The Claudettes

"A mash-up of Otis Spann blues, Albert Ammons boogie-woogie, Ray Charles soul and "Fess" Longhair New Orleans R&B"--Downbeat Magazine

The piano-drums duo of Johnny Iguana and Michael Caskey didn't know what they were getting themselves into when they called a place called Claudette's Bar in 2010 looking for a gig in between Chicago and St. Louis. Not only did Claudette book them into her bar in Oglesby, IL (an hour and a half southwest of Chicago's South Side), but she made them her house band and put them on salary.

"Claudette's was just a dive, not a venue, but we played to packed rooms because it's where everyone within 30 miles went to drink," Johnny says. "And Claudette started paying us weekly, even when she decided to have karaoke on Saturday instead of live music. Maybe that's just what she thought a bar owner does—she really knew nothing about bands or music. These days, as a musician, if you've got a chance to have regular money coming in, you take it."

Johnny and Michael—named "the Claudettes" by Claudette—quickly won over the astonished locals with their epic sets of spasmodic instrumentals, deftly melding blues, jazz and deep soul with frenzied joy and infectious energy.
What Johnny and Michael didn't see coming was Claudette losing her lease in 2011—but continuing to pay them weekly to be her house band at other bars. "She'd work out deals with the owners to set up her own portable bar inside their bar, and have us play while she sold drinks."

Claudette didn't even know that Johnny and Michael were both highly respected musicians in Chicago and around the world. Johnny had been in the Junior Wells band for years (starting at age 23) and had toured with Otis Rush and recorded with Carey Bell and Lil' Ed (he's since become the piano player in the Grammy-nominated Chicago Blues: A Living History featuring Billy Boy Arnold, John Primer, Lurrie Bell, Billy Branch and Carlos Johnson). He also toured and recorded throughout the 2000s with his cult-favorite prog-pop band oh my god.
And Michael, a Downbeat magazine award winner and five-time Detroit Music Awards recipient, had played with everyone from Koko Taylor to Chuck Mangione to Marvin Hamlisch to John Sinclair and is a member of Balkan fusion group Eastern Blok (recently, Michael toured Europe with Grammy nominees the Heritage Blues Orchestra).

"We talked a lot about parting ways with Claudette after she moved to Chicago and started embarrassing us here," Michael says. "But, again, she was paying us every week and our shows started generating a lot of buzz because she's always yelling at us in Korean and offering these really out-there drink specials."

As of summer 2014, Claudette began concentrating on other businesses too much to accompany the band on their tours. She hired a Nigerian-American singer/dancer known only as Yana to look after the boys and entertain their audiences along with them. She still sends her scrolling drink specials and urgent announcements along with Yana and the Claudettes.

The Claudettes initially earned notoriety for Claudette booking her band into places like Blockbuster Video and Staples (with YouTube footage to attest). While the band prefers legitimate Chicago venues like the Hideout, Claudette excoriates these as "dumps" and strongly favors chain stores. Despite this ongoing quarrel, the Claudettes are making waves in Chicago and beyond.