It has been 18 years since Allen Toussaint, the premier New Orleans songwriter, released a major album of his own. That was Southern Nights, a minor classic with the dreamy lyrics of country people sitting outside as a wind - ... comes rushing through your soul… like those stories told of old… -  an image drawn from the artist’s childhood trips to visit his father’s kinfolk in a small community outside Thibodeaux.

As Dave Bartholomew guided the Fats Domino sound on Imperial R...