Barbato on other side of the bar at Front Porch

Barbato on other side of the bar at Front Porch
LuckyDoggs band leader opens music bistro in Lillian

By Fran Thompson
It may have been three years too late for Haight-Asbury’s Summer of Love, but NOLA, specifically its French Quarter, was teaming with young drop-outs back in 1970. Johnny Barbato was among them. He was all of 15 years old.
“The French Quarter was hippie heaven,’’ said the proprietor of Johnny B’s Front Porch in Lillian, an FBISF venue. “I wasn’t running away from anything. I came from a very nice family. I was just stupid. The French Quarter was full of kids from the suburbs like me looking to party.’’
A junior Louisiana state golf champion several times over (his father was a golf pro) and the starting quarterback for Holy Cross High School in the 9th Ward, Johnny said he was crashing at “The Green House on Broad St.” until he got pulled over riding a Honda 90 CC motorcycle that he conveniently borrowed so often that he forgot he was never given permission to do so.
“You could start that bike without a key,’’ he said. “I was going to bring it back.’’
Given the choice of a juvenile facility in Mandeville or going back home to Mobile, where his family had moved, Johnny made the 144 mile leap to the Port City and Davidson High School.
“I had never even been to school with girls before, and I was used to being the biggest, toughest and fastest player on the football team,’’ he said.
That was not the case at Davidson, where QB Richard Todd reigned. Todd would go on to start for Alabama and play 11 years in the NFL, including two with the Saints (1984–1985), after being drafted no. 6 overall by the Jets.
Johnny caught passes from Todd as a tight end and kicked field goals for two years before taking over at QB on his way to an expected college scholarship.
Instead, wary of the beating he was taking and not sure he would ever recover from a painful shoulder injury, he and a friend, on a whim, enlisted in the Army.
“Just like in the movie. We showed up the next day and we were in,’’ he said.
Johnny made a great connection during basic training and spent his entire Army committment as an on-base golf pro in Petersburg, VA. “I ran a golf course for two years. It was the best job I’ve ever had,’’ he said.
He was already strumming his guitar and singing Waylon, Willie and Jerry Jeff songs as a solo act when he started running around with Port City blues players that included David Moody, JW Slyde and Wick Larson.
That led to the formation of his first band, Southbound, and what he calls a musical apprenticeship under the tutelage of guitarist Luther Wamble.
“Luther was probably better then than he ever got to be as a grown man. He didn’t think. He just played, and it was with a vengeance,’’ Johnny said. “He was playing music I had never heard before. It was something special.
“It opened up a whole world when I had Luther at my side,’’ he added. “I learned how to direct my own bands by watching him command a stage.’’
Southbound, a Charlie Daniels loving ensemble of Mobile’s best in cowboy hats, had a residency at Thirsty’s and also played at Red’s, the first bar on Dauphin St. The band also played at The Blues Tavern and at Traders on the Mobile Causeway.
Johnny has many stories about band trips to Pleasure Island just as it was growing into the national tourist destination it is today. He would gig at LA Pub & Grub, listen to Jessie James at The Dirty Bird (The Seagull), party with Shine Powell at the club he owned with his wife, Sam, and drop in on Kenny Stabler at The End Zone.
At one point, Johnny says he and Luther (pictured to left of Johnny) got in a car and went looking for the crossroads to make the pact in pursuit of musical stardom.
“When I got busted, Topper Price was the mac-daddy in town. He was the greatest entertainer I’ve ever seen in my life,’’ Johnny said. “But Topper believed you had to go to that certain place in your mind to play the blues.’’
That bust, for trafficking drugs, got Johnny three years in the federal prison at Maxwell AFB. While doing time, in addition to swearing off hard drugs for life, Johnny started writing songs that he would play for a producer in jail for tax evasion who was married to a then Mobile based country singer.
“It was just effing time. That’s all. I’d play him my songs and he’d tell me they sucked – over and over,’’ Johnny said. “Finally I played him a song that he complimented me on. He was right. They were bad. It was just prison stuff. Pretty comical, looking back.’’
Back in Mobile, Johnny re-united with Wamble, who was spending time in and out of Gatemouth Brown’s band, and they formed The Lucky Doggs.
He would be hard pressed to name all the players who went on stage with that band in the past 30 years, but guitarists included Ricky Chauncey and Corky Hughes. Leaves from the band’s tree also included Keith Lee, Steve Carmen, Zach Taylor, Donnie Skidmore, Rat Connell, Rick Rains and current members Britt Meacham, Cathy Pace and Dave Padgett.
Even though they were in competing bands on the SEC fraternity circuit, Johnny still has high praise for George Eberlein of Mr. X and Rick Carter of Telluride.
