Hot from the A.V. Club labs, we present the latest in our scientifically tested... Oh, screw it. The New Orleans situation is just too upsetting for the kind of braggadocio normally used to introduce these pieces. So let's skip it. Instead, consider this list of songs about and from New Orleans, culled with heavy assistance from Shout! Factory's 2004 box set Professors, Doctors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol' Box Of New Orleans. Incidentally, for the rest of the year, the label will donate all profits from web sales of that set to the Red Cross, so check it out at shoutfactory.com.
This mix list is a virtual tribute album to the city. But instead of getting the actual songs, you get a lot of words, and instead of knowing that a portion of the CD price will go to charity, you'll have to make that effort yourself. Here's another great place to start: the Network For Good (networkforgood.org). Our suggestion: Give generously while listening to this collection of songs made possible by one of the once and future cornerstones of American music.
1. Louis Armstrong, "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?" (available on Pops: The 1940's Small-Band Sides)
The story of New Orleans music neither begins nor ends with Louis Armstrong, but without him, it would lack a figurehead. Armstrong added his own spin to the sounds of his city, then took them to the world. With this song, he paid tribute to his home town on a track that's simultaneously sentimental and joyous. In other words, pure Armstrong.
2. Lil' Queenie & The Percolators, "My Darlin' New Orleans" (available on Professors, Doctors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol' Box Of New Orleans)
Though Lil' Queenie and her band The Percolators were as revered as The Meters or The Neville Brothers, they left behind only one single when they retired in the early '80s. But what a single! The Percolators lay down a quintessential Crescent City foundation—piano, trap drums, Dixieland brass, and xylophone—while Lil' Queenie veers from a woozy travelogue to sultry Afro-Cuban chanting. It's the sound of Queenie and the boys strolling down Bourbon Street, stopping at every bar to dance a little and drink a little.
3. Dave Bartholomew, "Shrimp And Gumbo" (available on The Big Beat Of Dave Bartholomew: 20 Of His Milestone New Orleans Productions 1949-1960)
The clatter of percussion and searing-hot horns that distinguish this 1956 cult hit recreate the giddy chaos of a city street at lunch hour, as Bartholomew announces his wares: "Gumbo! Filé! Shrimp! Crab!" And did he just say "Mambo"? Whether he said it or not, he's clearly got a larder full of the stuff.
4. Clifton Chenier, "Jambalaya" (available on The King Of Zydeco Live At Montreux)
Hank Williams wrote the song, but Chenier understood it. The undisputed King Of Zydeco and his pumping accordion drive Williams' à la carte menu across Louisiana, picking up flavors of the city, country, and bayou, on the way to a chow-down by the lake.
5. Dr. John, "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya-Ya" (available on Gris-Gris)
Later to become one of the torchbearers of traditional New Orleans R&B, Dr. John made his solo debut with an album that joined bayou mysticism with hippie psychedelia, never better than on this track. Over chants and a trippy drum beat, the good doctor claims to have the cure for what ails his audience somewhere in his sack of potions. It might be bad medicine, but it's sure to have some effect.
6. Boozoo Chavis, "Dog Hill" (available on Boozoo Chavis)
Rock 'N' Bowl regular Chavis was one of the architects of the zydeco sound in the '50s, and he returned to it in the '80s when a general interest in all things Orleans made the style popular again. This second-wind stomper pays tribute to the Lake Charles community, "where the pretty women at." The incessant barking is apparently a compliment.
7. Leadbelly, "New Orleans (The Rising Sun Blues)" (available on Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Leadbelly Legacy Vol. 1)
Leadbelly's version of this venerable song was neither the first nor the most famous, but there's something direct and sad about his delivery that makes this take on the cautionary tale one of the best. Never mind that it should be a woman warning her sister away from the whorehouse that's ruined her life; Leadbelly's resignation in the final verse has a chill of its own.
8. Jelly Roll Morton, "New Orleans Bump" (available on Jazz King Of New Orleans)
An early jazz giant, Morton knew whereof he wrote when he penned this ominous, almost sleazy tribute to his hometown, where he once worked as the in-house pianist for Storyville bordellos at the tender age of 10.
9. Bluerunners, "Coulee Rodair" (available on Honey Slides)
Since the '40s, New Orleans' dominant sound has drawn equally from black spirituals, French café ballads, and hillbilly stomp. From the '70s onward, southern rock and funk added thicker textures. For more than a decade, Bluerunners have ladled from this musical stew, primarily mixing Southern boogie with punchy zydeco. On the bayou-mired "Coulee Rodair," the band achieves an offhanded, blissed-out grace, as the accordion and slide guitar half-dance, half-stumble around each other.
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