There are a number of ways to tackle a covers album. The easiest is arguably to top-load it with songs and/or artists sufficient to attract the applicable demographic of fans. On Don’t Let It Die, Vol. 1, Deslondes have assuredly not done this. Indeed, this album houses a dozen deep cuts that would credit the deepest of crate diggers. None of these songs are on the tip of tongues of John Q. Listeners out there, let alone those of grizzled old completists like me. Indeed, if you know this New Orleans band and their quirky take on a country-funk jamband ethos, Don’t Let It Die could easily pass as all their own work. Which is no bad thing.
Even for those songs by artists familiar, the Deslondes have also included a bevy from their own peer group, friends and co-conspirators, collaborators and tour mates, which is an admirable show of strength to those thus featured. So, alongside your Johnny Cash, Shelby Lynne and Swamp Dogg, we get Nick Woods, Pat Reedy and The Kernel. The current members of the band–Dan Cutler, Sam Doores, Riley Downing, Howe Pearson and John James Tourville–are all songwriters, so know their way around reviewing and renewing arrangements, which adds to the overall polish the quintet provide across this set.
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