Over the course of the last year, 20-plus artists—Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, Jim James, and Andrew Bird among them—travelled to New Orleans’ Preservation Hall to play classic songs of the city while backed by the famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band. It looks like this year’s Fat Tuesday is going to be extra, um, fat, as RED Distribution and MRI will release these collaborations onto one disc entitled Preservation.
The tracklisting alone is reason enough to jump off your seat and bolt to the record store on February 16. Then there’s Tom Waits singing “Tootie Ma Was a Big Fine Thing,” an appearance by Louis Armstrong, and the fact that all proceeds go towards The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program.
The compilation is up and streaming right now, and here’s the teaser video:
Preservation
01 Andrew Bird – “Shake It and Break It”
02 Paolo Nutini – “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”
03 Tom Waits – “Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing”
04 Yim Yames – “Louisiana Fairytale”
05 Del McCoury – “After You’ve Gone”
06 Ani DiFranco – “Freight Train”
07 Pete Seeger & Tao Rodriguez-Seeger – “Blue Skies (Comin My Way)”
08 Jason Isbell – “Nobody Knows You”
09 Brandi Carlile – “Old Rugged Cross”
10 Richie Havens – “Trouble in Mind”
11 Merle Haggard – “Basin Street Blues”
12 Blind Boys of Alabama – “There is a Light”
13 Dr. John – “Winin’ Boy”
14 Louis Armstrong – “Rockin’ Chair”
15 Amy LaVere – “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home”
16 Steve Earle – “Tain’t Nobody’s Business”
17 Cory Chisel – “Some Cold Rainy Day”
18 Buddy Miller – “I Ain’t Got Nobody”
19 Angelique Kidjo with Terence Blanchard – “La Vie En Rose”
