New Orleans 6 : Bob Dylan Oh Mercy

I won this album when it was first released in 1989.  I was cooking Sunday dinner and Mike Hosking was on the radio and the album Oh Mercy was up for grabs.  All I had to do was answer the question; What motorcycle gang is Bob Dylan most associated with?

In 1989, like a lot of people, I had pretty much given up hope on Dylan producing another good album.  If I had not won the album I would not have bought it.

But I am glad I won it.  It was recorded in New Orleans and it has a certain funky feel. It also seems to have marked the start of that lazy swagger that has been a feature of Dylan's later work.


Most importantly it is a collection of excellent songs, Political World, Everything is Broken (I love this version by the great RL Burnside)  and What Was it You Wanted are Dylan at the top of his game.  He clearly needed New Orleans to regain his mojo.

New Orleans 5 : Louis Armstrong Sings WC Handy

A marriage of Memphis's king of the blues and New Orleans' most famous son, Louis Armstrong Plays WC Handy is Louis bluesiest recording.

Recognised as a mid career high I was delighted when I was able to replace my CD with an almost immaculate 50 year old piece of vinyl.  OK it's got a bit of a warp but I can't hear it.

The New Orlean's classic Careless Love is converted to Loveless Love but it also contains classics Long Gone, Beale St Blues and The Memphis Blues. 

New Orleans 4 : Randy Newman : Land of Dreams

While Randy Newman was born in LA he was raised in New Orleans where his mother was a native and went home while his father was at war.  Newman tells the story of the first few years of his life in his own style on the first three tracks of his under-rated Land of Dreams album.

From Dixie Flyer through New Orleans Wins The War to the harrowing tale of his first day of school in Four Eyes - you get a real picture of how New Orleans played a part in Newman's unique world view.

The album loses its way a little in the middle (although I enjoy the humour in Falling In Love and the menace in Red Bandana) but it finishes strongly with It's Money that Matters and I Want You to Hurt Like I Do - two songs as good and as bitter as anything he has ever done.

New Orleans Wins The War

Don't remember much about my baby days
But I been told

We used to live on Willow near the Garden District

Next to the Sugar Bowl

Momma used to wheel me past an ice cream wagon

One side for White and one side for Colored

I remember trash cans floatin' down Canal Street

It rained every day one summer

Momma used to take me to Audubon Park

Show me the ways of the world

She said "here comes a white boy there goes a black one,

that one's an octoroon

This little cookie here's a macaroon, that big round thing's

a red balloon

And the paper down here's called the Picayune

And here's a New Orleans tune"

In 1948 my Daddy came to the city

Told the people that they'd won the war

Maybe they'd heard it, maybe not

Probably they'd heard it and just forgot

'Cause they built him a platform there in Jackson Square

And the people came to hear him from everywhere

They started to party and they partied some more

'Cause New Orleans had won the war

(We knew we'd do it, we done whipped the Yankees)

Daddy said, "I'm gonna get this boy out of this place

Bound to sap his strength

People have fun here, and I think that they should

But nobody from here every come to no good

They're gonna pickle him in brandy and tell him he's saved

Then throw fireworks all 'round his grave"

So he took us down to the airport, and flew us back to L.A.

That was the end of my baby days

Blue blue morning, blue blue day

All your bad dreams drift away

It's a blue blue morning, of a blue blue day

Lose those bad dreams

Those gray clouds above you, what you want them around

with you for?

You got someone to love you

Who could ask for more?

It's a blue blue morning, of a blue blue day

All your bad dreams drift away

New Orleans 3 : Dr John - Gumbo, City that Care Forgot, Going Back to New Orleans.

In terms of actually sitting down and deliberately listening to music from The Big Easy it really started for me about 30 years ago with Dr John's Gumbo.  Even then it was a bit of an eccentric re-release but with covers of Iko Iko (which was a pop hit at the time for some squeeky clean act), Junko Partner and Stack A Lee, (perhaps The Clash had been listening to the album when they were recording London Calling) and most importantly some covers of Professor Longhair and Huey Piano Smith.






Ten years after I bought Gumbo we were living in Taupo and Jan bought me Going Back to New Orleans on CD (I later managed to get a rare vinyl version) when the good Doctor released what was then his second tribute to his home town.  This album has quite a different feel to Gumbo, presenting big (N'alinz" band arrangements of classics associated with the town.  Careless Love, Basin Street Blues, How Come My Dog Don't Bark When You Come Around, Good Night Irene, Cabbage Head and Blue Monday.  I played this album pretty solidly for a year and love how it all flows together.

After consciously avoiding recording albums in and about New Orleans until Going Back, Mac seemed to have a change of heart after that and many of his albums since then notably Creole Moon and N'Awlinz, Dis, Dat or the Other have the city's vibe all over them.  However like it did with so many other artists Hurricane Katrina seemed to breathe new life into him - pushed by a sense of anger and frustration at the slow recovery to the disaster and the impact it had on many of his friends and musicians.    City that Care Forgot  was the immediate result a terrific return to form where even Eric Clapton manages to seem inspired.

Highlights for me are the title track, My People Need a Second Line (with Trombone Shorty), Time for A Change and Promises Promises

New Orleans 2 : Allen Toussaint : Southern Nights

Allen Toussaint was a name that kept cropping up on production credits (The Band, Little Feat etc) but it was sometime before I bought original music for him. It was then I realised some of my the great songs that were written by him.  he cropped up again and again on Treme as one of the living classics.

Some of his better known songs include Freedom for the Stallion but the Hues Corporation and On Your Way Down which I always thought was an old blues classic.

This was a pretty influential album - some gentle N'awlinz hussle from Allen Toussaint - it spawned mainstream hits for Glenn Campbell with the title track and Boz Scaggs with What Do You Want the Girl to Do.  Its worth digging a bit deeper on the album for the other gems including Last Train and Back in Baby's Arms.