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Louisiana-based country artist Jaryd Lane, and his band Jaryd Lane and the Parish, have played the Smoked Meat Festival in Ville Platte a few times, including this year’s event. (Courtesy of Jaryd Lane)

Strumming to new heights

Louisiana-based Jaryd Lane determined to take his band’s brand of swampy country to next level

By: ELIZABETH WEST
Associate Editor

Before becoming front man of the band Jaryd Lane and the Parish, Louisiana musician Jaryd Lane picked up playing the drums in high school. As a high schooler Lane said, “I couldn’t find a band that really wanted to take it to the next level so nothing stuck.”
Without a band willing to go the distance no matter what it took, the Kaplan native decided he would begin to focus on learning the guitar as well as work on singing and song writing himself. Once Lane took matters into his own hands he would eventually be able to assemble a band of people determined to “take it to the next level.”
The band, who has been playing together for about 11 years, was formed during Lane’s college days at University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL). The band members according to Lane all “come from different backgrounds and different genres of music” which has had a profound impact on the style of music they play. Even with a variety of genres influencing the bands sound you can still hear the influence of their Louisiana roots. “I do not consider our sound swamp pop but a lot of my friends in Nashville like to describe it as swampy.”
For Lane however, he has always had a hard time specifically describing how Louisiana has inspired the music he and his band write and play. “Being from south Louisiana makes it hard to get away from that whole Cajun/Zydeco feel but that is okay.” Lane continues to describe the style of music he and his band play as “dark” but he said, “The lyrics are not depressing. I guess the best thing to say would be swampy.”
Attempting to stay true to Louisiana but still allowing some of his greatest musical influences to shine through his work Lane came up with the name Jaryd Lane and the Parish for the band.
“I came up with that because I was trying to channel some of my big influences so like Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,” Lane said. I wanted that kind of vibe while staying Louisiana specific.”
Along with influencing the name of Lane’s band, musician Bob Seger has also greatly inspired the music Lane plays and writes. “The range of musicians that have inspired me is so diverse but the first that comes to mind is Bob Seger and his style of writing. He is really big up there as far as influences go.” As far as country musicians go Lane said he is a “real big Hank Jr. fan.”
With six albums released Lane does not have a particular song he looks forward to playing the most at any venue. Instead Lane said, “The way we work out our set is we go in and out of songs with medleys and even medleys of our own songs so it’s the arrangement part of the way we do things that I look forward to the most.”
The Louisiana native has built up a nice fan base in this part of the state through playing at events like the La Smoked Meat Festival, which the band has played at twice now. Festivals according to Lane are always enjoyable for he and his band because “at festivals there is always going to be new faces.”
Lane said, “The time we also get to play at a festival is good because we get to put a good set together. So yea, we look forward to it.”
Because of the fan base that Lane and his band have built in the area, Lane felt that having the opportunity “to play at the festival was great” because they were able to “tap into all ages unlike say at a bar.”
It seemed like the people enjoyed Jaryd Lane and the Parish as much as they enjoyed being here.

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