Reviews

Knuckle Sandwich is the second full length album by the group, following 2013’s Bards of Melatonia. Snow and Ricks started the recording process for this new album just a month after the release of their debut at Suitemix studio in Slidell, LA with engineer George Cureau.

Working musicians from about 10 different local groups were brought in to record the album, many of which rotate into roles when The Melatauns play live gigs. Snow comes from a family of musicians, a few of which he enlisted for this project, including his 73-year-old father, Sidney Snow, who has played with such legends as Elvis Presley, Otis Redding and B.B. King. The album also employs some New Orleans working horns such as trumpet player Ian Smith and sax players Dominique Grillo and Bruce Brackman.- Modern Rock Review


The Melatauns is that type of horn band that played every weekend at the VFW halls around NOLA before the Beatles came on the scene. This is a band that will make you happy even if you don't like New Orleans R&B. Pat Ricks their singer has absolutely one of the best male voices in the area - a 9th Ward Tom Jones. When you see this band you will get an understanding why NOLA R&B is unlike any other style of R&B - it is about having fun. Are they great musicians - Yep.  There's always a better looking, better playing, musician on YouTube. These guys are up on stage entertaining. They are the band that if no one showed up at a gig, they would play, laugh and have a good time by themselves just because they enjoy what they do. They are a relaxed, easy going, good time rocking band in the tradition of Chris Kenner, Huey "Piano" Smith, Fats Domino, and Ernie K-Doe. This is not a tribute band or a cover band. Although they play many covers, they also focus on many of their originals. Their play list is always crazy. Some of their originals stink, but some are inspired. IMHO if I had to bet on a band coming up with the next "Don't Mess With My Toot Toot" - it's The Melatauns. Hear these class clowns before they get famous. However if they do become famous, I doubt if it will change them. They are here to entertain - the audience and themselves.-John Preble

The band stays loose enough so that both the musicians and the audience can find the groove, but tight enough so that it doesn’t fall to pieces. Their subject matter is also distinctly New Orleans, with a sweet mid-tempo number about the local girls on bicycles in the Vieux Carre filled with vivid details called “Evette,” the swamp pop sway of “Strange,” and the parade rhythms of the Mardi Gras cut “Outta Be In the Quarter.”

But it’s not all a time machine back to the good old days as the distorted, almost punk of “Lies” and “The Poo Poo Song” illustrate. Although all the Melatauns are serious musicians, this is a light hearted album to, as Snow has said, “satisfy their rock ‘n’ roll habit.” Given the songs and playing here, this should satiate it for at least a little while. -David Kunian /Offbeat Magazine