I am basking in the afterglow of a long weekend in New Orleans. Between the food, and the music, and listening to WWOZ Radio,  I am infused with the spirit. Just before leaving town, I attended a for real, full tilt NOLA Crawfish boil. Beautiful day, cool music, amazing crawfish, corn and potatoes, fried oysters and shrimp. I drove the eight hours back to Austin reveling in how good it was to be there, while I listened to my iPod kicking out the tunes from Professor Longhair, Slim Harpo, Little Willie John, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Carl Perkins, and Little Richard, just to name a few. Not to say these folks are all from NOLA, but listening to this music in that town sure feels right. It is still alive, and you can hear the echoes today in the sonics of JD McPherson.

First, a note, we would have loved to catch up with JD during our Spring Music Fog Marathon in March at Threadgill’s, but we didn’t hook it up in time. That is, we were already booked when we found out he was available. Just goes to show, you can’t do it all! Today is the day that his long awaited album Signs & Signifiers comes out, which features bassist and producer Jimmy Sutton, and Alex Hall on drums. If you like the vitality of the early days of rock and roll, you will feel right at home with this stuff. JD McPherson is a former art teacher from Broken Arrow, OK. He and his band traveled to Chicago to record analog at Hi-Style studio, which is housed in Jimmy Sutton’s attic. JD directed the video shoot at Hi-Style studio for “North Side Gal,” which features the classic gear used for the recording of the album.  

- Jessie Scott

P.S. - JD is giving away free downloads of "North Side Gal" on his site for a limited time.

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