The Deslondes

Formed in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, 2013 — Five albums on New West Records

The Deslondes are a New Orleans Americana quintet named for Deslonde Street in the Holy Cross neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward, where they came together around backyard fires, trading songs. All five members share songwriting and lead-vocal duties, braiding country, blues, R&B, gospel, and zydeco into roots music that feels pulled straight from the American songbook — with five New West Records albums to show for it.

Never heard The Deslondes before?

🎵 Signature Song

“Today I Fought the Blues and Won” (2015)

⚜️ Known For

Five writers, one band

🏠 From

Deslonde St., Lower Ninth Ward

“The Deslondes make music for the soul.”

— Paste Magazine, on Don’t Let It Die, Vol. 1

Why We Love The Deslondes

The Deslondes are about as democratic as a band gets: five equal members who all write, all sing, and all pull in the same direction. That shared stewardship gives their records a dusty, lived-in warmth no single auteur could manufacture — country heartbreak one song, gospel lift the next, a zydeco bounce after that, all of it sounding like it drifted in off Deslonde Street itself. They came to New Orleans chasing Woody Guthrie’s ghost and ended up building a home that keeps the whole American songbook alive, one backyard fire at a time.

Biography

Five Writers, One Lower Ninth Ward Band

Sam Doores met Cameron Snyder in college, and after reading Woody Guthrie’s Bound for Glory, Doores quit school and headed to New Orleans with Snyder. The pair formed the Broken Wing Routine, met Missouri native Riley Downing at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Oklahoma, and — once in New Orleans — Doores met Dan Cutler and formed the Tumbleweeds, while Snyder and John James Tourville met touring with the Longtime Goners. Doores and Cutler also played in Hurray for the Riff Raff, whom the Tumbleweeds often opened for. In 2013, with another band holding a legal claim to the Tumbleweeds name, the group looked out the window, saw the street sign at the corner, and rechristened themselves The Deslondes.

Their self-titled debut, The Deslondes (2015, New West Records), was produced in Nashville by Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff). NPR premiered the first single, “Today I Fought the Blues and Won,” Rolling Stone premiered the video for “The Real Deal,” and a portion of “Low Down Soul” later soundtracked a scene in season six of Longmire.

“We’re about as democratic as it gets. Five equal members who all write and contribute a whole lot to the project.”

— Sam Doores

Hurry Home followed in 2017, and after a hiatus the band returned with Ways & Means (2022) — their most expansive record, adding saxophone, flute, synth, and a full drum kit for the first time — and Roll It Out (2024), a warm reflection on devoting yourself to family, friends, and the road.

In January 2025 the band convened at Doores’ small studio on Deslonde Street to record Don’t Let It Die, Vol. 1 (2026, New West) — a set of covers honoring the songs that made them, from Swamp Dogg and Johnny Cash to Clifton Chenier’s “I’m Coming Home” and Hurricane Smith’s title track. It was the first time they had ever recorded on Deslonde as the Deslondes, and a once-in-a-century New Orleans blizzard marooned them in the studio for a week. The result, says Paste, is “a terrific follow-up” and music for the soul.