The Not-Pop Jukebox

For a Friday flash post, let me share with you the sort of thing I love for a band to do. Let's Get Funky and Blanc Garcon go in two utterly different directions. For someone familiar with the scrungy, filthy grunts of the former the latter was a total zydeco surprise. I listen to full albums for new bands whenever possible because I never know when one of them will pull just this sort of switcheroo. Enjoy!

Some people might be ready for drinks and a night out, but I'm offering you instead a steaming heap of Jambalaya, chock full of bayou sass and made by everyone from Hank Williams to The Carpenters. Should that not be enough to tempt you I also threw in a crazy helping of Brenda Lee, the essential seasoning of Clifton Chenier with spoons in hand, and the unexpected flavor of Los Felinos.

"But," you say, "what about that well-known Cajun swingster, Harry Connick, Jr.?" He's in there, too, with a side of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival to whet your appetite. Jeff Healey brings the bite of serious boogie and then The Residents balance the recipe with a creepy take on the whole concept.

All together I've assembled fourteen ingredients to make one enormous pot of Jambalaya (On the Bayou). Dip in and have a taste. I won't blame you a bit if you eat the whole thing, though this is one meal that will likely leave you starving when you've finished dancing your way through it. If I've missed your favorite cover, I'd love to know who performed it.

Here a rockin', brass-filled cover of Sugar Blues for you all of an evening. If you're unfamiliar with the song you can find covers by all sorts of folks but this one pushes all my happy buttons so I'm sharing it with you all. If you prefer another (or if you happen to know who recorded the original), please do let me know.

Many moons ago, when the Del McCoury Band and the Perservation Hall Jazz Band released their album "American Legacies", I posted the only song I could find on-line at the time, Jambalaya. Mullensburg Joys, however, was the song that I desperately wanted to share with you.

Even if you're a fan of neither bluegrass nor Dixieland jazz, you have to be amazed at how the two styles merge into one fantastic, enormous band of awesome. Now, it just so happens that part of the reason I wanted to share this song was the whole reason that they recorded it in the first place: it's known by nearly identical names in either genre and is a standard in both. That's your daily dose of music education and horns, all in one post. Happy Tuesday!

For Friday, let's have the answer to yet another (not) oft-asked question: what do you get if you cross Cajun and Latin music? Naturally, the answer is The Iguanas. I'm not entirely sure who took the wheels off of Benny's Cadillac, but apparently he's not getting them back. Have a listen and see if you can enlighten me, once you've stopped dancing.

In any given day I listen to a lot of dreck. You know I wander in the bizarre backwaters of music. Often a song makes me click away with all the haste of a frigid spinster faced with a porn pop-up. Less often something makes me say "ooh" only to fall apart after the opening riff.

Every once in a while, however, I find something that grabs me. Those are the things I bring to you, my dears, the ones that keep me grooving, the musicians who deserve another listen because they're doing something grand. Today, Ghosts of Dixie did that for me so I'm sharing them with you.

They've only got four songs on ReverbNataion but you can download them for free. To entice you to listen I've only included Malicious here. It's got a nasty little beat, a minute-long instrumental intro, and some voodoo-licious lyrics for some swamp-boogie goodness. You can't ask for a lot more than that on a Sunday morning, now can you?

If only all of Delbert McClinton's music gave me rockin' horns, a chorus of backup singers, and the rest of the fun that Hammerhead Stew offers I'd have posted him a dozen times by now. The trick with Mr. McClinton is that you never know what a song is going to sound like when you give him a listen.

Sometimes it's country, sometimes more cajun-flavored, and sometimes a great semi-soul, rock-and-roll romp like this. But keeping someone guessing is a great way to keep them trying your music, right?

If you're not familiar with Delbert McClinton, have a listen to Hammerhead Stew and do search out more from him. And if you're already a fan, give me some more fun recommendations, would you?

