The Dr. John Interview

My guest today is from New Orleans, LA. A territory the United States acquired from the French in the Louisiana Purchase because the French had lost control of the African Slaves who came to Congo Square to communicate through the drum. The drum could talk in a universal language of spirit mind and body. And in that order. This is the Bayou culture. A mighty coo-de-fi-yo hoodoo approach to singing and songwriting built from tales of the Walcott Medicine Show mixed with Snake Poison and transformational characters. The chanting, the voodoo all very misunderstood and therefore feared by western man. Build the body of the car and strip it of its soul. If it don't look pretty then there must be nothing there. My guest today came into music when individuality was king. He comes from the land of gumbo in the garb of the indigenous. His smokey gulf coast honky tonk toe tapping style started in the southeast  before being catapulted west and let Hollywood be thy name. However sunny California proved to be a gateway towards meeting more individuals seeking warm sound, solidarity and a way to keep the sun, roots and herbs inside the music. Guys like Levon Helm and Maria Muldaur, Van Morrison and Paul Butterfield, Soony and Cher and Frank Zappa. Before that it was Bobby Charles and Allan Toussaint and The Meters and professor Longhair and on and on and on....still hot as ever striding on the acoustic with a Hammond behind him and brass sections in the right place. Playing to houses big and small, carrying the traditions of regional swamp music Malcolm John Michael Crow Rebenack welcome to the JFS.. Loop Garoo, Levon Helm, Grandmother Earth, Bobby Charles, I Must Be In A Good Place Now, Muddy Waters, Black Keys