Abandoned Race

Thirty years in the making

Around 1985, guitarist Randy Anderson and drummer Perry Pace found each other through the musician ads in Wavelength and OffBeat.

Their first band was named Race Bannon, after the Jonny Quest character. When the singer left, Randy put it simply: we're not Race Bannon anymore, we're Abandoned Race. In 1988 they brought in Elizabeth Carter, who sang and played the bass lines and strings on a Kurzweil. Over the next five years they wrote more than 30 songs in a smoky room in Mid-City and played them at Jimmy's, Tipitina's, Muddy Waters and Checkpoint Charlie's. Monique LaBorde joined on harmonies in 1993.

Those songs never got recorded the way they deserved. Thirty years later the band is fixing that, one single at a time, with the same songs and a modern sound. Elizabeth passed away in 2013. "Had a Dream" is for her.