Usually, change can expect mixed reviews at best. Most people avoid change like the plague, yet it is one of life’s few guarantees. In south Louisiana, the storm of change that would be the sixties was perhaps even less apparent than anywhere. How different was life in 1958? Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny, The Honeymooners, Lawrence Welk, Gunsmoke, Mickey Mouse, Captain Kangaroo, Huckleberry Hound. Elvis enters the army and simultaneously the Cajun inspired movie King Creole hits the big screen, along with Vertigo and South Pacific.
In the music world, Billboard’s Hot 100 List releases its first chart. It is topped by Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool”. The Age of Aquarius dawned on the careers of many new artists including Marvin Gaye and The Bee Gees. It had become clear, rock and roll would never die, and music was becoming more a part of the lives of America’s teens than ever before. That electricity lit a torch that would become the burning fire to drive two young boys from Ascension Parish through a lifetime of joy in music. Ladies and gentlemen we give you Johnny and Pat Sanchez.
Johnny was born May 25, 1942. At an early age, he was fascinated by watching his older brother JC. JC taught Johnny, and Pat watched. Pat had come along a few years after Johnny, on March 18, 1946.
The Sanchez family loved music. Grandpa Paul Sanchez played the fiddle and mom and dad, Bernice and Clarence Sanchez, did their best to keep up with the boys’ wants and needs when it came to music, even at personal sacrifice. There were six kids to feed. Pat spoke warmly of one instance, “I told my dad I wanted a guitar. It was $149. That was a LOT of money at that time. But he took me to Weurleins and bought it. I still have that guitar to this day.” Johnny nodded and they just smiled.
In fact, Johnny was already in motion. His passion had driven him to join a band. He collaborated with founder Keith Kelleher (now passed), Felix Arceneaux, Donald Leblanc, and Charlie Templet to form what would become an icon in Ascension Parish, the original “Blue Notes”. Johnny had sung many times with JC’s band, starting at the age of eight, at the Moonlight and was ready to move on.
“At first, Charlie Templet was my mentor. I learned to play and sing and move on stage by watching him. Then I became the drummer and I sang and played a little guitar and bass every now and then. We would switch up but I settled on the drums. I could control the pace that way. It was also my job to interpret and write down all the lyrics to pop songs that we planned to learn. I bought 45’s for 4-for-a-dollar from a guy who had a jukebox in his place.” At that Pat chimed in, “He took it seriously too! Sometimes it would be really hard to understand the words to a song. We’d argue back and forth until we got it right. Then he’d write it down and give it to everyone in the band.”
Musical integrity is the only way to describe the Sanchez boys’ particular genius. From the very beginning their mission was to reproduce, as perfectly as possible, all the sounds of the many and varied rock and roll artists of the time and they became masters at it. After forming his own band at the ripe old age of 13, called “The Dominos”, Pat would eventually join forces with Johnny and begin a legacy of decades of musical accomplishments. Their ability to reproduce almost anyone’s sound made them loved by audiences and attractive to other artists. They played with many tremendous talents due to their skill, fearlessness, and outright musical expertise. Those included The Drifters, The Four Tops, Billy Joe Royal, Doug Kershaw, and the great Percy Sledge. They have evolved through the years, changing musicians but always delivering that true, near perfect reproduction. They have played in every kind of environment, with every type of crowd, in numbers that range from 100,000 people at the Mullet Festival in Florida, to 4 people when a labor dispute led to a boycott of a dance they were to play at a chemical plant.
“We played our four hours like the house was full and took our money,” said Pat. “We had a great time with Percy,” Johnny said. “We had a meeting and he asked to see the drummer first. Well that was me. So I went into this little office and he said, “Hey listen man, just remember, play it slow. You can play a love song too fast, but you can never play it too slow.” Then he slowly hummed Whiter Shade of Pale in its entirety. Just me and Percy! I’ll never forget that moment.”
The band’s skill and popularity grew. More jobs came and they got better, and more jobs came. Small jobs mostly, but they stayed busy. In 1965, they were to play for the homecoming dance at Ponchatoula High. The visiting team that night was Gonzales High School, which featured a split end named Pat Sanchez. As fate would have it, Pat would make a circus catch inside the ten yard line as time ran down and GHS would go on to score and win the game. Pat then would have to face these same boys at the dance later.
“It was a little concerning, but mostly fun and I loved it,” Pat laughed.
The band was booked, though underage, at the old Gold Place Lounge. They¹d play Sunday afternoon as an opening act for Van Broussard who would play later that night.
In the very early years of the band, it was once again dad who came to the rescue. He was the bus driver since no one in the band was old enough to drive.
“One place we played back then was in Maurepas. That was a rough place. They really had chicken wire in front of the stage just like in the Blues Brothers.”
