Rhythm and Rain Trio
Known as the Rhythm & Rain Trio, their passionate acoustic performance has a coastal feel they’ve described as islandflavored rock with some Mississippi Delta heritage and a splash of comedy.
VA N EL I S R I V ER A
K E L LY M O O R E C L A R K
BAYOU BE ATS
I
t was a sunny sixty-five degrees walking up the slope to Marina Cantina in Gulfport, Mississippi. I passed an abnormal amount of Corvettes on the way to the wood-plank walkway leading to the restaurant and waterfront patio. Strangely, it fit the scene—a line of docked bay boats, patrons in shorts and lightly colored, short-sleeve tops, and Bayou Bernard in the background. Clearly, it was a celebration of summer edging its delightfully sunny visage, made even more carefree by the sounds winding away from a small stage parallel to the boardwalk. Under the makeshift top-half of a sport fisherman yacht canopying the stage, three musicians wearing lime green, outdoor button-up shirts jammed some tasty, fun-loving covers. Known as the Rhythm & Rain Trio, their passionate acoustic performance has a coastal feel they’ve described as island-flavored rock with some Mississippi Delta heritage and a splash of comedy. “I was at NLU [Northeast Louisiana University] 87 to 90 I believe,” said Rain Jaudon, vocalist and acoustic guitarist of the trio. Then, a marketing major and member of Kappa Alpha Order, he holds fond memories of the area, especially eating Johnny’s Pizza “every week,” going to the “cheap” movie theatre, and ending up at The Library Lounge drinking twenty-five cent draft beer and “singing along to the jukebox while sitting on those old picnic tables.” He remembers that he marched as a French horn player in the Sound of Today under then Director of Bands, Jack White. Exhausted by the rigorous practice schedule that marching and concert bands demanded, Jaudon had to come to terms with easing away from the horn. “Playing horn wasn’t going to be my future, but I was starting to get very interested in guitar.” At the time, he had been playing in a rock band from his hometown of Indianola, Mississippi. And, as the power ballads became popular on MTV, Jaudon became “the guy in the band with an acoustic guitar.” Surprisingly, the only guitar lessons he ever took were one semester’s worth of guitar theory at then NLU. “I taught from that textbook for several
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