The Gourds

The Gourds are an American alternative country band that formed in Austin, Texas, United States, during the summer of 1994. After playing together for 19 consecutive years, the band went on hiatus in 2013.

Career

Primarily evolving from the Picket Line Coyotes and the Grackles, The Gourds first line-up consisted of Kevin Russell (vocals, guitar, mandolin), Jimmy Smith (vocals, bass, guitar), Claude Bernard (accordion, guitar, vocals), and Charlie Llewellin (drums, percussion). Llewellin was replaced by Keith Langford shortly after the second album was recorded, and multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston officially joined the band after being invited to play on their third album. By the following album, Johnston had also become the band's third songwriter, though Russell and Smith continued to share the bulk of those responsibilities.

Despite a sizable amount of original material, The Gourds are probably best known for a song they did not write, and for which they initially did not receive credit. In fact, for most of the 16 years following their first live performance of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice", fans could regularly be heard calling out for the band's cover version of the song, sometimes before the show had even started. This led some to consider it an albatross, but the band continued to play the crowd pleaser, often adding a medley of impromptu cover songs to its midsection.