“a fine, rich gumbo of vintage-sounding blues with local R&B seasoning”
Blue Moon Marquee's Scream, Holler & How topped the best-of list I did for Blues Music Magazine in 2022. The Canadian duo, A.W Cardinal on guitar and vocals and Jasmine Colette on vocals and stand-up bass, now have a follow-up release, New Orleans Sessions, which is likely to top my 2024 list as well. Having been cut in the fabled Crescent City, the ten tracks are a fine, rich gumbo of vintage-sounding blues with local R&B seasoning.
The sessions were spooled at Bigtone Studios, a facility - judging by the results - that lives up to its name. In a press handout, Cardinal and Colette say the songs were cut live on the floor over just a two-day period. They would "run the song once or twice and hit record, play the song two or three times and that's what you got." Just as the "less is more" credo worked for producer Willie Dixon on scores of classic Chess sessions, it works here.
The album opens with Colette performing an old Memphis Minnie tune, "Black Rat Swing." She gives it a quick pacing, backed by B.C. Coogan on piano and banny Abrams on baritone sax. It's a revved start for a mostly up-tempo album. She and Cardinal then shift to call and response for a run-through of Leadbelly's "Ain't Goin' Down," followed by a cover of Bo Carter's wet-brained celebration "Let's Get Drunk Again."
Then there's a sax-honking, raucous take of Charley Patton's "Shake It And Break It (My Jelly, My Roll, Sweet Mama)," followed by Blue Moon Marquee's original "Trickster Coyote," with producer Jon Atkinson doubling on harmonica.
The duo's first slower-paced tune, "What I Wouldn't Do," follows. It's a heart-tugger, with Cardinal on the vocal and Coogan accompanying on late-night, lounge-sounding piano. The band's one YouTube video in support of the album features this song, playing over a "spare-every-expense" constant shot of an old pickup truck. It works just fine.
The other change of pace is the classic "Saint James Infirmary," a tune recorded by artists from Louis Armstrong to Eric Burdon. Easily hundreds, maybe thousands, have sung the blues about seeing "my baby there, stretched out on a long white table, so cold, so sweet, so fair." Cardinal brings a sad, bitter, "pour-me-another, bartender" vocal to it. The album then wraps with a version of Robert Pete Williams' "I Got The Blues So Bad." But in this case it's all good.
Bill Wasserzieher, Blues Music Magazine