The MidCity Advocate 09-24-2025

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Terry Robinson FAITH MATTERS

Baton Rouge couple sees fitness as a service

Personal trainers Steven and Jacquole Johnson are flexing their physical and spiritual muscles to help people achieve holistic health through a Christ-centered approach

The Baton Rouge couple and longtime fitness enthusiasts founded FLXX (Fit Living Exceeding Expectations) Fitness and Wellness in January with the core principles of fitness, faith and family

“It’s all connected to the ultimate calling in that we want to be able to show the best way we can all attain wellness is being right with God and having the right perspective on how we view our lives,” said Steven Johnson, an associate minister at Calvary Third Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. “It’s just more of a sense of giving ourselves to the community and being the light in a way that God has called us to be.”

The mission at the center is to help people flourish in mind, body and spirit, Jacquole Johnson said. She spent five years as a health coach before gaining her personal training certification last year.

PROVIDED PHOTO

Jacquole and Steven Johnson, owners of FLXX Fitness and Wellness

“Our goal is to advance Christ’s kingdom, and the vehicle to do that happens to be fitness and health,” she said

The Johnsons said the guiding scripture for FLXX comes from 3 John 1:2: “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” The couple uses the verse about physical and spiritual health to remind people not to neglect one for the other A mobile company, FLXX brings fitness to popups, churches, community walks, Zoom workouts and home visits through both its nonprofit and for-profit arms. Its third major event, “Ignite: A FLXX Wellness Experience for Educators,” is set for 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sept. 13, at Calvary Third Baptist Church, 1911 Georgia St., Baton Rouge. The theme of the event is “Fan the Flame. Fuel the Mission” from 2 Timothy 1:6: “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

Visitors will have access to a workout, brunch and panel discussion. Among the guest speakers will be Rodney Q. Freeman, a longtime East

ä See COUPLE, page 2G

‘I GOT TO RIDE THE WAVE’

TBY MADDIE SCOTT Staff writer

eenage singer-songwriter

Noah James crafts music from his childhood bedroom in Prairieville. His instruments, including a few guitars, line the wall next to his sticker-covered closet door

James is a TikTok-viral, 18-yearold Baton Rouge native who has already made a name for himself in the country music industry He just got signed by Sony-owned Santa Anna Records in December 2024, based in Nashville, and released his first EP, “The Tracks,” with six songs.

In my mind, I thought this was going to come five years from now,” James said about getting signed. “Never thought at 17 that this would ever even be possible.”

After posting videos of his raw vocals and guitar strumming for three years, James has climbed to almost 300,000 followers on TikTok. He’s most known for his covers of country singer Zach Bryan and his poetic lyrics about love. In Prairieville, his favorite place to write from is his room.

“If I come in here and play, then I’m walking around and playing,”

time to experiment with music.

“One thing we do with homeschooling is we want to nurture each of them wherever their talents lay,” said James’ mother, Tiany Davis. “We knew that we wanted to support him in it, but he really did it all on his own.”

James said he started taking music seriously at age 15, the same time when he started to post videos on TikTok. He taught himself how to play the guitar, and it didn’t take long for his first video to go viral in March 2024 when he covered “Burn, burn, burn” by Zach Bryan. The video has over 150,000 views.

“I got to ride the wave with this,” James said he thought to himself after seeing the success of his video.

In December 2024, he covered another Zach Bryan song that almost has 4 million likes, nearly half of the overall 8.5 million likes on his account. By the time he hit 10,000 followers, he was already skyrocketing to 20,000 followers.

he said.

TikTok fame

James grew up in Prairieville and was constantly around music. His father was a professional jazz player, and being homeschooled with his brothers gave James even more

“I was just posting on TikTok, having fun, just writing songs and hoping someone will like them,” James said. So when Santa Ana Records contacted him in September 2024 with

See JAMES, page 2G

Two La. women turn trailer into mobile bookstore

Chapter Twenty mobile bookstore, which features a cozy interior, will be rolling through local areas.

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Jamey Bearb

uses the same accordion he inherited from his father at 7

Jamey Bearb grew up with strict accordion rules. His dad, Cajun musician Ricky Bearb, demanded the accordion, handmade by pioneer builder Marc Savoy, sit a precise position in its storage box. Even the shoulder strap had its designated place.