I've spent an inordinate amount of time on TastemakerX of late, finding new bands. ("What is TastemakerX?" you ask? Click over to find out and learn how to get started. There's no referral program so I'm not getting any sort of personal benefit out of it. I just think it's a nifty site.)

The point I mean to make was that today I bumped into Soul Rebels over there and wanted to share Let It Roll as both an example of the musical byways I've been going down and an example of some loose hip hop backed by a brass band that had me smiling.

The band seems to be having an awful lot of fun, though I can't help but wonder how many people are in the group, unless they all stopped playing their instruments for the call and answer portion. What I found of Soul Rebels on Grooveshark was inconsistent and somewhat...awkward. The band falls firmly into what I term jazz hop, however, with fine company like Spekulation and Janelle Monae.

Have a listen to Let It Roll. If you like it, wander over and try Shake Something (which is much smoother) or Funky Rebel (which is three-quarters instrumental). Let me know what you think, if you would be so kind.

It's high time you all boogied down with Clifton Chenier. I haven't posted a single thing from him this year and here it's almost half gone! So for this lovely summer evening go Ride 'Em Cowboy and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow I'll have something a little more timely.

It came to my attention recently that I own an inordinate number of songs about unclean water. I don't even much like some of them much but, once I started looking, I found a dozen songs about Muddy Water, Dirty Water, and Black Water.

Some of these were big hits (The Standells and The Doobie Brothers, for instance) and some are covers of others (The Inmates and The Dropkick Murphys, both covering The Standells' Dirty Water). But you'll find some great songs with the same names, like Aretha Franklin's and Keb' Mo's Muddy Water, which are completely different--and wonderful--songs.

I have all sorts of genres and ages in this list so you should be able to find something great to love. Don't miss Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds with their melancholy drag and Tuba Skinny (not the same as Trombone Shorty, my dears). And be sure to catch Watermelon Slim & the Workers while you're listening. Aw, heck, just listen to all fourteen.

People seem so taken with my recent post of CJ Chenier's Zydeco Christmas that I thought I'd find some more zydeco songs for the holidays. For this chilly, almost-Christmas Wednesday, enjoy Michael McDonald and Aaron Neville performing Christmas on the Bayou and Louisiana Christmas Day, respectively. If that doesn't fill your daily quota of accordion then there's just no helping you. Happy solstice!

Just about everyone who knows anything about Zydeco knows the name Clifton Chenier. A lot of folks don't realize that he had a son who has continued the rollicking zydeco tradition. The son's name is CJ and he just released a new album about six weeks ago. I'd like to post one of those tracks, namely the title track of the CD, "Can't Sit Down", but none of them show up anywhere to embed right now.

As it's Black Friday, the official start of the holiday season, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone today with Zydeco Christmas. This song gives you great zydeco, a taste of CJ Chenier's sound, and a much more fun holiday task than fighting bloodthirsty crowds trying to save 27% on a thing they don't even need. Make some gumbo, dance around the kitchen, and enjoy this blast of zydeco flavor. If and when I get my digital fingers on the new album I'll definitely share.

In the interests of trying out alternative players, I bring you today Tuba Skinny and their album "Garbage Man". It's essentially what you would get if Squirrel Nut Zippers played a little more Dixieland. That means plenty of oom-pah tube and a lot of zesty horns and strings. If you only pick one to enjoy, make it the first track, Broken Hearted Blues about which the band seems awfully happy, or Minor Drag which isn't.

You can buy the tracks directly from the site, a buck apiece or $10 for the dozen. Let me know what you think. Share whether the player works, as well. It's pretty nifty.

I have a penchant for creating play lists based on song titles. One of those lists includes all of the songs I own that have a number in the title, about 200 songs at the moment. I thought I’d make up a list for you today that includes songs for which the titles begin with the numbers one through ten, just because I can.

Let’s make a little story of them, shall we? We’ll start with One More Shot from Lonnie Brooks, follow it with Two More Bottles of Wine from Delbert McClinton, and by then we’ll be hearing Three Little Birds, Bob Marley style and blowing in the Four Winds with The Killers.

