Super Lucky Catz

Robert Barron-Gushel has the kinda voice that turns heads and raises eyebrows.

The kinda voice that makes you look at the person next to you and shrug in unison, because neither of you can believe that such a powerful, soulful voice was hiding inside a young man who looks more like a football player than a soul singer.

About 150 people packed into Fagan's Irish Pub on Friday night, to see Barron-Gushel's group, Super Lucky Catz (http://www.myspace.com/superluckycatzslc), and learned first-hand the power of his singing voice. Really, if he doesn't have the best voice in Fresno, he's on a short list.

Barron-Gushel along with partner Brandon Yoshida make-up the Super Lucky Catz. They're mainly an acoustic duo, with Yoshida playing guitar and drums, while Barron-Gushel sings and plays piano. Their two-man show was good -- with Yoshida creating soundscapes for Barron-Gushel's voice to soar over -- but the band really succeeded in the second part of their show, bringing three others on stage and playing with a full-band.

They blended the pop sensibility of Maroon 5, with the old-school soul songwriting of Stevie Wonder. There was no question people were loving it. As Barron-Gushel walked around during breaks in the two-hour set, people told him so. Also, the band sold every one of its newly released CDs.

The Super Lucky Catz show wasn't a full-on Rogue Festival show. Fagan's is one of this year's Bring Your Own Venues, which means its calendar of entertainment gets folded into the Rogue mix. That means, unfortunately, there's not another Rogue show scheduled for Super Lucky Catz. But you can catch them March 20 at the Fresno City College Battle of the Bands. - Fresno Bee

Sitting on a weight bench in a stuffy gym one afternoon last week, singer Robert Barron- Gushel powers through a set of back exercises and then lets out a sigh.

"After this 'American Idol' stuff," he says, "I'm just trying to get my head straight."

Since his run at "American Idol," which had been going for two months until he squared off with the show's executive producer, Nigel Lythgoe, and was sent home one step away from singing in front of the 'Idol' judges, Barron-Gushel has been working hard to not only get his head straight, but his soul, his body and his music, too.

Now, he's going through a rebirth. He's trying to not be Robert Barron-Gushel, "American Idol" hopeful, anymore.

He's trying to get back to being Rob the Voice, wowing vocalist of popular local band Super Lucky Catz, again.

"Win or lose," he says, "I'm still me. I still have my fans that support me. To a lot of people, ['Idol'] was a means to an end. Once they said no, it was over. For me, it's a relief. It was never my dream to be the next 'American Idol,' it's not something that crushed me. I'm cool."

He says that and sounds like he believes it. But if you talk to him enough, it's obvious he started to cling to the dream, even if just a little bit.

Maybe Hollywood got to him a little. Maybe somewhere between leaving Fresno at 3 a.m. one Sunday morning in August and becoming one of the few hundred, out of thousands, who moved on to the second round of auditions, maybe that made him cling to the dream.

When Barron-Gushel returned to Hollywood at the end of September for the second round of auditions, a day of singing away from being on "Idol," he had some swagger to him. There were only about 300 people there, and he felt good about his chances.

The audition was three-tier: first a group of "Idol" producers, then Lythgoe, who calls the shots behind the scenes on "Idol," and then onto judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson.

Fewer than half the hopefuls made it past the first tier. Barron-Gushel was one of them.

Once in a room with Lythgoe, Barron-Gushel sang "At Last" by Etta James and then "Knocks Me Off My Feet" by Stevie Wonder.

Barron-Gushel says the "Idol" exec complemented him on his voice, but said Lythgoe didn't like the way Barron-Gushel's hands hung when he sang and didn't like his eyebrows.

His hands? His eyebrows? Barron-Gushel was flabbergasted.

Regardless, Lythgoe asked Barron-Gushel to sing another song. He chose "Back At One" by Brian McKnight.

Not too far into the song, Barron-Gushel goofed the words, at which point, he says, he stopped once he saw the "Idol" producer rolling his eyes.

That led to a little verbal bout between the two of them.

Next, Barron-Gushel was out the door, back to the local scene in Fresno, "Idol" hopes gone.

"I looked at it like this: If I didn't say what I needed to say to Nigel, I would have regretted not opening my mouth and not sticking up for myself," Barron-Gushel says. "I would have regretted not sticking up for myself when someone was belittling me for my hand and eyebrows when it's a singing competition."

When it was all said and done, Barron-Gushel fled to Arizona, where his girlfriend lives. He needed to get away. Away from Fresno. Away from the "Idol" questions. Away from the dream he didn't want at first but got stuck embracing.

"I think he took it kinda hard at first," says Brandon Yoshida, the other half of Super Lucky Catz. "But it really affected him in a good way; it's motivated him and I to prove that they were wrong for kicking him off."

Says Sandra Barron, Robert's mother, who accompanied him to the "Idol" auditions: "It re-energized him and made him realize that he's gonna have to refocus his energy."

That's just what Barron-Gushel is doing, sitting on that weight bench in the stuffy gym.

These days, he's working hard to get in better shape. He also got a new job.

And most importantly, he and Yoshida are spending countless hours in their studio carefully crafting their new CD and taking steps to make their popular live shows tighter and more innovative.

