The Troubadour in Beverly Hills, Calif., has housed many musical legends over the years.
Legends like James Taylor, Bob Dylan and Sir Elton John, just to name a few.
But last month, The Louisiana Street Band, including Baker University seniors Nate Deel and Scott Marks, had the opportunity to perform and compete on this famous stage for the chance to win a recording studio session.
The band set off for Los Angeles Jan. 15 for a five-day trip. The first day the band did a meet-and-greet with the other bands, while also touring the Hollywood Boulevard and the Hollywood Wax Museum. The very next day, the bands went to compete at the Troubadour.
“It was a little crazy playing on the Troubadour stage because, I mean, big names have played in that place,” Deel said. “Just about every band that’s ever been big has played there at some point.”
The road to the band’s Troubadour performance goes all the way back to September when the band started competing in the U Rock! Battle for the Best Contest sponsored by General Mills.
After several regional competitions at university campuses across the country, and an online voting contest, The Louisiana Street Band, along with two other bands, found out in early December it had won the chance to fly to Los Angeles to perform for a panel of judges. The grand prize was two days of recording studio time at Firehouse Recording Studios.
Before the competition began, each band had the chance to do a sound check and run a few songs on stage.
“While the other bands were up there on the stage, you’re kind of sitting down there going, ‘oh, wow, they sound really good. I wonder if we even have a shot at this,'” Marks said.
Each band was allowed to perform one original song for the judges, so the band ended up performing “(Girl I’ve Been) Looking For,” which is a song that deals with a man trying to get up the courage to ask a woman out for the first time.
In the end, their song choice and stage presence paid off, as the judges deemed The Louisiana Street Band the winner.
Afterward, the band was able to record four songs at Firehouse Recordings Studios, and the recordings are now archived at Disk Marketing, Inc.
While both Deel and Marks were really excited about the win, Connie Deel, director of human resources and staff development, and Nate’s mother, was also very excited and proud to hear about the band’s win.
“They had just won when (Nate) called (me), and there was a lot of noise in the background, and he was obviously surprised and thrilled and speechless,” Connie Deel said. “They said the other bands were really good, so they were very, very excited that they were able to win.”
Even though the contest is over, The Louisiana Street Band is still keeping busy with local performances, and now there is even a chance the band’s recorded songs could be used in movies or in TV shows and commercials, which would send a royalty check the band’s way.
Not only that, but now The Louisiana Street Band can add its name to a long list of musicians that have made their mark on the Troubadour stage.
