“Dust off this old piano (pronounced ‘piana’), because I’m too broke to leave Louisiana” is just one of the great lines you’ll hear listening to the joys, laments and reflections on the past that populate the first self-titled album from New Orleans-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Doores.

Doores has a long and varied history. Due to his work with Hurray for the Riff Raff, the Tumbleweeds and the Deslondes, his music is often pigeonholed in the folk/country genre. But this album exposes another side of his musical personality. 

Recorded over several years in Berlin with copacetic producer and project instigator Anders “Ormen” Christopherson as well as an international cast of co-conspirators, the album uses strings, vintage organs, marimbas, vibraphones and even an autoharp to create a moody, psychedelic vibe. Doores has fashioned an intimate, personal album that uses the studio as an instrument.

But the songs are always the focus. “Wish You Well,” a jaunty kiss-off to an ex, includes the above-mentioned line, and features members of the inventive local trad jazz combo Tuba Skinny. They also appear on the passionate love song “Must Be Somethin’.” On the 1950s girl-group inspired “Other Side of Town,” Doores trades lines with his old bandmate Alynda Lee Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff.

The album also explores how old relationships can haunt as well as inform our present lives. “Windmills” exposes the travails of the working man in middle America and “This Ain’t a Sad Song” proclaims that just because “I ain’t glad that you’re gone…it ain’t bad and it ain’t wrong.”

Sam Doores is a personal statement that is accessible to everyone because of the universal sentiments it contains.