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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Feel Good Music |
| 2. Lissen At Our Prayer |
| 3. Big Gap |
| 4. When I'm Right |
| 5. Jinky Jinx |
| 6. Change Of Heart |
| 7. Sleepin' In My Bed |
| 8. What's Wit Dat |
| 9. Tribal |
| 10. Them |
| 11. Only In Amerika |
| 12. Potnah |
| 13. Music Came |
| 14. Manoovas |
| 15. Scroungin' |
| 16. A Place In The Sun. |
Product Description
Review
To become a genre unto oneself must be the supreme dream of any artist, and it was one realised by venerable New Orleans rhythm & blues institution Dr John decades ago. He is therefore familiar with the other edge of this particular Excalibur: that it makes it next to impossible to surprise your audience, at least short of doing something plain silly, like appearing on stage dressed as a panda, or collaborating with Sting. It is therefore both a compliment and an expression of sympathy to note that, at this point, it is barely necessary to listen to a Dr John song entitled Feel Good Music, as the opening track of this album is: you already know, down to the last exquisite swell of piano and languidly drawled vocal, exactly what it is going to sound like.
And indeed it does, as indeed does much of Tribal–this is very much Dr John doing what Dr John does. Which is no problem in itself, but the really good news is that the peaks of Tribal stand serious comparison with the albums on which his reputation was founded (specifically, his 1968 debut, Gris Gris, and his 1972 New Orleans anthology, Dr John's Gumbo).
When I'm Right (I'm Wrong), Whut's Wit Dat and Change of Heart are signature Dr John: big-hearted, sinewy funk, garlanded by one of those blessed voices which seems to find greater depth and range with age (bearing down on 70, Dr John has never sung better than on Tribal, and never more so than on the beautiful string-drenched ballad Lissen at Our Prayer).
There is a lot to take in here–Tribal contains 16 deeply detailed, fidgety tracks – but it's never hard work. It's a warm, gently funny album–Them suggests Van Morrison with a sense of humour, and Only in America has a whiff of the waspish wit of Randy Newman.
--Andrew Mueller
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
CD Description
Replete with swamp rock, funk, Creole voodoo, and Mardi Gras Indian chants, ‘Tribal’ resurrects the magical persona of “The Night Tripper” in his full regalia. At the same time, Dr John displays the rippling piano licks, Cajun-fried humor and sharp political observation that have helped make him a national spokesman for post-Katrina New Orleans. From its opening statement, “Feel Good Music,” Dr. John sets the tone: “Feel good music, doctorate your bones… Call me doc, your medicine man / I got a cure in the palm of my hand…” The title cut, “Tribal,” featuring an actual Mardi Gras Indian chief, invoking the spirit of the tribes with references to their solidarity and the sacred healing powers of music. As always, Dr. John has a little help from his friends: NOLA legend Allen Toussaint contributes two songs; and three songs were co-written with the late, great Bobby Charles, a Louisiana legend himself, to whom Dr. John dedicates the album. Other guest stars include slide guitar phenomenom Derek Trucks and jazz great Donald Harrison on alto sax. The Lower 911 is: Herman "Roscoe" Ernest III - drums, percussion, vocals; David Barard - bass, vocals; John Fohl - guitar, vocals; Kenneth "Afro" Williams – percussion. The album was produced by Herman “Roscoe” Ernest III and Dr. John in New Orleans.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Doctor John is on his hottest streak since the Seventies.
The purposeful 'City That Care Forgot' was one of his best ever. It capped a series of recordings in the 2000s that showed Mac playing to his strengths (the glossy sheen of some of the Eighties and Nineties LPs was gone). Whether he was paying tribute to Duke or Mercer, or returning to his own special sound ('Dis Dat'), these were all albums you wanted to go back to.
His tribute to New Orleans and his anger at his government's response provoked a recording that set a new standard. So it was perhaps inevitable that he'd go back to something fun and simple. This new album is virtually a summing up of his entire career, and to listen to the whole thing in one sitting is like taking a journey into forbidden realms (just like his earliest works).
It's cool and it's hip, and funnily enough, Doctor John's release in his 70th year is actually a good place to start for those new to the N'Awlins Fonk!
The purposeful 'City That Care Forgot' was one of his best ever. It capped a series of recordings in the 2000s that showed Mac playing to his strengths (the glossy sheen of some of the Eighties and Nineties LPs was gone). Whether he was paying tribute to Duke or Mercer, or returning to his own special sound ('Dis Dat'), these were all albums you wanted to go back to.
