Mon, July 19, 2010: UPDATED with 28 more songs!

We’re not going to Tales of the Cocktail this year. (Waah.)

Vacation time and annoying little details like money didn’t quite work out, so I wish all my friends and readers who are going a GREAT time … and I don’t want to hear a single thing about it, or it’ll drive me crazy. Internet blackout for me! No Twitter! What I will do is find a great bar (which will, I hope, have left a few bartenders behind that aren’t going to Tales) and quaff some cocktails.

My friend Stevi, who does the excellent cocktail weblog Two At The Most, asked me if I could come up with a playlist to help people prepare for getting to Tales next week, which I thought might be fun. (I can’t help but shamelessly mention that there was that New Orleans box set I did a while back that was pretty good …)

I thought about how much I and so many other people enjoyed HBO’s superb New Orleans-based TV series “Tremé” this past year, and included a number of artists and songs featured on that show. If you’re a “Tremé” fan you’ll like this little quickie compilation, which I put together on iTunes using their iMix feature. It’s entitled “Tales of the Cocktail ’10 Prep!”

So, you can buy the whole list, or pick a handful that you might want to hear, or if you have an extensive NOLA music collection use the list and drag the songs into a new playlist on iTunes, whichever you like. (Alternately, you can just ignore it and make your own!) One annoying hitch — I made a 100-song playlist, and for some reason iTunes truncated it to 72 the first time I tried to upload it, so I’ve had to break it up into two playlists. There should be widgets below to take you to iTunes, but in case it doesn’t render properly here are the direct links: (Part 1, Part 2) Look for the full printed list after the break.

Okay, here we go. Song title – Artist [Album Title]

Part 1:

Foot of Canal Street – John Boutté [Good Neighbor]
My Dawlin New Orleans – Little Queenie & the Percolators [Home] (also appears on “Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens: The Big Ol’ Box of New Orleans,” which isn’t available on iTunes)
Feel Like Funkin’ It Up – Rebirth Brass Band [Feel Like Funkin’ It Up]
Mama Roux – Dr. John [Gris-Gris]
The Hook and Sling – Eddie Bo [The Hook and Sling]
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? – Harry Connick, Jr. with Dr. John [20]
Hey Bartender – Paul Sanchez [Live At Carrollton Station]
Skokiaan – Kermit Ruffins [Live At Vaughan’s]
Come Down to New Orleans – Big Sam’s Funky Nation [Take Me Back]
West End Blues – Louis Armstrong [The Best of the Hot 5 & Hot 7 Recordings]
Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky – Lee Dorsey [Can You Hear Me]
Java – Allen Toussaint [Alligator Alley]
Buona Sera – Louis Prima [Jump, Jive An’ Wail: The Essential Louis Prima]
Late At Night – The Iguanas [The Iguanas]
River of Love – Susan Cowsill [Lighthouse]
Tetherball – Henry Butler [Blues After Sunset]
Christopher Jr. – Donald Harrison [Nouveau Swing]
Gatur Bait – The Gaturs [Wasted]
Some Satchmo Sampling – Tom McDermott [New Orleans Duets]
Walking With The Spirit – Coco Robicheaux [Spiritland]
Summertime In New Orleans – Anders Osborne with Monk Boudreaux [Bury the Hatchet]
Meet the Boys on the Battlefront – The Wild Tchoupitoulas [The Wild Tchoupitoulas]
Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further – Lee Dorsey [Soul City]
Make a Better World – The New Orleans Social Club [Sing Me Back Home]
You’ve Got to Be Crazy to Live In This Town – Alex McMurray [How to Be a Cannonball]
Heart of Steel – Galactic (feat. Irma Thomas) [Ya-Ka-May]
Tears, Tears and More Tears – Allen Toussaint & Elvis Costello [The River In Reverse]
St. Louis Blues – The Boswell Sisters [That’s How Rhythm Was Born]
Moore Women Shuffle – Joe Krown [New Orleans Piano Rolls]
Good Neighbor – John Boutté [Good Neighbor]
Little Old Money Maker – The Meters [Look-Ka Py Py]
Right Place Wrong Time – Dr. John [In the Right Place]
Te Ta Te Ta Ta – Ernie K-Doe [Burn! K-Doe! Burn!]
Funky Liza – New Orleans Nightcrawlers [Funknicity]
Ace In the Hole – The Radiators [Dreaming Out Loud]
What Is New Orleans? – Kermit Ruffins [The Barbecue Swingers Live]
Angel Eyes – James Booker [Classified]
London Canal Breakdown – Dr. Michael White [Blue Crescent]
I’ll Fly Away – Glen David Andrews [Walking Through Heaven’s Gate]
Something Beautiful – Trombone Shorty & Lenny Kravitz [Backatown]
Let the Good Times Roll / Feel So Good – Deacon John [Deacon John’s Jump Blues]
Exit to Mystery Street – Paul Sanchez [Exit to Mystery Street]
Meet Me On Frenchmen Street (Feat. Kermit Ruffins) – Shamarr Allen [Meet Me On Frenchmen Street]
Time Is On My Side – Irma Thomas [Straight from the Soul]
It Ain’t My Fault – Gulf Aid AllStars (feat. Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Mos Def, Lenny Kravitz & Trombone Shorty) [It Ain’t My Fault single]
Ticklin’ the Blues – Eddie Bo [New Orleans Solo Piano]
Peepin’ – Walter “Wolfman” Washington [Wolf at the Door]
Congo Square – The Neville Brothers [Live on Planet Earth]
Gut Bucket Blues – Don Vappie and the Creole Jazz Serenaders [Blues Routes: Heroes and Tricksters – Blues and Jazz Work Songs and Street Music]
Yes We Can Can – Allen Toussaint [Our New Orleans]
Gumbo Piano – Davell Crawford [City of Dreams: A Collection of New Orleans Music]
Tremé Song – John Boutté [Jambalaya]
Do Whatcha Wanna – Rebirth Brass Band [25th Anniversary]
Every Day I Have the Blues – Germaine Bazzle & Friends [The New New Orleans Music: Vocal Jazz]
La danse de la vie (The Dance of Life) – Beausoleil [La danse de la vie]
12’s It – Ellis Marsalis [The Classic Ellis Marsalis]
Big Greaze – David Torkanowsky [Steppin’ Out]
Mo Hippa (Live) – The Absolute Monster Gentlemen & Jon Cleary [Mo Hippa (Live)]
Party Town – Bobby Charles [Last Train to Memphis]
Stooges Party – Stooges Brass Band [It’s About Time]
Ocean – Bonerama [Bringing It Home]
Shallow Water Oh Mama – Bo Dollis and The Wild Magnolias [I’m Back…At Carnival Time!]
Li’l Liza Jane – The New Birth Brass Band [D-Boy]
Blueberry Hill – Tom McDermott [New Orleans Duets]
Louisiana 1927 – John Boutté [Live At Jazz Fest 2007]
Real Best Friend – Washboard Chaz Blues Trio [Dog Days]
No More Doggin’ – Snooks Eaglin [The Sonet Blues Story: Snooks Eaglin With His New Orleans Friends]
Oye, Isabel – The Iguanas [Nuevo Boogaloo]
Go to the Mardi Gras – Professor Longhair [We Got a Party: The Best of Ron Records, Vol. 1]
Mardi Gras Mambo – The Meters [Fire On the Bayou]
When It’s Sleepy Time Down South – Bob French [Marsalis Music 2010 Sampler]

