RedBlues, Nashville singer songwriter Les Kerr’s third CD, more than qualifies for “blues” status by anyone’s standards. It is a cryin’, blues guitar slidin’, jumpin’ and jivin’ paean to lost love, roots and homestead. In nearly every song, he is yearning to be somewhere else, most often New Orleans, doin’ something else.

Kerr’s musical stylings aptly cover the gamut from rockabilly to boogie to Caribbean beats with ease. He calls his music “Hillbilly Blues Caribbean Rock and Roll.” Kerr’s strong suit is his songwriting and his lyrics paint vivid and often amusing pictures: about riding the streetcar line in New Orleans on “Streetcar in the Rain,” the kids on Bourbon Street who tell you “where you got them shoes” (for a small fee) in “The Sun Also Rises” and on his ode to his true loves, Memphis and New Orleans, on “My Mistresses” where he laments “Both live on the river and they both will take me in anytime that I may be inclined. Neither one is jealous and I really do regret, I can’t be with them both at the same time.”

He gets off the yearning track for a bit on a cleverly written tribute to gonzo journalist and certified madman, Hunter S. Thompson. In a funny biographical sketch Kerr sings, “I got tired of being told of what to do and where to go, I took a leap and just said no from workin’ nine to five. With a case of beer and my left brain, I began my own campaign to rule all of my domain, I’ll be king here ’til I die.” And then reveals Thompson’s credo to the blues world: “Hunter Thompson told me so, when the going gets weird, the weird the weird turn pro. Here’s to you the great Gonzo, it’s getting strange so here I go.”

Kerr hails from Mississippi and developed a deep love of the blues while growing up. His deep voice is reminiscent of a bluesy Johnny Cash and his well-crafted guitar playing lays down the perfect accompaniment for each song, be it electric, slide or acoustic. Les Kerr is no stranger to the Crescent City—he’s performed at Margaritaville, the Maple Leaf and Carrollton Station.