But the band played on. By 1969, The Blue Notes had grown to eight members. But in 1970, at the height of their run, the Blue Notes broke up. Some of its members formed a new group called the NooBlues and continued to delight audiences in the area. Johnny and Pat decided to form another band also. They teamed with Jimmy Millet and Joe Landry and formed another legendary Ascension band, The Alley Cats. They played private parties mostly, delighting crowds with their unique combinations of country and pop rock. Like everything else, these modern day Midas’ touched, it was a golden idea. Soon the Alley Cats were the cat¹s meow and the boys were off and running, never missing a beat.
“Music is our life,” they told us. “It’s both, our pleasure and our responsibility, to bring its joy to people. There is nothing better in life than the time on stage. It is a rush, a high, it’s pure energy. It’s an electricity from the crowd that we feed off of. The people out there are what make it for us.”
The people out there love the Alley Cats. The band evolved with time and stayed sharp. In 1976, Jimmy Millet left the band and Royce Tarver brought his skill at guitar playing to the band for a few years. Jimmy would later return and in 1981 they would add Keith Guidroz on guitar, Donald Lambert on sax and keyboard, and Hoyt Cuti and Gary “Snake” Templet. They would change their style a little to a newer rock-n- roll sound and take off again.
Through the years their sound improved, their talent continued to blossom, and their real lives progressed. As they honed their skills, they also became fixtures in their church and community. In 1965, Pat played the first guitar mass at St. Theresa¹s. From 1973 through 1990, Johnny was the choir director at St. Mark’s. They have continued to sing and perform in church to this day and their influence on the people of Ascension reaches through generations.
Johnny and his wife, the former Claire Loupe, have three children and five grandchildren. Pat and his wife, Patricia Davis Sanchez, have six children and nine grandchildren between them. The Sanchez Magical Musical Tour continues to be a family affair. Johnny’s son Clark is the lead singer for the band KrossRoadz, while his son Scott plays bass guitar for Hip Boot Joe. On Pat’s side, his wife Patricia is the very skilled keyboard player for their latest and greatest creation, NaNaSha.
The 1950’s hoop skirt, T-shirt, rock and roll revival was created when the boys were extended the great honor of representing Ascension Parish at the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair. At the fair, the crowds went nuts and soon they were being booked everywhere as NaNaSha. It has been a great ride and they have had great fun. Again their encounter with Percy Sledge gave them a chuckle as they recalled a conversation Percy had with Patricia.
Johnny, as was his nature, liked to play pranks. Once he told Patricia that he was tired of playing and would quit the band. Everyone went along and she got really upset, before being let in on the joke. One day, Percy had some questions and called Pat and Patricia’s home. Now Pat is a tremendous voice impersonator, a major component in the band’s success. Knowing this, Patricia was certain the voice on the phone belonged to Pat. It took a few moments and a concerted effort from Percy to convince her that it was him. It was a funny though embarrassing moment for Patricia and the boys still enjoy the story. Their encounter with Percy, they know, was a success. After rehearsing their first song, Percy turned to the band and stated, “I have never had my music played any better than you guys do it.”
In many ways Ascension Parish is an anomaly. The petrochemical industry along our section of the Mississippi River brought us a diverse set of cultures to add to the already wide-ranging mixture that had settled here historically. This blend of customs and people have caused this area to excel in many phases of life. Who has better baseball than the youth of Ascension? And as much as any aspect of life, one is awed by the high number of extremely talented musicians whose roots are here. It continues to be our great privilege to hear the behind the scenes stories of these incredible-- real people. At Ascension Magazine we are proud to bring their stories to you. But we also want to assure that these special people take the time to realize the joy and happiness that their hard work brings to so many of us. Johnny and Pat that reiterated that their reward comes from the crowd. We supply the energy. We supply the thrill, that adrenalin rush that these pros, almost to a man, say “That’s why I started. That’s what drives me. That’s why I’ll never stop playing.’ They should know the scales are not balanced. While they truly love those three or four hours on stage, for us it lasts much longer and starts much sooner. How long do we look forward to a night of pure enjoyment with NaNaSha. For at least a week, our work seems easier, the sky is bluer, food tastes better. A woman might spend two weeks or longer searching, with a bounce in her step, for that perfect new dress. Sunday afternoon naps are planned, knowing recovery time will be needed from the music and mischief.
The evening I was to begin my interview with the Sanchez brothers as I headed for Johnny’s, I put in a CD of Percy Sledge to set the mood. As we said, Percy and the Sanchez boys have a great history and the effect they have on their audiences is similar. I was calmed, serene, joyful. For the next seven days I listened to that CD whenever I got in my car. It brought me peace and tranquility and I was thankful to Percy for doing what he loves to do.
To all musicians who work so hard everyday to perfect their craft, we salute you. Contrary to popular thought, there is no shortage of inspiration in America today. There is no shortage of roll models, no shortage of heroes. Our heroes are among us everyday. We take time now to thank two of those heroes, Johnny and Pat, The Sanchez Boys.
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