Herman Fuselier

Seven-year-old Jamey could practice only in the room where the instrument was stored. Forty years later, he owns the accordion. His father has a big smile.

“The day I got that accordion was the first time we played the (Breaux Bridge) Crawfish Festival in 2022,” said Jamey Bearb, 48, who lives in Judice. “It’s 50 years old, but that thing is in amazing shape. I’ve been playing on it ever since I made all our recordings with that accordion.

“My dad said, ‘I know you would get that accordion eventually But I want to see you enjoy it,’” he said.

The inherited accordion has brought Jamey Bearb another box full of Le Cajuns, annual honors from the Cajun French Music Association. He and the 4 Horses Cajun Dancehall Band claimed Best Accordion, Male Vocalist and Band of the Year honors. Their “Live at La Poussiere, Part 2,” recorded at the 70-year-old dance hall in Breaux Bridge, won Best Traditional CD.

The awards further elevate the 4 Horses all-star lineup, which includes steel guitar ace Richard Comeaux, who toured with the country band River Road. Drummer Kevin Dugas and bass player Brazos Huval are Grammy-nominated alumni of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.

All came together as members of the award-winning High Performance band, but lost gigs as venues shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Practice sessions in Comeaux’s garage became Facebook live shows. The 4 Horses band was born when venues reopened.

This quartet has no fiddle player unusual for a Cajun band and ironic for Jamey Bearb. He rose to prominence as a fiddler and singer with a voice reminiscent of beloved Cajun crooner Belton Richard. Richard mixed poetic, French lyrics and an operaticlike voice, with arrangements flavored with swamp pop, country and early rock ’n’ roll

The sound has inspired him and countless Cajun singers.

“I heard these Belton songs all my life,” said Jamey Bearb, a singer since the age of 10.

“It took me quite a while to be comfortable that I was singing them well enough. That gave me a huge respect for Belton. The songs that he did are very hard to sing.” When Jamey Bearb is not performing, he repairs helicopter instruments and accessories, his first and only full-time job for 25 years. He and his wife Tiffany are parents of two adult children.

The 4 Horses play Festivals Acadiens et Creoles in October in Lafayette They maintain a first- and third-Saturday schedule at La Poussiere and fourthSaturday shows at the Cajuns Event Center in Church Point.

The band plans to continue to inject new life into traditional Cajun music.

“The whole band and I are good at taking the older songs and bringing new arrangements, new ideas to those great songs, with modulation, key changes,” Jamey Bearb said. “We take the songs to another level.”

JAMES

Continued from page 1G

an offer, James and his family and friends were ecstatic.

Poetic lyrics piqued an interest

James didn’t grow up listening to country music. When he began his mission to find his voice, he drew inspiration from pop musicians like Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber Shawn Mendes and Ed Sheeran.

“I’m going to be honest, pop music was not working,” James said with a laugh. “So I got more into Noah Kahan. That’s when I found out about Zach Bryan.”

James fell deeper into country and folk music, discovering musicians like Tyler Childers, Morgan Wallen and most significantly, Zach Bryan. Poetic lyrics piqued James’ interest, he said, which happens to be a lot of Zach Bryan’s discography

Another inspiration is “The Notebook,” a film adaptation set in 1940s South Carolina following two lovers with unapproving parents, and James was actually named after the main character, Noah.

feature it in the intro of “Set Free.”

along with him.

“It’s the best feeling ever,” James said. “The dopamine rush from that is stronger than anything, especially when they start singing the same song with you.” Food, family and culture remain important to James.

“I’m a big nature guy,” he said. “I think the nature around me has influenced me a lot. The people, the culture.”

He admires Louisiana-born musicians who still connect themselves to the state despite hitting fame, like Lainey Wilson and Tim McGraw James loves where he grew up, regularly eating jambalaya, gumbo and crawfish when in season. In Baton Rouge, James is set to perform at 7 p.m. Sept. 18, at The Station Sports Bar and Grill, 4608 Bennington Ave. The show is free to attend, but customers must be 18 years or older to attend.

“Noah and Ally, they both lived different lives,” he said. “She lives a more rich and privileged life, while he lives a more poor [life], and you got to work for everything.” It took James until he was 16 years old to watch the movie, and it immediately became his favorite romance movie. And it motivated the lyrics behind his song “The Tracks,” a song he wrote with his older brother Micah and Micah’s girlfriend.

