Professor Longhair : Crawfish Fiesta
Genre: New Orleans R & B	Dates: 1980

In the late 1940's, Longhair (real name: Henry Roeland Byrd) invented the famous New Orleans R&B piano style, a frothy, ebullient mix of boogie-woogie, rhumba, and blues that has been known to cure deep depression. If you've ever visited the Crescent City, you can hear, feel, see, smell, and taste it in his grooves. "Fess" also made a virtue out of off-key singing. This album, cut shortly before his death, mixes definitive versions of his classics with several covers he'd never committed to record before, and each side closes with a meditative instrumental that very nearly communicate an awareness of passing on. You'll be converted straight out of the gate by his all-time Mardi Gras Injun classic, "Big Chief," featuring the catchiest whistling since Otis Redding's on "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay."

Playlist:
1. Big Chief
2. Her Mind Is Gone
3. Something On Your Mind
4. You're Driving Me Crazy
5. Red Beans
6. Willie Fugal's Blues
7. It's My Fault, Darling
8. In The Wee Wee Hours
9. Cry To Me
10. Bald Head
11. Whole Lotta Lovin'
12. Crawfish Fiesta