Compilations of New Orleans Mardi Gras music have a tendency to adjust themselves to outside perceptions of the holiday rather than vice versa. Not so with GHB Records’ newest offering. There are no conspicuous appeals here to the broader commercial market, notwithstanding a recording of “The Saints” from Louis Armstrong, whose Mardi Gras bona fides can hardly be denied. The focus here is less on explicitly Mardi Gras-themed numbers than on representing the overall spirit of the season (only two tracks actually have “Mardi Gras” in their titles).

The disc includes two Danny Barker Mardi Gras Indian tunes, “My Indian Red” and “Chocko Mee Feendo Hey,” recorded in the mid ’40s (the former appearing last season on Treme). Deep cuts like clarinetist Raymond Burke’s “One Night of Sin” with the Kid Thomas Band from the early ’60s keep things interesting. Volume 1 hit shelves way back in 1993; if nothing else, GHB’s 18-year wait has allowed the inclusion of some more recent recordings, such Lillian Boutte’s 2008 rendition of “Let’s All Go Down to New Orleans.” The album’s 18 tracks span over 70 years, from a 1936 Ella Fitzgerald performance of “Darktown Strutter’s Ball” up to the present day with Topsy Chapman and Thais Clark in a bouncy rendition of “Bourbon Street Parade.”