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Following his 2002 collaboration with guitarist-vocalist
Anders Osborne, New Orleanss Big Chief Monk Boudreaux delivers this worthy solo debut. Produced by Osborne and boasting assistance by Crescent City usual suspects
Dr. John,
Cyril Neville, and
Tab Benoit (who anonymously fade into the background), Boudreauxs dusky tribal chants are pumped with simmering funk and swampy, primitive R&B. Less songs than free-form chants,
Mr. Stranger Man captures the heart of the New Orleans Indians musical firewater. The percussion-heavy tracks provide an upbeat yet ominous atmosphere for Big Chiefs extemporaneous storytelling and droning, near spoken vocals. Even though some songs follow conventional structure, such as the
Meters-styled "Shotgun Joe," Boudreaux improvises like a great poet as the band lays down a boiling, foot-tapping foundation. The rhythms vary, but the authentic, near hypnotic, body-swaying vibe and the chiefs moaning vocals resonate like classic reggae, a genre reflected on a couple of tunes. Its not what he says but how he says it, and Boudreaux conjures a groove as pervasive and enveloping as the humidity on a midsummer New Orleans night.
--Hal Horowitz