By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
MANDEVILLE – During the early 70s when bands like the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and Marshall Tucker had commanded the ear of the hippie generation, young musicians like Jude Lirette, Ricky Windhorst and Jay B. Elston dreamed of becoming rock-and-roll stars.
“Everyone had a band back then,” Windhorst said, remembering his days as a teen growing up in the New Orleans area. “There was a band on every block.”
Windhorst, a Madisonville resident, formed the Hooker Band in Harahan in 1973 while still going to Rummel High School, while Lirette and his childhood friend, Calvin Huber, joined together and founded a group in 1972 that was known as the J.J. Muggler Band.
Over the next 42 years, most of those early rock bands fell by the wayside, but the J.J. Muggler Band survived, continuing to evolve and remain current as they became one of the most popular regional bands in the South.
To the surprise of almost 20 musicians who were a part of the Muggler Band throughout those years, their talent will be and longevity is being rewarded this Saturday night, Jan. 25 at Ruby’s Roadhouse in Mandeville, where they will be inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
The Muggler Band was formed by Lirette on drums and Huber on bass, with a host of musicians joining the band over the years, including Windhorst as a vocalist, who has performed with the Mugglers off-and-on since coming on board in the early 70s.
This Saturday night at Ruby’s Roadhouse, a majority of former band members will be on hand to perform with the group, as they are expected to play songs from the four CD’s they recorded, which includes a host of original songs patterned after the blues and rock style from the early 70s.
“Calvin was really the heart of the band. He loved the band so much and was the main guy who kept us going, booking gigs, and always trying to make us better,” Lirette said. “The thing that made the band special for many years, and helped us survive while others didn’t, is that we wrote our own music. That’s the reason we’re getting inducted into the Louisiana Hall of Fame.”
Huber passed away in August of 2010, but the band still plays today, with a host of players who have been with the group for many years.
“We called our music Southern Rock-and-Roll and loved to get on stage to play,” Windhorst said. “We were like many bands—sort of a dysfunctional family. But no matter what happened off stage, when we started playing it was like magic. The band always had a musical chemical and that’s what kept it interesting to play.”
Windhorst said band members were surprised at the Mandeville Seafood Festival two years ago when they were asked to reunite to play again, and after performing, were approached by the president of the Louisiana Hall of Fame, who informed them they had been selected for the special honor.
“We were blown away,” Windhorst said. “It has taken almost two years for all this to come together, but this Saturday night we are hoping all our fans will come out to hear us again. It’s going to be a great night of music.”
The Muggler Band started like many in its earlier days, simply having fun playing.
“Calvin and I were buddies in the same neighborhood and used to jam in the garage,” Lirette said. “We drove the neighbors crazy, but we started having other people join us to jam, and finally, when we were about 15 or 16, we made it a real band and started playing.”
Lirette said he and Huber were thrilled to play their first show ever in Harahan, “and kept driving by the place during the week of the show since they had our band name on a sign outside.”
Jay B. Elston, who lives in Slidell, joined the band in 1993 as a guitar player and singer, but has also made a living playing music with other bands throughout his life.
“The Mugglers have always been a special group and I’m happy to have been a part of them,” Elston said. “The original music is what made us special since there were a lot of bands back then. I think we might have made it big if we had started writing the music in the 70s, so maybe we were a little late. Making it big is all about timing and we just didn’t hit it right.
“But to be inducted into the Hall of Fame is almost unbelievable when you look at the other names in there,” he said. “It’s a huge honor and nice to be recognized.”
Windhorst agreed that the band moved past “just having fun in the early years” to getting serious in the 90s when they started writing songs that led to the first of four CD’s they released.
They recorded their first CD—“J.J. Muggler”–followed by “Hear the Truth,” “New Ruins” and “Hard Luck Town.” The group toured from Florida to Colorado and opened for bigger groups, and was voted one of the top 10 unsigned bands in the country by Yamaha, USA.
Every former band member who is in attendance at Ruby’s this Saturday night will have an opportunity to perform.