Just in time for the “Little Queenie” tribute at Tipitina’s on Saturday night, John Autin— pianist, musician, producer, arranger, owner of Rabadash Records, and Northshore recording studio owner—has announced that he has licensed the entire Little Queenie catalog from the estate of Leigh Harris.

Most well-known for her song “My Dawlin’ New Orleans,” Harris died after a three-and-a-half year battle with cancer on September 21, 2019 in her home near Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She regularly visited New Orleans and had come back to the city in 2015 where she recorded her last album, Waking Up in Dreamland. She returned to her home in North Carolina where she lived with her loving husband, Rick Ledbetter, for the last few years of her life.

“In traditional New Orleans style, the contracts were signed today [July 29] at R&O’s Restaurant at Bucktown over a muffaletta and a bowl of gumbo,” said Autin with a laugh. Contract negotiations have been ongoing for the past year between Rick Ledbetter (Harris’s husband), Harris’s estate and Rabadash Records.

John Autin (left) and Rick Ledbetter show the contract that licenses Little Queenie’s music catalog to Rabadash Records.

Autin said, “I feel like I have been given a jewel of New Orleans to give to the rest of the humanity, and I am extremely blessed and honored to be able to give the gift of the incredible life’s work of Leigh Harris to the world. She is certainly known, loved and appreciated in New Orleans. I’m committed to the idea that Rabadash can take Leigh’s legacy and we can work so she that she is known and loved worldwide.”

Rabadash also plans to further develop Harris’s website, to include recordings, merchandise and more media.

“Our first order of business will be to produce and release a compilation of Leigh’s best material. It‘s going to be hard to select tracks, but we’ll do the best to honor Leigh’s legacy. We’re also looking at releasing more of her music, maybe a book on her life, as well as a documentary,” Autin said. “We hope to release the initial compilation this year.”

For more information, contact John Autin, [email protected].