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Lafayette Blues Band

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The Thrill is Gone

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BIOGRAPHY

Lafayette Falkquay doesn't just play the Blues. The Blues plays him. He's one of the remaining blues men who carries the music in his soul and sings it with the emotional depth and passion that made Blues what it is.

”He’s a throwback to the real stuff,” says San Diego notable guitarist Billy Thompson says. “You see guys with reverence for the old guys, but he’s beyond reverence. It’s what he is. Albert Collins says if you can’t feel it, ain’t no use playing it. With Lafayette, you always get that feeling.”

Lafayette agrees. “You've got to get grown to play the blues. I think blues is an experience. It’s not just copying someone and playing licks. It’s finding that sound that comes from within you.” He has great reverence for every song he plays, and he's known for his soulful vocals, bringing the songs alive and his stinging guitar leads.

Lafayette was born and raised in Austin, Texas where he played on the local circuit for years before moving to San Diego. Once in San Diego he was quickly recognized as a "real blues man" and played for many years with his band Lafayette and The Lease Breakers. He now fronts the Lafayette Blues Band and continues his legacy.

“I could always talk about what was going on inside me with my guitar," says Lafayette. "You see, if you hit one note and that note says something, then the guitar is just going to be talking on its own. You don’t have to do anything but just let the guitar speak for you. That’s where the real music comes from.”

At the age of 12, Lafayette found his first guitar in a pile of garbage. “It had a hole in the back and only one string, but that didn’t bother me,” he says. “I didn’t know how to play, but I played the heck out of that guitar. I’d walk around the house: bang, bang, bang. I annoyed everyone!” Eventually he and a friend got a set of strings for it and they both learned how to play.

Within a few years, the two boys were in a band playing songs they had heard from the likes of Albert King, Albert Collins, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Freddie King. His vocals are greatly influenced by his early experience singing in the choir at his Baptist church. Like other blues men raised in the church, Lafayette’s singing has the fervor and passion straight out of the church.

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