Recently the New Orleans music scene was dealt a blow when Circle Bar proprietress Kelly Keller passed away. Kelly’s efforts helped bring Nathaniel Mayer out of retirement and into the New Orleans consciousness, with several local shows that can only be described as mind-boggling.

This 61-year-old soul shouter’s stage show has more energy, edge and danger than most of what passes for punk rock these days. It was therefore most appropriate that Mayer played a memorial show for Keller at the Circle Bar just days after her passing. For those lucky enough to have caught this or any other of Mayer’s incendiary local performances over the last few years, his latest release I Just Want To Be Held (a comically ironic title, considering Mayer’s wild and salacious reputation) does not disappoint.

Mayer’s ferocious, whiskey soaked vocals are perfectly backed by a band comprised of young Detroit and Memphis rockers, who give instant modern relevance to the old-school soul proceedings. Made up of mostly originals, with a few obscure covers thrown in, this album serves as a perfect tribute to everything that the late Miss Keller believed in.