“George Eberlein (a Fairhope grad) was just shredding it with Mr. X. Rick Carter’s band was huge. But he was always such a gentleman to me. He helped me get a gig at City Stages.’’
Great musicians (Wet Willie to Will & The Bushmen to The Filthy Rich) were abundant on the Gulf Coast then. And they still are (Lee Yankee, Grayson & Corky, Justin Fobes, et al). But Johnny said nobody has ever influenced him like Luther.
“Luther just killed it. People – even the band – would stop what they were doing and just pay attention. The show became about him. It was never the plan. But he would just go off. It was like watching a quarterback call audibles while looking out over the defense.
“I would not have had a career in the music business without him. Even in my guitar playing, I hear a lot of Luther. He did the simple things so well that nobody else sounded like him,’’ he added.
Johnny also re-acquainted himself with the Flora-Bama and the bistro’s holy trinity of original possible/probable performers: Ken Lambert, Jimmy Louis and J Hawkins.
“Man, Lambert and Hawkins. Those guys were outlaws. And then you add Louis. You’ll never again find three outlaws playing in the same place like that,’’ he said.
“People had no idea how good they were when they came in. But they soon found out. J didn’t just strum, he beat the strings. I was intimidated by those guys.’’
Johnny said he found playing in front of FBISF founder/‘Bama owner Joe Gilchrist especially intimidating.
“The battle of my life was learning how to not be afraid on that stage. It used to scare me to death when Joe would come in with his friends. And there was no greater satisfaction than knowing you hit a home run in front of Joe. Nothing could match that experience,’’ he said.
Johnny said he learned how to play lead guitar accompanying the greatest Flora-Bama performer ever, Rusty McHugh. This was before Rusty’s childhood friend Mike Fincher showed up and claimed that gig. “Those two were as connected as me and Luther,’’ he said.
The Lucky Doggs have played national festivals and opened for The Black Crows and, through their connection with Gilchrist, played a gig at the White House for the Florida Caucus.
“That was a crazy good band and we worked hard,’’ Johnny said. “I liked being on the road. So it was no big deal for me. But we’d take off for North Carolina on Wednesday and work our way back through Atlanta to play at the Flora-Bama every Sunday. We had that Sunday gig for many years.’’
Barbato recorded No Pain – No Gain (with Jon Cook, Brock Barreman, Mark Laborde and Howie Johnson) in 1994, and somewhere around that time, he and Luther, both by then Christians, tried to play on the gospel music circuit.
“Our music was too weird a fit into gospel,’’ he said. “We were playing prisons and churches. But our music was just not intended to play at church.’’
Johnny said his life changed for the better when his great niece Madison came to live with him when she was 10. Now 22, Madison began working at The Front Porch when she was 18, and it was through Madison that Johnny befriended the Front Porch owner and was eventually able to buy the business and the property at terms that were much, much less than market value.
“I took a 9 to 5 job when Madison came to me,’’ he said. “But I was still playing four nights a week. It was the only time God spoke directly to me in my life. He said, ‘This is yours.’ and I never questioned it.’’
He said he was more than ready when he was presented with the incredible business opportunity to run a bistro that showcased live music.
“Those old blues clubs gave way to franchises and corporation owned restaurants,’’ he said. “I wanted to try to recreate something that had an old school feel to it. And that all goes back to Joe (Gilchrist). Much of it was tough love. But Joe loved me and he taught me a lot. I ask myself, ‘what would Joe do?’ all the time.’’
With live music six days a week, the Front Porch hopes to be a foundation for songwriters to work on their craft and mature as performers.
“When I book an act, I am not looking for pretty girls more interested in being an artist than playing a room. I want to know if they can hold a crowd,’’ he said. “Once you can do that, the crowd will listen. That’s what Joe did at the Flora-Bama. He taught people to listen to music.’’
His bistro is part of this year’s FBISF, but Johnny said he also plans to hold the first Hwy. 98 Songwriters Fest over one weekend in late March. He will recruit two other places that front Hwy. 98 and the fest will include an old Flora-Bama player night. It is all part of his plan to make The Front Porch a music venue with food rather than a restaurant that books music. If that doesn’t work out, he will have no regrets.
“I didn’t have anything when I got here, and if I don’t have anything when I leave, that’s OK,’’ he said.
The Front Porch is now in its second year and Johnny has taken on a partner (Rick Douglas) to lesson his load, but the 67 year old still works 85 hours a week.
“I enjoy what I’m doing and I believe in what I am doing,’’ he said. “I believe the world is going to come to me eventually. I’ve never been driven by money. I wanted to satisfy my heart, and that’s what I am doing with this.’’