Preservation Hall will host a special performance by Mike Dillon and an array of special guests who will perform the music of Elliott Smith and Martin Denny on Thursday, August 20th at midnight.

“We’ve had two good rehearsals so I’m really psyched about it, it’s gonna be fun,” said Dillon on the phone after a rehearsing session. “It sort of came out of a record which I’m doing right now, that I’ve just about finished. I recorded a bunch of Elliott tunes—  my versions of them, in all mallet instruments. And then I recorded one Martin Denny song, ‘The Enchanted Sea’.”

The eclectic guest list for the show looks like an all-star selection of New Orleans musicians, with Preservation Hall’s saxophone player Clint Maedgen, Jason Marsalis, keyboardist Brian Coogan and bassist James Singleton.

“Clint and I, we’ve been getting together for a while; we just hang out, he comes down to my house in the Musician’s Village and plays some Elliott songs, you know, sings ’em,” Dillon said. “And of course, the Martin Denny thing, I just love the whole exotica tiki lounge thing these guys had going back in the day. I’ve done some gigs when I’ve done nothing but Martin Denny, Les Baxter and Don Ho in solo one-man shows.”

Expect a wide spectrum of sounds and colors to be used, as the set-up will include vibes, marimba, xylophones and bass marimba, orchestra bells, chimes and more. The show will be focused mainly on Dillon’s renditions of songwriter Elliott Smith’s work, with a few exotic compositions of Martin Denny and Les Baxter, an unusual feel for Preservation Hall’s traditional oeuvre.

“I love jazz: Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, these guys are my heroes. I’m a jazz guy at heart. But I also like any kind of music where there’s percussion that’s done creatively and differently, and I think a lot of people back in the day didn’t take it seriously, it might have been marginalized as some sort of weird pop spinoff,” Dillon said. “But Brian Coogan was learning the song yesterday and was like, ‘Wow.’ And that was cool because it’s a little two-minute song that’s focused on the song itself, not the improvisation, and I can appreciate that.”

Proceeds from the show will benefit the Preservation Hall Foundation’s education, outreach, and archive programs. Ticket buyers will also receive a free download of Mike Dillon and Clint Maedgen’s cover of Elliott Smith’s “Independence Day.

Doors will open at 11:45 p.m. More information and tickets can be found at preshallfoundation.org/events