COUPLE

Continued from page 1G

Baton Rouge Parish School System educator and pastor of Calvary Third and Providence No.

2 Baptist Church in Ethel; Jonathan Coats, principal of Northwestern Elementary School in Zachary; Sandra Adams Douglas, CEO of SOAR Education Consulting LLC; and Briana Coats, registered dietitian and founder of BeWell Foundation.

Mental health will also be part of the conversations.

“A lot of people mentally are suffering There’s a lot of mental health crises that people are not paying attention to,” Steven John-

BOOKSTORE

Continued from page 1G

“We thought how cool it would be to have our own, and we don’t have anything like that in our area. So we started researching, and it all happened very quickly,” Degraw said. Within the hour, Degraw was looking online for possibilities. They found a bus for sale, but soon realized that business model was a little unrealistic. Instead, they found an 8-by-20 race-car trailer that would work as a bookmobile. Degraw’s husband checked it out and brought it home.

“We’ve spent the last month endlessly working on it,” Rowland said.

“It was super crunchy and gross, and now it’s, like, really cozy, and it makes you want to be in there.”

While working on their bookstore-

to-be trailer Degraw and Rowland continued on with their busy lives,

When it comes to experimenting with sound, James is eager to implement different instruments in his music, like the banjo and fiddle. He just learned how to play the harmonica and was quick to

son said.

Fitness is a passion and ministry for the Johnsons, who are both Southern University engineering graduates in addition to being certified personal trainers.

Jacquole Johnson, 39, credits a health coach and others for helping her to healthier habits and a mindset. She says she struggled with her weight, but she lost 30 pounds three years ago and has kept it off since.

She said her transformation was more than physical.

“Only when I started integrating the spiritual side, I looked at health as not just getting into some jeans but also honoring God with my body because our bodies are a temple,” she said. “Wellness is worship.”

including running a balloon decor business, The Clubhouse Balloons and More, together Degraw is also a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her two children, and Rowland is a mom of three who works at Baton Rouge Country Club as a manager Rowland said that they are most proud of actually following through and doing what they set out to do. The women chose natural wood luxury vinyl tile flooring, white shelving, dark green floral wallpaper and a cheerful natural wood door with windows to create a welcoming ambiance.

“We’re very excited that we went through with it so quick and made a vision come to life,” Rowland said. Degraw says that the process of watching a gutted-out trailer with no floors become a

“I got it for Christmas and been trying my best on that,” he said. Next steps, live performances When James sets foot on stage, he says his nerves instantly vanish when he starts to sing. James flies to Nashville about every month, where his record label is based. He’s performed at several venues and remembers the first time, in March at Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row, when the fans in the crowd began to sing his own songs

Steven Johnson, 43, said their focus on physical and spiritual health has led to a healthy marriage after 16 years.

“We see the oneness that God has established through marriage being lived out, and that’s something that I hold near and dear to my heart,” he said. “In the early part of our marriage, we were out of alignment, but thank God we kept the journey.”

He added: “To get to the point of being a Christ-centered organization has come as a result of our trust in God.”

Running the organization together has been a joy for Jacquole Johnson after years of managing a business alone.

His EP includes six songs: n “Set Free” n “Love Run Cold” n “Same Old Things” n “The Tracks” n “Kind Tired Eyes”

Music is a language that everyone speaks, James said, and he wants people to know they’re not alone. He hopes his music can bring people together

“God gave me the gift of music,” James said. “And I’m doing music to inspire and bring a little hope to the world.”

“Like night and day They don’t even compare — just having that support and somebody to lean on,” she said. The Johnsons encourage people to form connections with others instead of experiencing their health journeys in silos.

“God created us to be in community We’re not supposed to be isolated and alone,” he said.

“We’re all about helping meet people where they are. No judgment, all love and encouragement.” For more information on the Ignite and FLXX, go to www flxxwellness.com oreventbrite. com/e/ignite-a-flxx-wellnessexperience-for-educatorstickets-1574218191989.

