Mardi Gras Music Appreciation: Some Fun, Fanciful, and Funky Tunes for Fat Tuesday 2013

On today's ST, we're spinning a seriously tasty variety --- a gumbo, in fact --- of great Mardi Gras music with Denis McGilvray, a local music blogger and longtime New Orleans music enthusiast. (Denis was involved with the popular All Soul Acoustic Coffeehouse Music Series for many years here in Tulsa, and formerly worked at a pair of California-based public radio stations; you can check out his blog, Jukebox Delirium, here.) Like the city itself, or its people or cuisine or what-have-you, the music of New Orleans is a one-of-a-kind phenomenon that was created by, and built upon, a hodge-podge of stylistic and cultural influences. It's the old only-in-America "melting pot" idea, basically; the development and dispersal of the Crescent City's music is very much linked to the polyglot history of New Orleans itself (and its surrounding environs). And this link is all the more evident, of course, when it comes to Mardi Gras. Therefore, on this Fat Tuesday edition of our program, we offer anecdotes, asides, and an amazing array of music from the likes of Professor Longhair, Dr. John, The Meters, James Booker, The Dukes of Dixieland, Clifton Chenier, and others.