Rhino has two volumes of New Orleans party classics which has a nice range of rollicking New Orleans R&B including Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith and some later (somewhat funkier) tunes. But it's a good way to check out a variety of musicians in that style.

I have and recommend Vol. 1, which I think of as more "Mardi Gras music" than NOLA R&R.

I can't recommend Irma Thomas too highly -- she deserves to be ranked alongside Etta James and Aretha Franklin. But Irma is definitely soul, not R&R.

As far as NOLA R&R goes, I'll just second (and third, and fourth, and fifth) Fats Domino and the Clowns. Clarence "Frogman" Henry is primarily novelty value, which isn't a bad thing.

Don't forget the Wild Tchoupitoulas.

Clarence "Frogman" Henry is primarily novelty value

Novelty?! Because he sings like a girl? Because he sings like a frog?

Here's another interesting site about New Orleans.

In general I don't feel comfortable putting down clear lines of demarcation, and saying where something starts and something ends in the big gumbo of New Orleans is even more arbitrary, IMHO.

Don't forget the Wild Tchoupitoulas.

Case in point. You have Mardi Gras Indians backed by the Meters, the age old call-and-response tradition up against the (at the time) cutting edge of the city's funk. Clear distinctions, right? Well, not really. The repertoire was Mardi Gras standards, but some were pretty new standards like the Meters' "Hey Pocky Way". Which was of course heavily influenced by the tradition. And Meter Art Neville had recorded "Mardi Gras Mambo" over twenty years earlier. And Big Chief Jolly was the Neville Bros. uncle. Where does influence start and end? Is Longhair NOLA r&b or Mardi Gras music? His playing is in Domino's playing, and the intro to "Don't You Just Know It" is either a Fess rip or homage depending on how you want to hear it. It also was a huge influence on Toussaint, who wrote, produced, arranged, and played on the records that made Irma Thomas's career. I definitely see evolutions, but very few clear breaks. Even Little Richard -- how the hell did I forget him earlier! -- who seems like an easy place to say "here's a break," recorded with much of Domino's band and bandleader. I'm too lazy or too something to wax taxonomic. I like the gross distinctions: bad/good.

I am now listening to CCR's "Travelin' Band" from their album Cosmo's Factory, which takes its name from Cosimo Matassa's New Orleans studio where Little Richard recorded "Long Tall Sally" and other hits. If you don't have a copy of Greil Marcus's Mystery Train I highly recommend going to Amazon.com and taking advantage of the Search Inside feature. Pull up Mystery Train and search for either Cavett or Creedence. The story starts with Cavett, but Creedence will give you the pertinent part, Little Richard ranting on the Dick Cavett show:

"WHY, YES, IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF AAAART! THAT'S RIGHT! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! WHAT DO YOU KNOW, MR. CRITIC? WHY, WHEN THE CREEDENCE CLEARWATER PUT OUT WITH THEIR 'TRAVELIN' BAND' EVERYBODY SAY WHEEE-OOO BUT I KNOW IT CAUSE THEY ONLY DOING 'LONG TALL SALLY JUST LIKE THE BEATLES ANDTHESTONESANDTOMJONESANDELVIS--I AM ALL OF IT, LITTLE RICHARD HIMSELF, VERY TRULY THE GREATEST, THE HANDSOMEST, AND NOW TO YOU (to Segal, who now appears to be on the floor) AND TO YOU (to Simon, who looks to Cavett as if to say, really old man, this has been fun, but this, ah, fellow is becoming a bit much, perhaps a commercial is in order?), I HAVE WRITTEN A BOOK, MYSELF, IAM A WRITER, I HAVE WRITTEN A BOOK AND IT'S CALLED---

"'HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED BUT HE LOST WHAT HE HAD' THAT'S IT! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED BUT HE LOST WHAT HE HAD! THE STORY OF MY LIFE! CAN YOU DIG IT? THAT'S MY BOY LITTLE RICHARD, SURE IS. OO MAH SOUL!" [ASSCAPS Marcus's]

Corwood, for the better part of twenty years Eliot and I have been yelling at each other "'HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED BUT HE LOST WHAT HE HAD' SHUT UP! SHUT UP! HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED BUT HE LOST WHAT HE HAD!" And, yes, it is effin' great.