So you’re playing Five Card Stud with Buckwheat Zydeco instead of getting ready for Six Days on the Road with Taj Mahal (or The Flying Burrito Brothers). You feel like a Seven Day Fool, just like Etta James, Eight Miles High with The Byrds, like it’s Nine in the Afternoon and there’s a Panic at the Disco. The only thing for it is to cool out at 10 Ritchie Drive with Gene Krupa. Dig?

For those of you unaware, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band has recorded an album with The Del McCoury Band called "American Legacies" which you can download in full from Amazon for a mere five bucks. And why would you? Because you probably don't realize how closely New Orleans Jazz and bluegrass are linked until you listen to the album. In fact, the reason I heard of the "American Legacies" in the first place was the fantastic interviews and liver performances on World Cafe the other day. I've been searching ever since for a great example to include here. This performance of Jambalaya had the best sound and video quality of the group I found plus it's an old Hank Williams tune they talk about in the interview. If you like this one, have a listen to Mullensberg Joys (or Milenberg Joys, depending which genre you ask). If I can find the studio recordings uploaded somewhere to share I'll certainly be posting more.

I thought we could keep with the dancing theme but go a very different direction with it today. And so I offer you the cajun/reggae/bluegrass jam band Leftover Salmon and their ever-so-fun Dance on Your Head. If you like this one try Funky Mountain Fogdown and Zombie Breakdown which you can, of course, find on Grooveshark.

Let's get moving, people! It's far too quiet in here. I know precisely what you need: some massive boogie-woogie. Thankfully Dr. John has produced just that with Mac's Boogie and I've got it right here for you. Now get up, people, shake off those staring-at-the-screen doldrums and shake your groove thing. Heck, shake your tail feathers! You know you can't just sit around, hoping that the Internet will feed you your fun. Make sure your boss is out of earshot and crank this baby up, boys and girls. It's good fun for a Tuesday afternoon and sure to shake up your routine if nothing else. You can never get enough piano boogie, can you?

When I decided to continue the creole theme today, I was stunned to realize that I've never posted any Buckwheat Zydeco for you, the fine folks who keep me dedicated to The NPJ. I'm rectifying that oversight today, with a live jam from twenty years ago. This particular video includes him playing Ya Ya with the Neville Brothers, a song that I enjoy no matter the performer, but this version is particularly zippy and fun. I wanted to use the Buckwheat Zydeco version of Hey, Good Lookin', but we're due for another video and the only one available has been blocked by the ever-helpful folks at Universal, who are apparently more interested in copyright protection than gaining new listeners for their artists. Enjoy this cover version of Ya Ya while I go and put my soapbox away.

Some songs just make you feel good. Louis Armstrong's Hellzapoppin' happens to be one of them - a great little Dixieland number about partying all night long. The song was the opener for a risque Broadway musical in the late 1930s and a movie of the same name released in 1941, neither of which involved Louis Armstrong as far as I can tell, but if the song is any indication of how much fun the full production was to watch I can understand why it ran for so long. I know that some of the lyrics for that show were written by Oscar Hammerstein, but I couldn't find any specific information on whether Hellzapoppin' was one of them.

None of that really matters, though, if you just like a good song. If you're a fan of Louis Armstrong or Dixieland, I hope you'll like this one as much as I do.

Ferraby Lionheart's best song, period. Most of his music meanders and wallows a bit much for my taste, but Before We're Dead has a Dixieland, Beatle-esque thing going that gets me tapping my toes every time. This one is a musical pile of fun, and Mr. Lionheart hearkens back to the day when people routinely used stage names because someone (the performer or some smarmy biz exec somewhere) thought the real name was too...something. I must admit that Ferraby Lionheart elicits more curiosity than Mike Jones (for instance). While you ought not judge a band or artist by its name, let's be honest and admit that we all do it from time to time. Ferraby's got a hook, so why not use it?