Part 2:

Meanwhile… – Dumpstaphunk [Listen Hear]
Milenberg Joys – Bunk Johnson [Bunk Johnson: The Roaring Forties]
Big Chief – Professor Longhair & Earl King [Ultimate Mardi Gras]
Injuns Here They Come – Bo Dollis [1313 Hoodoo St.]
They All Ask’d for You – The Meters [Fire On the Bayou]
While We Danced at the Mardi Gras – Pete Fountain [Pete Fountain’s New Orleans]
The Isle of Orleans – Tim Laughlin [The Isle of Orleans]
if I Ever Cease to Love – Charmaine Neville Band [Queen of the Mardi Gras]
Red Beans – Marcia Ball [Blue House]
Yella Pocahontas – Champion Jack Dupree [Forever and Ever]
Room With a View – Johnny Adams [Room With a View of the Blues]
Livin’ Large – Joe Krown Organ Combo [Livin’ Large]
I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward) – Tom Waits [Small Change]
Fat Tuesday – Tommy Malone [Soul Heavy]
Peace, Love & Understanding – Big Sam’s Funky Nation [Peace, Love & Understanding]
Little Chickee Wa-Wa – Huey “Piano” Smith [Rock Masters: Huey “Piano” Smith]
Up Up Up – Givers [Givers]
Got Your Heart – Anders Osborne [American Patchwork]
Best Ain’t Good Enuff – Jon Cleary [Pin Your Spin]
Stanky – Papa Grows Funk [Mr Patterson’s Hat]
Samson and Delilah – Spencer Bohren [Carry the Word]
Dragon Flys – Susan Cowsill [Lighthouse]
All the Time In the World – The Subdudes [Live At Last]
Yellow Moon – The Neville Brothers [Yellow Moon]
South of I-10 – Sonny Landreth [Live At Jazz Fest 2007]
Gimme My Money Back – The Tremé Brass Band [The Tremé Brass Band]
Orleans & Claiborne – Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews & Orleans Avenue [Orleans & Claiborne]
Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against the Wall) – Mystikal [Tarantula]

Oh, and iTunes? It’s Ernie K-Doe, not “Ernie K. Doe.” He’s the Emperor of the Universe. Show some respect and get it right. Jeez.

Anyway … enjoy!