Live at the Saxon August 2019
Chip Dolan on keys
Jimmy Shortell on horn
St. James Infirmary is one of my foundation songs. I don't know when I first heard it. When I was a child for sure. The great Louis Armstrong recorded it in '28. That may or may not have been the version I first heard. He played it as a dirge. A slow walk down Bourbon. It was the first song Tony Bennett recorded. Like I said. Foundation. I tweaked verses to make me happy.
send me 16 coal black horses
to pull one black curtained hack
and send me 16 weeping women
cause she is traveling and never coming back
and
when I die dress me in cool white linen
hand made boots a john b stepson hat
put a 20 dollar gold piece on my watch chain
so the boys will know that I died
standing pat
Jimmy and Chip are smoking hot. I don't think we rehearsed it before we played it live. This song is a part of our musical DNA. It comes from a deep place.
Tracing the origins is virtually impossible. Everybody adds. Everybody subtracts. Scraps of melody from Scotland or Ireland or England. But what makes it for me- is that beautiful NOLA stroll. Armstrong's trumpet calling us to prayer. That slow walk down Bourbon Street. That heavenly sway...
let her go let her go
God bless her
now kick it around