(edited to fix rogue italics tag)

Nilsson sings Newman does sound lovely.

Is it generally assumed that Nilsson's posthumous album is unreleasable garbage?

Corwood, for the better part of twenty years Eliot and I have been yelling at each other "'HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED BUT HE LOST WHAT HE HAD' SHUT UP! SHUT UP! HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED BUT HE LOST WHAT HE HAD!" And, yes, it is effin' great.

Ha!

I second the recommendation of Mystery Train, which is one of Marcus's best books.

David, Bo Diddley will be on the Leonard Lopate show today. In addition to music by Himself I recommend the Animals' "The Story of Bo Diddley". Another of my favorite refrains throughout the years has been Bo's maracas player Jerome Green's (as played here by Eric Burdon) response to Bo/Eric's query, "What do you think of these guys doin our, our material?": "Uh, where's the bar, man. Please show me to the bar." Useful in almost any circumstance.

DX, thanks for the edit. Sorry about that.

A belated comment on the "conservative song list" Lyra Jane linked to. The writer puts "Sweet Home Alabama" on his list, quotes the lines "In Birmingham they love the gov’nor/Now we all did what we could do/ Now Watergate does not bother me/Does your conscience bother you?," and comments, "It is worth remembering that the governor of Alabama at this time was George Wallace. And with the song coming out in August 1974, just as Richard Nixon was forced to resign the presidency because of Watergate, the line about that alone makes it a conservative classic." Perhaps I'm reading it wrong but he seems to be conflating Ronnie's indifference to Watergate (which the writer clearly supports) with Birminghamians' love of Wallace (hey, Skynyrd supports "states' rights" wink wink nudge nudge excellent!) First, "they" love the gov'nor; Van Zandt explicitly states that Watergate doesn't bother him him but he does NOT say that he likes Wallace & his agenda. Second, the writer neglects to mention that the back up singers respond to "In Birmingham they love the gov’nor" with a loud and clear "BOO! BOO! BOO!" If the writer wants to continue to support the race-baiting that "conservatives" (his term) used, some as true believers, some as a cynical political ploy, to move the "solid South" from solidly Democrat to a GOP hammerlock that's his business, but to try to smear Lynyrd Skynyrd (not that he considers it a smear) with his misreading of a great song is wrong, wrong, wrong. The song doesn't say, "hey, Neil Young, screw you if you have a problem with lynching," it says, "hey, Neil, screw you if you think we're all just a bunch of murdering bigots. Yeah, some people love Wallace, but some of us are gonna boo him BECAUSE we love the South." And in a top 10 hit no less. At least that's how my Yankee ears hear it. Corwood, you're an Alabama native, right? Any comments?

I agree 100%. Lynyrd Skynyrd were neither racists nor Republicans. Heck, the Drive-By Truckers wrote a whole rock opera debunking that idea (i.e. Southern Rock Opera).

t drive-by

Steph! I went and saw Lyle Lovett for the first time night before last (at Ravinia in the North Chicago suburbs - you can bring coolers and chairs and whatever if you have lawn seats. I have NEVER seen so much brie and expensive stemware and boutique grocery store take-out packages in one place, omg) and thought of you. He was FANTASTIC. He sang with a native Chicagoan woman - Francine somebody - who was stunning. He said it was the first time the band (what is it the Very Large band?) had performed together in a long time. I'm not familiar with him (obviously) but he played the one song of his I looove "Penguins". And lots of gospel and lots of great stories and he looked great.

So anyway, that's my super un-specific report on seeing Lyle Lovett.

Hec, the check is in the mail!

Right on with the Lynrd Skynrd not being racists thing, too - I know lots of crazy Neil Young fans who will go on and on about how they hate Skynrd because of that ONE line. Uhm, I love Neil but you can't have some Canadian dude diss your whole hometown region and not say something about it. Come on.

t /drive-by

Right on with the Lynrd Skynrd not being racists thing, too - I know lots of crazy Neil Young fans who will go on and on about how they hate Skynrd because of that ONE line. Uhm, I love Neil but you can't have some Canadian dude diss your whole hometown region and not say something about it. Come on.

That's nuts. Neil was a huge Skynyrd fan, and really respected them. He even played "Sweet Home Alabama" on stage with them at least once.