Louie Fontaine

Louie Fontaine's album, The Sun Ain't Black, is the culmination of three decades of experience playing and recording a wide variety of music. Primarily an Americana record, the album draws on blues, country and art rock, with shades of the Stones, Tom Petty, Nick Cave and Tom Waits peeking in and out of this collection.

The songs are gems — but the live show is an off the hook rock concert with an energy that can only be seen to be believed. If Queens of the Stone Age were an Americana band with David Bowie as the frontman, you'd have Louie Fontaine.

Fontaine is a singer, guitarist and bassist who writes songs in a wide range of styles that often tell elaborate, macabre stories. A true Gen X-er, his theatrical stage skills and video savvy seem plucked from the heart of the MTV era. He is also an effective blues singer who honed his craft playing with Louisiana soul/R&B master Rockie Charles — whom Fontaine toured with, played on his records, and produced his last two albums, Have You Seen My Uncle Steve and I Want First Class. Charles wrote "That's Rockin'" on Fontaine's new record.

The centrepiece of the album consists of dramatic songs made into videos: "The Pill" is a concept song with an intricate, Bowie-like vocal arrangement, and "The Hambiltons" an elaborate murder ballad.

"One of the first records I made back in the '90s was a rock musical called Murder Before Justice. So there was always a theatrical element. Performing live I like to change costumes, I like to be a little more than just a man with a guitar."