What better birthplace could there be for a Louisiana roots music band than the parking lot of a seafood restaurant? That’s where the River Benders first took shape—specifically at Seither’s Seafood in Harahan, when the COVID pandemic kept singer and guitarists Jake Eckert and Aaron Wilkinson from gigging with their regular bands, the New Orleans Suspects and the Honey Island Swamp Band.

“It was a totally abnormal but organic thing,” Eckert recalls. “It started with me playing on the crawf...