An accomplished and well-regarded singer/songwriter and guitarist who was musically affiliated with some of the best known musicians and bands in late 20th century New Orleans died at home on Friday, May 25, 2012.
Gary Bruce Hirstius was a New Orleans native who began playing music as a teenager. His father, Bruce, who survives him along with his mother JoAnn, is a Dixieland trumpeter. Hirstius gravitated to the guitar, and by 17 years of age was playing on Bourbon Street at the legendary Big Daddy’s nightclub.
He began his “other” career at the age of 21 when he joined a cousin who had experience as a police officer and began working as a private investigator. As he matured as a songwriter, some of his tunes were inspired by the gritty nature of detective work and were populated by the characters that he encountered doing surveillance work.
By 1986, Hirstius was gigging with musicians who have become household names in New Orleans and among roots rock lovers across the country. Though the first incarnation of the Continental Drifters only lasted a short time, two other members of the band, Tommy Malone and John Magnie, went on to the form the subdudes.
Throughout the 1990s, Hirstius was a guitar-wielding presence on the scene. In 1993, he joined Tommy Malone and Dave Malone, the front man and one of the two lead guitarists in the Radiators, in the whimsically named, My Three Sons of Bitches. He played with Tommy Malone in another playfully named band, the Disaster Brothers, that was a songwriter’s showcase and featured the two musicians on acoustic guitars. He jammed with the New Orleans supergroup, Monkey Ranch, which also featured the drummer “Mean” Willie Green of the Neville Brothers; the guitarist/singer/songwriter and Swedish expatriate Anders Osborne; the Malone brothers, and the bassist Reggie Scanlan.
Hirstius’s solo projects became his focus in the late 1990s and into the new century. In 1997, he released his first album, Temporary Secret. It featured two songs co-written by Tommy Malone and two songs co-written by Beth McKee of the groundbreaking female ensemble Evangeline. He also performed with McKee and Sharon Leger (also of Evangeline) in Jackson Meddler. That band was later renamed NO Angels—another band moniker that reflected Hirstius’s sly sense of humor.
The lineup of musicians on Temporary Secret reads like a who’s who of New Orleans musicians from the era. Jeffery “Jellybean” Alexander, Mike Barras, Kenny Blevins, and Carlo Nuccio played drums; Theresa Andersson and Susan Cowsill provided backing vocals; Ray Ganucheaux played guitar; Jimmy Mesa (of the latter day subdudes) played bass; Nancy Buchan and Neti Vaan played fiddles, and Tommy Malone played bass, dobro, acoustic and electric guitar, as well as contributing backing vocals.
Hirstius released Slightly Out of Focus in 2001, Down River in 2003, and Waterline, his final effort, was released in 2006. Waterline reunited him with Nuccio and Magnie and featured compelling songs like “The Sun’s Gonna Shine (Time’s Up)” that were inspired by the federal flood that followed Hurricane Katrina.
He continued to perform in New Orleans right up until his untimely passing. His last band, Creole Soul, had a regular gig at the Tropical Isle on Bourbon Street.
Besides his parents, his daughter, Brandi; two sisters, Lauren and Leslie; two grandsons; and a nephew and a niece survive him. In remembrance, bracelets that hold ashes provide a heartfelt way to keep loved ones close.
Visitation is at Leitz-Eagan Funeral Home, 4747 Veterans Blvd. (near Clearview Pkwy.), Metairie, LA on Thursday, May 31, 2012 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Visitation continues at St. Ann Church and Shrine, 3601 Transcontinental Drive, Metairie, LA on Friday, June 1, 2012 from 9:30 am until a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 am. In lieu of flowers, donations preferred to New Orleans Musicians Clinic in the name of Gary Hirstius.
