MUSIC
Hiss Golden Messenger
THERE’S SOMETHING INCREDIBLY GRATIFYING about M.C. Taylor’s late-blooming success as Hiss Golden Messenger. The first time I heard • Nov. 17 his recent output, I randomly flashed back to another country-ish band, The Court & Spark, • 9 p.m. Friday whose songs felt as comfortable as a favorite • Tipitina’s, pair of blue jeans and whose vocals draped like an arm around your shoulder. It turns out Taylor 501 Napoleon Ave., is that voice — he and Scott Hirsch, along (504) 895-8477; with a supporting cast of ever-patient players, www.tipitinas.com were The Court & Spark. They were based in San Francisco then, and the overall affect of definitive release Bless You (2001) is decidedly West Coast, an extinguishing dip in the Pacific rather than a blinding Atlantic rebirth. Similarly and differently, there’s no confusing the Carolinian origins of this sequel. Everything from the guitars to Taylor’s singing — once a baritone ringer for Richard Buckner, now more often an idiosyncratic crossbreed of Van Morrison and Bob Dylan — is pitched higher, and it all feels more lively, reunion tunes instead of a departure score. The new Hallelujah Anyhow (Merge) plays like sides three and four to 2016 stomper Heart Like a Levee, on which everything appealing about Taylor’s music locked into place. It’s hard to make a band or a record sound this easy, and he’s now done both twice. Tickets $15. — NOAH BONAPARTE PAIS Cafe Negril — Jamie Lynn Vessels, 4; Jamey St. Pierre & the Honeycreepers, 7 Chickie Wah Wah — Creole String Beans, Thousand Dollar Car, 8 Circle Bar — Filth, Asukubus, Three-Brained Robot, Corey Cruse, 10 Crescent City Brewhouse — New Orleans Streetbeat, 6 Davenport Lounge — Jeremy Davenport, 9 d.b.a. — Tuba Skinny, 7; Hot 8 Brass Band, 11 Dos Jefes Uptown Cigar Bar — The Betty Shirley Band, 10 Gasa Gasa — Jacob Banks, Vera Blue, 10 Hi-Ho Lounge — Pink Room Project, 11 House of Blues — DMX, 9; Bamboleo (Latin club night), midnight Howlin’ Wolf Den — The JAG, Maggie Belle Band, Bantam Foxes, 10 The Jazz Playhouse — Tom Hook, 5; Mario Abney, 8 Joy Theater — TroyBoi, Slumberjack, 10 The Maison — Chance Bushman & the Ibervillianaires, 1; Smoking Time Jazz Club, 7 Maple Leaf Bar — Sonic Bloom, 10 Marigny Brasserie & Bar — The Key Sound, 4 Oak — Jon Roniger, 9 Old Opera House — Chicken on the Bone, 7:30
Old Point Bar — 1 Percent Nation, 9:30 One Eyed Jacks — The Darts, Escobar, Baby Bats, 9 Palm Court Jazz Cafe — Duke Heitger & Palm Court Jazz Band, 8 Preservation Hall — Preservation All-Stars feat. Shannon Powell, 8, 9 & 10 Prime Example Jazz Club — Ashlin Parker & Trumpet Mafia, 8 & 10 Rare Form — Will Dickerson Band, 1; Justin Donovan, 6; Steve Mignano, 10 RF’s Dining Music Cocktails — Lucas Davenport, 6; Hyperphlyy, 10 Rock ’n’ Bowl — Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters, 9:30 Roosevelt Hotel (Fountain Lounge) — Amanda Ducorbier, 9 Siberia — Vile Bodies, Softie, 10 SideBar — Albey Balgochian, Marcello Benetti, 9 Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro — Rene Marie & Experiment in Truth, 8 & 10 Spotted Cat Food & Spirits — Up Up We Go, 6 The Spotted Cat Music Club — Panorama Jazz Band, 6 Three Muses — Chris Christy, 5; Shotgun Jazz Band, 9 PAGE 72
G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > N OV E M B E R 1 4 > 2 0 1 7
PREVIEW
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