This Post Goes to Eleven: The Best New Orleans Music of 2011

He and She Said:

The only thing better than the food in New Orleans is the music. If you’ve travelled a bit you know that the list of cities where you can drop in on incredible musicians on a random Monday or Tuesday is a pretty short one (NYC, L.A., Austin…are we missing any?) Given that, we’re sure we could produce a list of the great sets we didn’t see a mile long. But, in no particular order, here’s a list of what we did see that rocked our world. With apologies to Spinal Tap, here are the eleven most memorable sets in a year filled, as always, with great sounds. Consider checking some of these musicians out in 2012:

Gal Holiday at Balcony Music Club: BMC at the corner of Decatur and Esplanade is one of our favorites. Live music every night of the week with no cover. Before she relocated to L.A. to chase bigger things, Vanessa Niemann and her band held down a Sunday night set here which became one of our favorite ways to wind down the weekend. Three guitars, including pedal-steel, Vanessa’s terrific vocals, and arrangements of very old-school country unlike what anyone else in town is doing.

Herlin Riley at Snug Harbor: The best set at Jazz Fest wasn’t at the Fairgrounds at all, but after hours at Snug Harbor, where we dropped in with a friend to be wowed by the virtuoso drummer and his equally talented ensemble, including Anat Cohen, Downbeat Magazine’s clarinetist of the year, who exited the crowd and joined them onstage. One of the very best sets we’ve ever seen at the best jazz club in New Orleans.

Trombone Shorty at French Quarter Fest: At the top of his game and worth fighting the crowds. If you’ve seen him recently, you know what we’re talking about. If you haven’t, move it to the top of your to-do list.

John Lisi and Delta Funk at French Quarter Fest: We stood in the sun at the new for 2011 stage on upper Decatur and were rewarded by Lisi absolutely tearing it up, accompanied by an amazing harmonica player. Lisi can really freaking play, and if you like Blues you need to check him out.

Kermit Ruffins at Bullet’s: We love Happy Talk, Kermit’s latest release, and he seems to have thankfully left behind some of the, ahem, disjointedness that could mar performances in the past. 2011 marked our first visit to Bullet’s…and our second. It just might be the best bar in the city.

Cristina Perez at Balcony Music Club & etc: We stumbled across Cristina at BMC last January, and we’ve caught her at several venues since as she’s played Three Muses, The Maison, and pretty regularly at Oak as well. Her voice breathes new life into old jazz arrangements, and we can’t resist when she tells us she’d like to shimmy like her sister Kate.

Glen David Andrews at Three Muses: Three Muses is the best thing to happen on Frenchmen in some time, and you can walk in whenever you like and be sure to see someone good, but our personal favorite was Glen David Andrews on a Friday night, rocking a packed house. If his set in this place doesn’t energize you, you might as well move to Cleveland.

John Boutte at d.b.a.: Boutte’s Saturday shows on Frenchmen are well-regarded for good reason. Digging deep into the R&B canon, one of the best sets of pipes in the Crescent City quieted the crowd in d.b.a., which is no small feat. We walked out in love with the power of a great vocalist.

Big Chief Monk Boudreau’s Won’t Bow Down CD Release Party at Tipitina’s: A big, boisterous set at Tips. Accompanied by guitarist Colin Lake, among many others, Boudreaux had us rocking ‘till the wee hours.

Lionel Ferbos at Palm Court: One of us caught Ferbos on the eve of his 100^th birthday. Let that sink in for a moment. What a pleasure to listen to someone whose performing career spans almost the entire history of the genre. A very special night.

Number 11: Anonymous at the Daquiri Shop on Bourbon: Without question the most surprising item on this list. We’re on record about Bourbon being a musical wasteland, so we were shocked to emerge from a Brassaholics set at Irvin Mayfield’s at 2:00am a couple of weekends ago and wander straight into a brass band playing in some random daiquiri shop on upper Bourbon and blowing away the set we’d just listened to. We still don’t know who they are, and probably never will, but they were the best brass we heard all year and deserve the final place on this list.

We want more and more in 2012, and we’ve got Thursday nights earmarked soon for both The Stooges at the Hi Ho Lounge and the Soul Rebels at Bon Ton on Magazine. What else needs to be on our list?