Funny how the deep freeze that COVID-19 put on the New Orleans music scene ended up scrambling reality. When The Radiators announced they would stop touring in 2010, everyone assumed the band had broken up, but the fans showed enough tenacity to convince the group to perform at annual reunions at Tipitina’s and Jazz Fest began booking them again. During the pandemic slowdown, The Radiators played a livestreaming show at Tipitina’s, released a new live album, and last November played two rocking nights at the Civic Theatre. The Radiators will present three reunion shows from January 13–15 at Tips and the band feels as relevant as ever.
Radiators superhero guitarist Camile Baudoin has a new album that pays tribute to the dance groove of the band’s live performances. This Old House showcases Baudoin as an affable frontman. Bassist Reggie Scanlan and drummer Frank Bua, partners in the Rads’ rhythm section, are along for this very engaging ride. There’s a wonderful version of Spencer Bohren’s “Straight Eight,” a Fishhead favorite, with Jake Eckert on rhythm guitar and Josh Paxton on piano. (Paxton also does a great job on Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell.”) Bohren’s son Andre adds harmony vocal on that one and the traditional blues song “Deep Ellum.” The Ray Charles chestnut “Tell Me How Do You Feel?,” a longstanding Rads rave-up, features Mike “Mikey B” Burkhart, keyboardist for the Rads’ offshoot band Raw Oyster Cult. Baudoin’s buddy Sonny Landreth contributes his own “Gemini Blues” to the set, complete with a searing slide solo. Naturally there are a couple of New Orleans touchstones, including Allen Toussaint’s masterful hit for Ernie K-Doe, “A Certain Girl,” and the Fats Domino/Dave Bartholomew classic “My Girl Josephine.”
No Radiators-themed album would be complete without a couple of Ed Volker songs, and Baudoin picks two deep-cut gems from his childhood friend’s songbook, the title track and Volker’s wry expression of Mardi Gras anxiety, “I Ain’t Ready for It.” In a sense, the sentiment was never more appropriate, but as Van the Man might say, “Geronimo!”
