Take Me To The River Tribute Showcase Shines At New Orleans’ Joy Theater With George Porter Jr. and His Runnin’ Pardners, Irma Thomas & More (SHOW REVIEW)

A host of musical legends took to the Joy Theater stage down in New Orleans on Saturday night April 29th as the Take Me To The River tribute showcase rolled out. While the award winning documentaries are worth seeking out, nothing beats seeing this collection of talented artists live and performing their craft. 

Beginning the night, George Porter Jr. and his Runnin’ Pardners opened the show with an extended set of funky music. Porter’s deep bass lines grooved in classic Meters fashion as the group dropped head-bopping numbers like the original “Cryin’ For Hope”. Supported by the super talented Pardners of Chris Adkins, guitar & vocals, Terrence Houston on drums & vocals, and Keiko Komaki on keys the group also invited out a few friends. 

Eric Krasno joined the party and absolutely stole the show with blazing guitar lines during “I Get High” and he stayed on stage while Bill Kreutzmann arrived to play “They Love Each Other”. Porter mentioned he has played with Bill a lot but they never played that particular Grateful Dead song before, this version was syrupy sweet, and funky.     

Once properly warmed up, the main event began as the core musical group was led by Robert Mercurio, supported by Luther and Cody Dickinson, who helped deliver the tribute to New Orleans and Memphis music. Bobby Rush started the night off with his tune “Chicken Heads”, Rush may be 89 but he can still deliver the goods, singing “Porcupine Meat” and blowing a mean harmonica to hype up the sold-out crowd. 

Another icon followed as Irma Thomas the soul queen of New Orleans arrived next. She strutted onto the stage and sang a powerful version of the blues banger “You Can Have My Husband (But Please Don’t Mess With My Man)” and fired everyone up with a fantastic version of “Breakaway” which was a set highlight. Memphis was well represented by singer William Bell, who looked sharp in a snakeskin jacket singing soul music, but this was New Orleans and the night belonged to the locals

Ivan Neville, Ian Neville, and Porter Jr. injected the funk mid-set with renditions of “Just Kissed My Baby”, but surprisingly the energy dipped as the drawn-out funk jams didn’t hit the highs of the opening set. Bo Dollis Jr. came to the rescue though as he literally went into the crowd to rev it up with his Mardi Gras Indian-inspired outings. 

Back up and rolling the band welcomed Anjelika Jelly Joseph who brought back out Bell, Rush, and Dollis to do a night-ending extended take on “Take Me To The River” which expertly used both Al Green and The Talking Heads versions as springboards for jams and singing to end a fantastic night of celebratory music on a very high note.

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