His tribute to New Orleans and his anger at his government's response provoked a recording that set a new standard. So it was perhaps inevitable that he'd go back to something fun and simple. This new album is virtually a summing up of his entire career, and to listen to the whole thing in one sitting is like taking a journey into forbidden realms (just like his earliest works).
It's cool and it's hip, and funnily enough, Doctor John's release in his 70th year is actually a good place to start for those new to the N'Awlins Fonk!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Dr. John has over many years now defined the amazing music of New Orleans.Along with piano greats performing in and from the Crescent city since the late forties like Professor Longhair,Fats Domino and Jon Cleary, Dr. John alias Mac Rebbenack has continued to produce great albums continue to be an awesome live performer over many years now.So come 2010 we get a new album with his more recent band Lower 911 and some band this is,from beginning throughout this wonderful set they back up the doctor superbly.We get 16 yes 16 tracks of top new songs covering the whole gammut of his sounds and styles to bring us I feel one of his best albums ever and that is saying something.It's fresh full of great arrangements yet as in most of his releases still has so much to offer.A few added musicians here and there give just the right backing and balance to every track.This is the music of New Orleans by one of it's greatest talents old and yet brand new.This album along with Mac's festival appearances this year could well draw in a new young audience and new fans of the man,but for long time fans this is another wonderful disc full of absolute top quality Dr. John, and shows he's still very full of ideas and still at the very top of his musical game.Absolutely recommended throughout.Good five star set this one certainly is !
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
On his latest album, Mac Rebennack revives his legendary Night Tripper persona from the late sixties. The decades just fall away. The good doctor will be seventy later this year, but he can still cut it with the best of them. His piano playing is as mesmerising as ever, lyrically he has plenty to say and he ain't afraid to say it, and the band (complemented by a sprinkling of notable guests) is as tight as the proverbial you-know-what. The only downside is that, musically, the doc seems just a little too ready these days to slip into a familiar well-worn groove instead of really pushing the boat out, and so real killer tunes are at something of a premium. It's a malaise that's affected his last few releases, with 2004's 'N'Awlinz - Dis Dat Or D'Udda' the last truly great Dr John offering.
'Tribal' is what would elsewhere be called a game of two halves. Whilst always listenable it starts slowly with the swaggering 'Feel Good Music', almost as if the good doctor was easing himself gently into the session, before things really kick off with the funky 'Whut's Wit Dat' about half-way through. The best tracks, by a clear distance, are the title song replete with tribal chanting and infectious percussion, a sort of latter-day 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters', 'Manoovas' which is energised by the considerable presence of slide guitar wizard Derek Trucks, the shuffling 'Scroungin' and 'Only In Amerika' a sardonic sideswipe at the most powerful country on the planet, echoing the sentiments of Randy Newman's 'A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country' a couple of years ago.
The album eventually builds up a head of steam and gets better as it goes along, but somewhere along the way some of the tunes seem to have been left behind.
'Tribal' is what would elsewhere be called a game of two halves. Whilst always listenable it starts slowly with the swaggering 'Feel Good Music', almost as if the good doctor was easing himself gently into the session, before things really kick off with the funky 'Whut's Wit Dat' about half-way through. The best tracks, by a clear distance, are the title song replete with tribal chanting and infectious percussion, a sort of latter-day 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters', 'Manoovas' which is energised by the considerable presence of slide guitar wizard Derek Trucks, the shuffling 'Scroungin' and 'Only In Amerika' a sardonic sideswipe at the most powerful country on the planet, echoing the sentiments of Randy Newman's 'A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country' a couple of years ago.
The album eventually builds up a head of steam and gets better as it goes along, but somewhere along the way some of the tunes seem to have been left behind.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A return to form? How should I know?
I haven't followed the good Doctor's last couple releases to be honest.
Tribal is still on first play when I write this but four stars are rewarded without any... Read more
Tribal is still on first play when I write this but four stars are rewarded without any... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Yves Vandezande
Live Tribal
A return to form from the Doctor. I saw him do 5 tracks from Tribal in Tunbridge Wells on 7th July. The tracks he did worked really well live and 82 year old Chris Barber added... Read more
Published 23 months ago by KC
Tribal - Join the Doc's Tribe.
Another excellent release from the good Doctor.With the exception of the below par "Mercenary" album this one stands very much along side "N'Awlinz" and "The City that..". Read more
Published 23 months ago by J. D. Naylor
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