding like a generic guitar album.”
Stream Jeb Rault Rising and Follow the New Orleans Band on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
Follow Jeb Rault on Spotify and Apple Music, and find tour dates and vinyl on the official site.
Keep up with the band on Instagram, Facebook and the YouTube channel.
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