Dave Ferrato is a Quarter Rat with an eye for storytelling detail and an ear for the classic currents of New Orleans R&B. This is an extremely polished and professional effort for a first album. The expert ministrations of Mark Mullins as producer and arranger ensure that technical quality, and Mullins assembled an outstanding cast based around the rock-solid rhythm section of George Porter Jr. on bass, Michael Skinkus on percussion and Doug Belote on drums.

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Buy Later, On Decatur on iTunes

Buy Later, On Decatur on Amazon

The gentlemen swing the R&B-influenced street rhythms of Ferrato’s cleverly written and engaging songs, which take you on a merry romp through the streets of New Orleans from Pigeon Town to South Rampart Street to the eerie “Tchoupazine Triangle.” Ferrato sings with convincing passion and gets an assist from the phenomenal Leigh “Little Queenie” Harris on the rollicking “Same Old Story” and “Back for More.” James Singleton and Johnny Vidacovich take over on bass and drums for the atmospheric title track, which evokes a late, fog-enshrouded night walking along darkened streets near the river. The song is the album’s centerpiece, with a moody string arrangement and a haunting trombone solo from Mullins, whose playing is even more nuanced than usual on a record that obviously has special meaning to him. This song could become a New Orleans classic, along with the rumba-tinged “Candy Lady,” the boisterous “Feelin’ So Unnecessary,” with its great horn track and exchange of solos from all the band members, and “Round Here,” the ironically topical story of a bar that got closed down by the police. Mullins enlisted his Bonerama bandmates for the brassy “When I Get Home” and gets outstanding performances from Jason Mingledorff and Joe Cabral on tenor sax (check out Cabral’s monster break on “You Been Runnin’”). All in all this is a great illustration of how much damn good music exists per capita in this magical city.