Contact Terry Robinson at terryrobinson622@gmail.com

Discover blue water, white sandy beaches in Bogalusa

Lake Isabel Farm a short drive and open to the public

BY JOY HOLDEN Staff writer

Crystal clear water is hard to find in Louisiana. Though the state is known for its many waterways, blue is not the color used to describe them. There is one out-ofthe-way spot, though, that challenges reality

Lake Isabel Farm at 54254 Cavenham Road in Bogalusa, features a blue lake that’s about 125 acres, 35 feet deep and a mile long, and is now accessible to the public.

Located 143 miles from Lafayette, 89 miles from Baton Rouge, 19 miles from Covington and 57 miles from New Orleans, Lake Isabel Farm is a quick road trip with a huge payoff — serene blue water among the pines.

The lake, previously a sand and gravel pit, was dredged over a 15-year period to extract sand and gravel from the basin of the Bogue Chitto River to make concrete for local roads and hospitals.

Lake Isabel’s clear water is fed by natural springs, possibly from the same aquifer known for historic healing springs in Abita An outflow at the end of the lake keeps the water constantly circulating, and the lake’s sandy bottom acts as a filter

The water is unclouded and warm, but the temperature decreases as the depth increases — dropping 15 degrees at the deepest part

Anthony Sedlak, a Chicago native, purchased the more than 400 acres in 2021 and moved on-site in 2022 to begin repurposing the property from a gravel pit to a travel destination.

Sedlak says he has been paving the way by constructing roads on nights and weekends, building infrastructure with a neighbor to make Lake Isabel Farm

happen.

“This place is all about having a good time, respecting the environment and trying to get people back in nature because we have such a beautiful state,” Sedlak said.

While Lake Isabel Farm is still under development, Sedlak has creative plans for the mixed-use property. He is trying new ways to make people more comfortable, like by installing cabanas, grills and permanent restrooms — and coming in 2026, future vacation rentals and an events center Sedlak has been deliberate and careful with opening access to the public because he wants to make sure guests and development are impacting the wildlife appropriately

He says the wildlife has actually become more active, including birds, fish and forest animals.

Things to know

The journey to Lake Isabel Farm includes a drive through Covington and eventually a turn onto a winding gravel road.

Signs with directions and greetings dot the road, including one that reminds drivers that the land is private property In order to enter visitors must have proof of online tickets purchased in advance.

When driving upon the property, the blue water appears on the left and promises recreation and relaxation.

A few things to note when preparing for a day at Lake

Isabel Farm:

n Pack for a day at the beach, including swimsuits, flotation devices, beach chairs, umbrellas, canopies, food and drinks. Bring enough water Glass is not allowed.

n The lake is open for beach days on Saturdays and Sundays. At times, other days of the week/holidays are added to the calendar

n Turquoise beach chairs are available for lounging.

n Propane grills with gas and cooking utensils are available for cooking.

n Kayaks and life vests are available, but visitors can bring their own.

n For restroom access, a deluxe porta-potty with a sink is available.

n Fishing for bass and cat-

fish is available The fishing area is on the opposite side of the lake from the beach. Fishing poles must stay in the designated area.

n Three solar-powered cabanas for large groups are available, and include fans, furniture, shade and a large ice chest with ice.

n There is no lifeguard on duty, so make sure to be prepared to swim at your own risk. Anyone who cannot swim must use appropriate flotation devices. Parents must supervise children swimming at all times. There is a diving platform in the deeper water Children on the diving platform must always be supervised by an adult who is out on the platform with them.

n There is a beach volleyball court.

n There is a 3-mile walking track around the lake.

n No dogs/pets are allowed.

n Anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult. No exceptions. Sedlak asks that all visitors keep Lake Isabel beautiful by cleaning up all garbage and being respectful of the nature conservation areas that are being restored.

Reserving a visit

Visiting Lake Isabel Farm means packing and planning ahead of time. Tickets can only be purchased online and in advance at www.tixtree.com/o/lakeisabelfarm. Daily sales end two hours before close. Tickets have been selling out three weeks in advance, so check ahead and purchase spots well ahead of time. Be prepared to show tickets for all guests, as anyone on the property is required to have a valid ticket. The reservation model is a little different because guests are capped at 85 people per day to preserve comfort for guests and protect the natural beauty of the beach.

Prices vary according to holiday or season, but currently, children under the age of 3 are free, adult tick-