Cebar Is Still Brimming with Soul

Paul Cebar & the Milwaukeeans
The Barns of Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia, January 22

A couple of years ago, the last time I saw Paul Cebar, he was walking solo into Rock ‘n’ Bowl in New Orleans, guitar in hand, ready to jam with whoever was on the bill that night. It’s appropriate to conjure up this image, that of a man who just soaks in different musical influences around him and infuses his music with them.

He’s been at it for decades. Feeling like some jump blues? Some reggae? Some Caribbean? Some New Orleans zydeco? Some Afro-Cuban funk? You get all of that in one Cebar show.

Cebar’s two sets at this sold-out Barns of Wolf Trap show were filled with his usual high-energy tunes, but what made this show especially fun was Cebar’s exceptionally good mood. He was really letting loose and having fun up there and both his band and the crowd responded.

Ever wonder if eclectic, free-spirited folks [who dance at live music shows] exist in this town? The room was filled with them, colorfully clad folks of all ages, forming conga lines, swing dancing, having a ball.

While Cebar fans will come to his shows regardless of when he last released new material, the Milwaukeeans do have a new album out that includes some prefiously unreleased songs he’s been playing for years at shows such as “Her New Church” and “I Got Trouble.” Some songs on the new venture, Tommorow [sic] Sound Now for Yes Music People, are co-written with such musical notables as zydeco great Terrance Simien and Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos fame. One song he played from the new album, is a beautiful tribute to guitarist Marv Tarplin, Smokey Robinson’s right-hand man for the last 40 years, called “Marv’s Flut­tering Guitar.”

The show featured songs from Cebar’s entire catalogue. Longtime band member Bob Jennings put down his saxophone and picked up an accordion for the zydeco tune, “Twice Little Sixteen,” a gem from Cebar’s 1993 debut album, That Unihinged Thing. Cebar closed the show with a dedication to the late great Eddie Bo from New Orleans, a cover he’s been performing for years, “Check Your Bucket.”

From the swingin’ “Please Don’t Tell Me More About My Baby,” off of Upstroke for the Downfolk, to the gospel-tinged “Who Can Love Who and How,” from his newest album, Cebar and his band cranked out one danceable song after another to an elated crowd.