"Whatever chance I have to get better, I'm going to take it," Barron-Gushel says. "If it takes falling down on 'American Idol' for me to get better, then that's what I have to do."
The reporter can be reached at mosegueda@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6479. Read his blog at www.fresnobeehiv - By Mike Osegueda / The Fresno Bee

The VOICE & The RHYTHM
The Super Lucky Catz - - Robert & Brandon!

Fresno acoustic-soul duo, The Super Lucky Catz, are ready to take the world by storm!

With a voice reminiscent of classic soul-stirrers Stevie Wonder and Sam Cooke mixed in with a Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz type vibe, lead vocalist/songwriter--Robert Barron-Gushel has a voice that will touch your soul and give you goosebumps!

The voice, coupled with Brandon Yoshida's jazzy rhythmic guitar style, make The Super Lucky Catz one of the best new original duo's to come out of Fresno, California.

Robert and Brandon sat down with us to talk about music, getting "there" in the music business, and more....PLUS, they were gracious enough to give us a special acoustic LIVE performance of their newest material!


Raina: Tell me us how this all started?
Robert: We started about 5 years ago. Brandon's dad plays bass and his uncle plays drums and they had a band with another guy who played keys. Brandon was working with them and I was doing alot of gospel singing. I started breaking away from that and began working with the keyboard player. At about 15 or 16 I started playing with that band here and there when they would play live gigs at the Starline and other places. Brandon would get up on the drum kit and play a couple songs.

Pretty soon we became fully involved in that act but after a while we decided it wasn't really where we wanted to go or where we wanted to take our music.

Brandon: At that time we were just doing cover songs, top 40. Stuff like Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Frank Sinatra.....we did Sade, Stevie Ray Vaughn, really all over the board.

Robert: But it's just like I heard someone say the other day...you can be an artist and play original stuff and the gigs will come, it'll be slow, but you can watch your career take off. OR you can just be a cover tune musician and the gigs and popularity will come fast...but then you can watch your career quickly go down the drain.

Raina: After you guys broke away from the cover band, what next?
Robert: Brandon picked up guitar right away and I was playing keyboards. I've been playing keys on and off for about 4 years. I started writing and throwing ideas around and we had like 30 songs in a month--staying up all day and night working on songs.

People would hear it and we knew it was just the beginning stages, but they already started asking us to play here and there. My gospel stuff started taking off and churches in Oregon and Arizona started inviting us to perform...we began to build a fan base in those places.

Raina: What subjects do you write about?
Robert: Life. The struggles and joys of life, love, peace and hate.

Raina: Do you both write the lyrics for your songs?
Brandon: I shape the ideas Robert has. It's collective as far as the writing goes.
Robert: ...like he'd say "I don't like the way you said this, you should try it this way..", etc.

Raina: When I listen to The Super Lucky Catz, I hear alot of classic soul mixed in with a Jason Mraz-type vibe. Who are your influences?
Brandon: We listen to alot of Sting & The Police, Steely Dan, Yellowjackets, James Taylor, Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder....lots of different types of music.

Raina: Do you guys have a CD out yet?
Robert: Yes. We have an EP demo out. Sort of like a notepad of our ideas from the last two years. We wanted to put the best 10 out of the 30 from when we first started writing. I think the next one will be live material because I think we come across alot better live.

Raina: You mentioned doing gigs outside of Fresno. Have you found it hard to get shows in Fresno?
Robert: Well its the vibe. Fresno doesn't have that vibe. It has the top 40 and the hard rock vibe...which is cool, 'cause I appreciate all kinds of music, but you know...
Brandon:...for example, I went to the Seal concert the other day and it was just dead! I mean, people just sitting there. I felt bad for him. He's such a good performer and he just kept going through it. Only at the end did people stand up and really listen.
Robert: They couldn't even get up or give him a hand-clap or a "whooo" or whatever it is you'd do to show support for an artist. He's a word class performer and we're nobody's, so we don't expect these people to show us anything. We're here to gain respect and keep pursuing our goal.

"WHAT IS HIP. They want to know what is hip and they're afraid to step up and say 'this is hip' . They want someone to tell them like MTV or VH-1 or whoever comes down here from the bay. It's sad, because more people will come out to see an out-of-town band that they've never heard of quicker than they would to see a band from their own home town.....what we call great here sometimes isn't so great--just acceptable." - Robert - Soulsandsounds.com

Have you noticed that the Super Lucky Catz haven't been playing around town much lately? The band has been busy. It's been in the studio, writing new material. It's been shuffling its lineup, settling on a dynamic 10-member setup that's changing the once "acoustic soul band" into more of an eclectic soul jam band. The sound is a bit like Stevie Wonder singing with the Dave Matthews Band. - Fresno Bee

The local scene

Local band of the year: Six Ounce Gloves. The hard-rock group released its label debut, "Timing Is Everything," played packed shows around town, hit the road a handful of times and raised the bar for local success.

Rookies of the year: Super Lucky Catz. To think, a year ago the Catz weren't even playing gigs regularly. Now, they'll pack whatever venue they book. With a new CD to be released in January, big things are on deck for this acoustic/soul group.

- By Mike Osegueda / The Fresno Bee