The Hawketts “Mardi Gras Mambo” (1954)
If I had to pick just one song heard throughout the city of New Orleans in the days and weeks leading up to Mardi Gras, that was both the most ubiquitous and the most universally adored, I think it would have to be ‘Mardi Gras Mambo’ by The Hawketts. Everybody... Read More
Louis Armstrong “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans”
Satchmo posed the enduring question: Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? Can you conjure the sound of the Streetcar clickety-clacking it’s way up St. Charles Avenue? Could you spend hours listening to a brass band play both in a crowded club on Frenchmen Street or sitting alone in Jackson Square? Do you... Read More
Kermit Ruffins “Drop Me Off In New Orleans”
As part of their 2018 series marking the tricentennial of the city of New Orleans and highlighting “300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans”, The Times-Picayune, the city’s local newspaper, ran a feature on beloved local trumpeter... Read More
The Meters “Cissy Strut” (1969)
If you like New Orleans music, you surely owe something to The Meters. If you enjoy funk music, you undoubtedly owe a lot to The Meters. And if you revel in New Orleans funk music, well, you pretty much owe it all to The Meters. This is the... Read More
Buckwheat Zydeco “Zydeco Boogaloo” (1984)
This site is called So Much Great Music because that’s really how I feel; there’s just too much great stuff out there, both past and present, to be pigeon-holed into only one or two music genres, or to just a few artists within a given genre. Now, I’m not saying I like everything: regular readers...... Read More
Professor Longhair “Big Chief”
I’d never heard of Professor Longhair before going away to college. I mean really, who the hell growing up pretty much anyplace outside of New Orleans would have? But down there he was a living legend. Only not for long. The living part, that is. He died of a heart attack in 1980, less than...... Read More
The Dungeon // Fatboy Slim “The Rockafeller Skank” (1998)
The word ‘literally’ is literally misused most of the time. Generally when you hear it spoken it’s for emphasis and not to be taken, well, literally. Still, on a night in 2001 in the joyous city of New Orleans, I literally…literally…thought I was going to die. There are a lot of great bars in New...... Read More
Dr. John “Such A Night” (1978)
Whether performed by Dr. John or Mac Rebennack, "Such A Night" from The Last Waltz was unforgettable by any name.... Read More