HitNRUN to perform at the 25th Annual Smoked Meat Fest.

By: TONY MARKS
Associate Editor

This year’s 25th Annual Louisiana Smoked Meat Festival will have a certain classic rock feel as it welcomes the band HitNRun to Ville Platte. The band is the head line performer on the first night of the festival which is June 2.
George Cavignac stated he met Renee Brown and other members of Viande Boucanee, Inc., at a recent Louisiana Fairs and Festivals convention and was intrigued by the fact that the Smoked Meat Festival is committed to honoring the veterans.
“We actually approached them about trying to help the cause and eliminate some of the cost associated with the festival,” he said. “Our band offered to do the sound for all of the bands at the festival since we were gonna be there anyway and offered to headline that Friday night.”
Cavignac is a veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces who served from 1986 until 1993. According to the band’s Website, he “is no stranger to the local band scene.” The site continues to describe him as having a “sly persona” and a “hilarious outlook (that) keeps the band in stitches.”
He plays a Fender Jazz Bass and lends his hand as lead singer on a number of songs the band plays by such artists as Lynard Skynard and .38 Special. “We play all the timeless classics that have been around forever,” he said. “It’s the music we love, and it seems to go over well with people we like to play for.”
According to Cavignac, the band plays such songs as “Anyway You Want It” by Journey and “Dance the Night Away” by Van Halen along with other “staples.”
“For some musicians there are songs that I call staples,” he said. “It’s not like you don’t want to play them, it’s just that you end up playing them so much that it becomes tiresome as a musician. We like to change it up a little bit. Things like ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ and ‘Play That Funky Music.’ We love to play them, but after a while we prefer to move on to other material.”
However, he admitted “Free Bird” is one “staple” that the band “never gets tired of playing.” He went on to say, “That’s a great song.”
Cavignac, along with other band members LJ Mailhes, Kerry Sweeney, and Tim Ursin is from the metro-New Orleans area and “began playing the local club circuit.”
HitNRun then started branching out to festivals across the state and recently began to play in Mississippi. “We love to perform,” Cavignac said. “We have a lot of energy and a lot of fun. Because if you get the crowd having a great time, which you should for a festival and a great production like this, then the energy from the crowd feeds back to the band, and it creates a great cycle.”
“We’re having a lot of fun and definitely honored to be a part of the festival up there,” he added. “That’s for sure.”
The band is also “definitely looking forward” to learning the art of smoking meat. As Cavignac said, “Y’all had us at smoked meat when we met the group at LAFF.”