Down in New Orleans (CD - 2008)

Personnel: Carl LeBlanc (banjo); Ralph Boyd Johnson (clarinet); Darryl Adams (alto saxophone); John Gilbert (tenor saxophone); Alvarez Huntley, Raymond "Taff" Williams, John Brunious (trumpet); Keith Anderson , Jerome Jones, Tyrus Chapman (trombone); Bennie Pete, Benjamin Jaffe (tuba); David Torkanowsky (piano, keyboards); Allen Toussaint (piano); Ronald Guerin (upright bass, electric bass); Shannon Powell (drums); Harry Cook (bass drum); Sammy Cyrus (snare drum).

Additional personnel: Hot 8 Brass Band, Allen Toussaint, Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Audio Mixer: Jimmy Hoyson.

Liner Note Author: Ben Sandmel.

Recording information: Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA; Piety Street Studios, New Orleans, LA.

Photographers: Shannon Brinkman; Mark Gooch.

Arranger: Chris Goldsmith.

While they may not hail from the Crescent City, the Blind Boys of Alabama obviously have a strong connection to its musical traditions, a fact made unmistakably clear on DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS. With the able assistance of such estimable local heroes as Allen Toussaint and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the long-lived (they've been recording since the 1940s!) gospel icons deliver a straight-from-the-heart tribute to the spirit of New Orleans, giving their arrangements of traditional spiritual tunes a Big Easy tweak. The country blues song "You Got to Move," for instance, is transformed into a banjo-and-tuba Dixieland offering, and the gospel classic "Uncloudy Day" becomes a brass-band rave-up. Even the less overt stylistic adaptations bear the distinctive bump of New Orleans grooves, settling in seamlessly under the Blind Boys' rich, soulful voices. minimize