Save My Soul, the new album from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy scheduled for release by Big Bad/Vanguard Records on July 8, pays tribute not only to the wellspring of American music but, as in the words of bandleader Scotty Morris, “my favorite musical city New Orleans.”
Like the band itself, the inspiration for the new album goes back a ways…
In 1989, Morris, jaded by life as a young studio guitarist, decided to launch a three-piece jazz, blues and swing combo. The trio included drummer Kurt Sodergren and was named Big Bad Voodoo Daddy after a fateful meeting with blues guitar legend Albert Collins at one of his concerts. “He signed my poster ‘To Scotty, the big bad voodoo daddy’”, Morris explains. “I thought it was the coolest name I ever heard on one of the coolest musical nights I ever had. So when it came time to name this band, I didn’t really have a choice. I felt like it was handed down to me.”
In the years that followed, Morris and Sodergren formed the rest of the band which includes Dirk Shumaker on string bass, Andy Rowley on saxophone, Glen ‘The Kid’ Marhevka on trumpet, Karl Hunter on saxophones and clarinet, and Joshua Levy on piano. The chemistry between the band, like the success that soon followed, was undeniable. They kicked off the swing revival in the mid-‘90s with their appearance in the film Swingers and began touring ferociously, delivering killer shows night after night, city after city.
But something needed changing…
“We were spinning our wheels”, Morris confesses. “From ’94 through 200l, we were easily doing more than two hundred dates a year. When you’re on the road that long, it’s easy to forget why you’re doing what you do. By the time we hit 2001, we realized we had probably toured America about a dozen times. We knew it was time to shift gears”.
And shift gears they did. Scaling down their North American schedule, the band focused on overseas markets playing for people who, for the most part, didn’t have any preconceptions about who they were. In this atmosphere, the band could work on new music in front of a fresh audience and start over, as it were. The result of several tours to Europe and Asia proved to be just what they needed. “It recharged our batteries, to be honest” says Morris.
With tours now spanning across the globe, the band was ready to meet any challenge, including their fourth album. So the guys started asking themselves: What’s the plan? Got any new songs? When do we get started?
Then came New Orleans…
“We played Jazz Fest,” Morris remembers, “and saw all these great artists play and suddenly, the idea for Save My Soul came with a rush. I started writing like crazy -- first the Professor Longhair/Fats Domino groove, ‘You Know You Wrong,’ and then the Louis Armstrong inspired ‘Simple Songs.’ When I played them for the band, they loved it. We locked ourselves away in an old abandoned card club, which had been closed down years before. The vibe set the tone as the entire band worked out all of the tunes together. Within a couple of weeks, we finished everything.”
In hindsight, the match of BBVD and New Orleans seems obvious. “I’ve always loved the music that came from there,” Morris says. “On our earlier albums, we’ve hinted at how important this music is, but this is the first time we’ve gone completely full-blast with it.”
The proof is in the proverbial pudding. Listen to the horns on ‘Next Week Sometime’ as they moan like a bunch of graveyard ghosts floatin’ across the Bayou. Or the classic ‘second line’ beat of the Crescent City marching bands in the opening to ‘Zig Zagitty Woop Woop Part 1.’ Or on the Blue Lu Barker classic ‘Don’t You Feel My Leg’, how the rhythm section slithers like a bunch of Cajun snakes behind what has to be the most challenging vocal ever tackled by Morris -- the woman’s point of view! “I just dig that song,” he smiles. “I’m always looking for something I can use to make a thousand people out-and-out laugh at a concert. So I felt if I played it as a woman, that would be pretty funny.”
Adding to the powerhouse performances, Save My Soul also features several guest performers, including former Tower of Power trumpeter Lee Thornburg, trombone virtuoso Ira Nepus, up and coming trumpet star Ron Blake, and percussion legend Lenny Castro.
Save My Soul not only boasts the band’s finest songwriting and performances to date, but also marks the first time the band has taken the reins and produced the album themselves. With the album’s style dictating a perfect blend of live and studio presentation, the band decided to mix and match vintage recording equipment with the newest state-of-the-art tools. As Morris points out, “Why use only the newest stuff, when the old gear sounds so great?”
The result is a deep bluesy album that has instant classic written all over it. From that fateful night with Albert Collins back in 1989, up to the present day, BBVD continues to prove why they are the best at what they do.
“When we’re all playing together, something great always happens,” Morris says. “You can hear that on ‘Zig Zagitty Part 2’ from the new album. That trumpet solo by ‘the Kid’ (Glen Marhevka) is amazing, it’s the coolest solo he’s ever recorded. You never know when one of us is going to knock the other six guys up to another level. Right now, musically, we’re feeling like we just can’t do wrong, even if we tried.”
It’s not bragging if you’re telling the truth. And with Save My Soul, BBVD ain’t telling no lies.
