Bayou Christmas
Bayou Christmas, the New Holiday Single by Serabee, will have you dancing in your seat, tapping on your steering wheel and pressing repeat!
Drawing from her roots in the Louisiana swamps and Mississippi Delta, Serabee tells of its culture, the colorful way they do Christmas and also of the heartbreaking loss of family, friends, bandmates and local icons.
The driving force and urgency to release the song was the most recent and sudden loss of her drummer, New Orleans legend, Russell Batiste, known as “The Young Lion.” Other celebrated New Orleans musicians who Serabee loved and admired are mentioned as well including, Coco Robicheaux, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Walter “Wolfman” Washington.
Serabee’s last conversation with Russell Batiste, the night he passed away, centered around their excitement to return to the studio, after last years holiday song, “New Orleans,” which Batiste co-produced.
The new song, “Bayou Christmas,” was originally written a few years ago when Serabee’s uncle passed away and was an attempt to try and help her cousins smile a bit through their first Christmas without him.
After Russell’s passing this September, Serabee knew this was the song she needed to record and she made a quick rewrite. She asked his younger brother, Jamal Batiste, who’s been filling in on drums for Serabee’s Roots Revival Band on Wednesday nights at The Bourbon Orleans Hotel, to record “Bayou Christmas” in honor of Russell, to which Jamal lovingly agreed.
Recorded at Rabadash Studios in Mandeville, LA, “Bayou Christmas” may have sentimental and emotional moments, but it is most definitely an upbeat and groovy song which right away puts you in the Christmas spirit, making you want to pull out your grandma’s old recipes, decorate your tree with some Spanish moss and oyster shells and throw a party on the porch with your people! The songstress says she asked Jamal in the studio to “keep it funky,” which is exactly what he did and she believes Russell would be very proud of his brother and former bandmates.
The full sounding track consists of Sera Buras on vocals and piano, Jamal Batiste on drums, Cass Falconer on bass, Jon Cristian Duque on guitar and background vocals, Mark Levron on trumpet and background vocals, Alex Blaine on saxophone, Nick Necaise on Hammond B3, Dave Easley on pedal steel guitar and releases digitally on December 1st, 2023 on Rabadash Records.