Dr. John - Trader John's Crawfish Soiree (2007)

Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John) in many ways embodies not only New Orleans music, but American music as well. His distinct sound is rooted in Crescent City jazz and R&B, yet also contains elements of country, blues, and rock & roll. And it's all tied together by an individualist attitude and a voodoo-mystic aesthetic utterly unique to the doctor. Trader John's Crawfish Soiree is a double-disc set of early odds and sods that presents John in a rollicking, nascent incarnation. Far from the more traditionalist approach he's embodied since the 1990s, here John is riffing on vintage R&B, and sprinkling it with just enough gris-gris to give it his signature bayou weirdness. Nearly all of the songs are Rebennack originals, but John has such strong ties to the roots of his music that it often sounds like these songs have sprung up from the dirt. While the liner notes offer little in the way of session information, they do provide a succinct overview of Rebennack's long career, making this a nice entry point for neophytes, in addition to being a delight for fans.