Blue Moon Marquee

New Orleans Sessions

Blue Moon Marquee Music / Bandcamp

Hailing from the wilds of Alberta, Canada, A.J. Cardinal and Jasmine Collette (a.k.a. Badlands Jass) dubbed themselves Blue Moon Marquee ten years ago, merging musical talents as well as ideals. An apt moniker, because it, and the old-time-styled music that they present, sounds as blues cool as a smoky nightclub or a front porch under the stars. And fortunately, it arrives much more frequently than a blue moon might suggest.

New Orleans Sessions is the sixth Blue Moon Marquee album, and on it, Cardinal and Collette have focused their natural grasp of everything that sashays, swings, skitters, and drags a lowdown tail over, on music made in New Orleans, and sounding like it. The album was cut live off the studio floor at Big John Atkinson’s Bigtone Records in New Orleans in two afternoons one year apart. Besides Cardinal on guitar and vocals and Collette on bass and vocals, the band features pianist B.C. Coogan, sax player Danny Abrams, and either Nicholas Solnick or Brett Gallo on drums. Atkinson adds harmonica to two songs, the grungy original “Trickster Coyote” that Cardinal plays fitting, first-rate guitar through, and Lonnie Johnson’s more upbeat “Got the Blues So Bad.” Four of the ten songs are Cardinal/Collette compositions, the remainder blues nuggets from the early to mid-1900s. Everything blends seamlessly, a testament to the historic material chosen, the strength of Cardinal and Collette’s songwriting, and the legitimacy of the performances.

The album jumps right up on the snappy rhythms of Memphis Minnie’s “Black Rat Swing,” Collette singing with the sweet trill of Brenda Lee and more than a bit of bottom register soul folded in. The band shuffles gleefully, Coogan and Abrams standing out formidably on piano and sax. Cardinal sings like Tom Waits on a Howlin’ Wolf bender. Comingled with Collette’s singing, whether in call and response during Leadbelly’s “Ain’t Going Down,” or in unison on Bo Carter’s “Let’s Get Drunk Again,” their voices create a beautiful stir amid such raw music making. In a word, they are perfect together.

On “What I Wouldn’t Do,” an original lowdown ballad about being head over heels in love, Cardinal takes the lead alone, his emotion in gravel-pitted lockstep with the drama acted out by the band. Talk about real deal! Blue Moon Marquee’s previous album, Scream, Holler, & Howl, was awarded a Juno for Blues Album of the Year. They also swept the Maple Blues Awards, winning Album, Songwriter, Acoustic Act, and Entertainer of the Year. If the vibrant New Orleans Sessions doesn’t earn more of the same and then some, I’ll eat my voodoo top hat, peacock feather and all.

 Tom Clarke for MAS

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