Dr. John: Gris-Gris [ATCO/RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This Rhino reissue puts the Night Tripper's debut on 180g vinyl. Rolling Stone has placed Gris-Gris on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2003, 2012 and 2020.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Before he was Dr. John, Mac Rebennack was a seasoned New Orleans session man working in Los Angeles. He dreamed up a front man named after a 19th century voodoo healer, planned to have singer Ronnie Barron play him, and when that fell through he put on the headdress himself. He took the name after hearing about Dr. John Montaine from his sister and feeling a spiritual kinship with the man.

Harold Battiste produced and arranged the sessions at Gold Star Studios with a crew of transplanted New Orleans musicians, and the sound is pure hoodoo: chanted backing vocals, hand percussion, flute, mandolin and a slow, hypnotic groove. "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya" introduces the character, "Mama Roux" and "Jump Sturdy" bring the second-line swing, and "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" is seven minutes of spooky, slinking magic that artists have been covering ever since. It was made in California, yet every note sounds like the bayou after dark.

To get it made, Rebennack used studio time originally booked for Sonny & Cher. Sonny & Cher went on to do perfectly well, so everybody won.

Also at Kops: more Dr. John on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On ATCO / Rhino (cat# SD 33-234), a reissue of the 1968 album.