The BSL Trio

Murphy's Musical Notes - Dec/Jan 2019

Veteran coast musician Pat Murphy introduces the three musicians who make up the hard-driving local band, the BSL Trio. 

The BSL Trio is a popular local classic and blues rock trio playing on the scene. The members are drummer and vocalist Jerry Lenfant, guitarist and vocalist John Bezou and bassist and vocalist Ed Rafferty.

All three musicians are originally from and grew up playing in the New Orleans area. Lenfant lived here as a young teen and attended St. Stanislaus's “Back School.”

​I first became aware of The BSL Trio when they were performing at The Ugly Pirate in Bay St. Louis under the name of JJ and Mad Dog.  JJ was guitarist John Bezou and drummer Jerry Lenfant.  Mad Dog was bass player Ed Rafferty.  

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​I had known drummer Jerry Lenfant since high school when he lived here. Though younger than me, Jerry was the younger brother of a close friend. Guitarist John Bezou and I go back to around 1980 when he began playing with me in The County Line Band. Jerry Lenfant also joined the band as drummer about 1983 when he moved back to the area.
 
The three of us along with my wife, Candy, played on and off through a succession of bands like The Juke Jumpers and the early Pat Murphy Band.
 
By the mid-1990s, John and Jerry had moved on and founded a band by the name of The Relative Unknowns. They both continued working together in that band for a number of years. In the later years of The Relative Unknowns, the band also included vocalist Phil Williams.

​After disbanding The Relative Unknowns, Bezou and Lenfant would begin an association with bassist Ed Rafferty in 2012 and began playing occasionally at The Ugly Pirate shortly thereafter.
 
As I mentioned earlier, the trio started out billing itself locally as JJ & Mad Dog. One night fate intervened when, on a gig, a Bay St. Louis trash container was spotted with a BSL sticker on the side. The rest, ladies and gentlemen, is local music history. The name BSL stuck and the band has gone on to endear themselves with local and area classic rock music fans.
 
The BSL Trio specializes in cover versions of classic rock from Cream and Santana to The Doors as well as some of the blues rock of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

All three of the members of The BSL Trio are also active in other musical projects as well. John Bezou and Jerry Lenfant are both long time members of The St. Rose Men's Gospel Ensemble.

​Bezou also continues to play with local R&B band 'Sippiana Soul as well as being involved with The Gulf Coast Jazz Society. Bassist Ed Rafferty continues to pursue his jazz roots and Berkley schooling as a member of The Dave Knorr Trio playing jazz as well as being involved with The Gulf Coast Jazz Society.
 
The three musicians comprising The BSL Trio are all fiercely proud of their status as veterans of United States military service.
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The BSL Trio can be found most any weekend playing locally at Buoy's or The Mockingbird Cafe as well as The Blind Tiger in Biloxi, The Government Street Grocery in Ocean Springs or The Blue Crab on the lakefront in New Orleans.

The band served in an opening act capacity for The Glory Rhodes (a popular 1960s New Orleans Beatle-era band) at New Orleans' popular Rock'n'Bowl. The BSL Trio will also be playing at The Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale on Saturday, December 29th.