Ok! After wading through the carnage of Sunday night’s installment of Musician, Mentors, and Barroom Heroes, this was our playlist, approximately. (The second half of the program mostly consisted of people frantically yelling at me to find songs I’d never heard of, me cursing out various electronic devices, everybody staying properly hydrated, and all of us getting distracted by the best [i.e. dirtiest] stories once we were off-air. Ah, would that the FCC would take a holiday…)
The stuff that isn’t on Spotify is listed below. Thanks again to Nervous Duane, Michael Darby, and Smitti Supab for the vittles and for being exactly the kind of “special guests” one wants when trying to recreate the atmosphere of Checkpoint Charlie’s in radio show format. Tune in this week to hear from “The Incomparable” Judy Hill and (The Incorrigible) James Andrews (haha.) It’ll be an all-local playlist, including tracks by Jessie Hill, James Andrews and the Crescent City All-Stars, Trumpet Black & The Heart Attacks, and more. Pour yourself a drink or six and kick back, things get wild when this dynamic aunt-and-nephew duo start spinning yarns and telling tales.
1. “Drinker’s Choice” – Augie Jr. & the Big Mess Blues Band.
2. “Self-Drivin’” – Nervous Duane (live!)
3. “I Am A Positive Person” – Nervous Duane (alive!) (This tune and previous on Duane’s upcoming album, out soon!)
4. “Los Peces” – Lhasa de Sela. Multilingual crooner who Nervous played with in Montreal, my old homebase. One of my new favorite artists.
5. “My Name” – Llasa de Sela, one of her anglais numbers.
6. “Moldavian Shepherd’s Dance” – Taraf de Haïdouks. Nervous pick, from those Montreal/world-music days of his.
7. “Lil’ Queen O’ Spades” – John Mooney. Nervous local pick. Yes.
8. “Second Line” – Doreen Ketchens feat. YMCA Jazz Band. Clarinetist/Nervous local pick. Catch her playing by the Rouses on Royal in the Quarter. Nervous is also a kick-ass clarinetist, but these days has hung up the horn in favor of gee-tar, save for the occasional recording. Had the pleasure of hearing angelic woodwind strains wafting from Brady Leatherwood’s room the other day. How many of your landlordesses let your hi-anxiety frands use their bedrooms as recording studios? What? None of them?
9. “Sous Les Tropiques” – Panorama Jazz Band of New Orleans. Nervous local pick, one of my faves as well.
10. “Black Friday” – Nervous Duane Orkestra (feat. Michael Darby.) (Enter the station: Michael Darby and Smitti Supab. #segue.)
11. “(Am I Just) Pissin in the Wind” – Michael Darby & the Sheiks of Arabi. Demo from their hitherto unreleased album. A vivid metaphor. I want to write a companion version of this song, from the female perspective, begging the (rhetorical) question, “Am I just pissing on my shoes?”.
12. “Whisky Heaven” – Fats Domino. What is the next best thing to attending Jim Smith NewOrleans’ open mic night every Sunday at 8pm at Checkpoint Charlie’s? Playing this song for him on the radio whilst quietly weeping to oneself about not being able to be in two places at once.
13. “Too Much Monkey Business” – Chuck Berry. When it became clear that the in-statio vibe was much too festive for Nervous’ esoteric kid-boy alt-rock back-up picks, Smitti correctly determined to go in this direction.
14. “Rare Rebel” – South Jones. Played some of these guys’ stuff last week too, without realizing that special guest Smitti Supab recently started gigging with them. Great track.
15. “Celestial Cornerstone” – Black Sun Ensemble. But one of Nervous’ esoteric picks did make the cut. He played with these fellas and fellasses back in Tucson.
16. “Walking with the Spirit” – Coco Robicheaux. Gonna need to have another whole episode devoted to Coco.
17. “In the Night” – John Mooney. Almost positive I played this track at some point. If I didn’t, I should have.
18. “El Desierto” – Llasa de Sela. I played this one last week too, but Nervous insisted, “Play the one you like, with the whistles. Play it. Play it now. With the whistles.” Tis my favorite.
19. “Pa Janvier” – Cedric Watson. Absolutely beautiful track, and riveting live performance recorded at The Roadhouse, KEXP Seattle.
20. “Ghosts” – Lonesome Leash. Walt McClements’ one-man band. Trumpet, accordion, percussion, haunting/evocative/heart-on-sleeve songwriting, all around amazing-ness. Lives elsewhere currently, but be on the lookout for small-venue shows when he visits town.
20. “Out of Love” – Nervous Duane Orkestra. Is it blasphemy to prefer any Nervous Duane song over “Text Like a Bitch”? Probably, but what can one do. As I learned quite recently, this is actually an angry song, about “not beating Baby Mama by the side of the highway.” (-ND, 2016). [….] It’s so goddamn bittersweet-sounding, though, the only line I heard for months was, “Out of love so long, I thought my heart had turned to stone.”
Tune in next Sunday, 9-11 p.m., 102.3 WHIV FM New Orleans! If you are so inclined, there is a “donate now” button on www.whivfm.org and we would very much appreciate any and all donations to continue promoting social justice, human rights, ending all wars, all things New Orleans, and wonky independent voices on the air waves!