The Juno-winning B.C. blues duo of A.W. Cardinal and Jasmine Colette — best known as Blue Moon Marquee — made huge strides with their acclaimed 2022 album Scream, Holler & Howl. Now the energetic, high-octane tandem are back with a rollicking batch of ridiculously lively toe-tapping originals and covers with New Orleans Sessions.
To think such gorgeous, old-school material dazzling with style and infectious spirit could be crafted over two days one year apart is simply amazing. But that’s what guitarist/vocalist Cardinal and singer, drummer and upright bassist Colette (aka Badlands Jass) did with New Orleans Sessions. Recorded at Bigtone Studios and surrounded by a stellar cast of New Orleans’ finest musicians and engineer (and harmonica player) Big Jon Atkinson. the live, off-the-floor energy throughout is captured perfectly.
“These two afternoon recordings were a fine pleasure to experience,” the band says. “The musicians we had the good fortune to play with and have style for miles and know how to have a good time all the while. Jon is a true-blue lover and aficionado of the music, and it shows in everything he does, whether his hands are on an instrument or in the back room on the dials. We all sat in one room together and played the music in the truest form.”
The recording process was as raw and simplistic as you can find. Blue Moon Marquee would “run the song once or twice and hit record, play the song two or three times and that’s what you got babe.” In an age where AI and computers can make anyone sound like any artist imaginable, Blue Moon Marquee’s approach was as pure as you could hope for: “No overdubs, no slick tricks.”
The result leaves listeners of New Orleans Sessions picking up their jaws off the floor. The opening Memphis Minnie classic Black Rat Swing features Colette’s sassy, spirited vocal prowess sounding like Brenda Lee, while the music would leave you thinking the late legendary Fats Domino was in the adjacent studio jotting down crib notes. Meanwhile, Cardinal and Colette are the perfect foils for the call-and-response Ain’t Goin Down, the Lead Belly tune which here blossoms thanks to Danny Abrams’ baritone sax and BC Coogan on the upright piano. Drummers Brett Gallow and Nicholas Solnick were also crucial to the sound of New Orleans Sessions.
Blue Moon Marquee have spent over a decade touring North America and Europe and performing essentially wherever a stage was available, from prisons and hospitals to jazz clubs and festival stages. Cardinal and Colette, originally from Alberta, made huge strides with their fourth album Scream, Holler & Howl. It won the Juno for Blues Album of the Year and swept the 2023 Maple Blues Awards as the band took home Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Acoustic Act of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. They also received a Western Canadian Music Award and two Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards.
The duo are guaranteed to keep that momentum riding with New Orleans Sessions, especially on original material like the rollicking country blues-based Trickster Coyote featuring Atkinson on harmonica. The slow but spectacular What I Wouldn’t Do shines, a tune Blue Moon Marquee describe as ” a blues in the key of D about a human being wild in love. Finding the mate to your soul and recognizing the truth in that.”
Blue Moon Marquee will support New Orleans Sessions with concerts through the rest of 2024 and well into 2025. And judging by just how good this new album is, look for Blue Moon Marquee in bright lights from Nunavut to New Orleans and beyond.
New Orleans Sessions Track List
1 | Black Rat Swing
2 | Ain’t Goin Down
3 | Let’s Get Drunk Again
4 | Shake It And Break It
5 | Trickster Coyote
6 | What I Wouldn’t Do
7 | Red Dust Rising
8 | Saint James Infirmary
9 | Some Ol Day
10 | Got The Blues So Bad
Check out What I Wouldn’t Do above, hear more from Blue Moon Marquee below, and spend some time with them on their website, Instagram and Facebook.
