Ah, those sweet sounds of the New Orleans brand of blues!  This week I listened to a couple of New Orleans blues compilation CDs, and now the rich flavor of the Crescent City’s blues is stuck in my head. 

I suppose by something of a definition, New Orleans blues is chiefly one centered within a piano and horn led format, though certainly not entirely, and is one with its roots based in and invigorated by Caribbean rhythmic frameworks, most definitely an indefatigable, festive good time, and in many instances reveling within the “second-line” swagger of the delicious Dixieland harmonies native to the region.

At all times, there’s an optimistic over-arching aura to the form that pervades the music with a celebratory air, regardless of how gloomy and melancholy the song.  New Orleans blues expends a characteristically lethargic touch, with all of its rather multifaceted cadences trudging ever-so-slightly in arrears of the beat.  The vocals certainly can and do examine the complete arc of the human expressive extent, starting at the softer, mellow, and sentimental form and flowing into the full roar of the most stirring of human emotions.  All this variety leads the New Orleans blues style to be one of massive and interesting contrasts.  To be sure, it is never dull, and always grabs the listener and commands consideration.

As I listened to my New Orleans collections, so many blues artists from the great city I hadn’t enjoyed in quite some time yet again made their strong impressions upon me.  One in particular, Snooks Eaglin, stuck in head as his sterling vocal delivery and unique guitar style did, as always, cause me to pay closer attention to his offerings.  As I’ve not provided a brief overview of Eaglin’s life and career before, it seems that now’s the time to do for one of New Orleans’ most treasured musicians.

He was born in late January, 1937 in New Orleans as Fird Eaglin, Jr.  Tragedy struck the young Eaglin not long after his first birthday when he lost his eyesight as a result of damage to his optic nerves brought on by premature glaucoma.  Sometime near the age of five years-old he was given a guitar by his father, and it is said that he learned to play the instrument by absorbing music he heard on the radio.  Though over the course of his long, storied career he took many stage names, the one that stuck, “Snooks,” was thought to have been bestowed upon him due to his inclination to be something of a scampish youngster, with his actions running rather parallel to those of an individual featured on The Baby Snooks radio show, a CBS series that began airing in 1944.

Due to his blindness, Eaglin was enrolled in a school that specialized in educating blind youngsters and acclimating them into a seeing society.  WNOE 1060 AM was in Eaglin’s youth a gospel radio station that served the greater New Orleans region, and in 1947 Eaglin entered a talent competition sponsored by the station, winning it with his ever-evolving musical skill set.  The song that he performed for the contest was a rag number dating to the early 1900s, and on the basis of his blossoming self-confidence and continually improving vocal and guitar proficiencies, Eaglin left the school for the blind three years later and began what would be his long professional musical journey.  It was a very bold move for a young blind individual.

A couple of years later, Eaglin joined his first music group, one named The Flamingos, a band started by no one less than famed New Orleans musician, songwriter, record producer, and arranger Allen Toussaint.  Eaglin’s was hired to provide the bass guitar bass parts of the band’s songs, although his versatility on the guitar saw him playing both the bass runs and guitar melodies at the same time.  Eaglin stayed with The Flamingos for a number of years until the group dissolved sometime in the middle part of the 1950s.

Eaglin then turned to the streets of New Orleans for his music and livelihood, where American musicologist and folklorist Harry Oster came upon him.  Marveling at Eaglin’s very wide-ranging catalog of songs amid many genres, meandering, liquid guitar flairs, and potent Ray Charles-ish vocal panache, Oster offered Eaglin his first recording opportunities, having him lay down tracks over seven individual sessions between the years 1958-1960.  These first Eaglin sides saw him performing in a rather folk blues flair, alone on an acoustic guitar, with his stunning fingerpicking capacities front-and-center.  Interesting is the fact that Eaglin picked the guitar with his thumb nail.  He felt his dexterity and speed on the strings were enhanced with this manner of playing.  The resulting songs from these sittings were eventually released on a number of labels including Folk-Lyric, Prestige Bluesville, and Folkways.  Eaglin was now a true professional bluesman.

But what Eaglin truly desired was to create R&B music within a full band format, and in 1960 his dream came true when the noted and revered Louisiana-based American bandleader, songwriter, record producer, musician, and arranger Dave Bartholomew brought him into the studio to record for the powerhouse Imperial Records imprint.  The results were amazing, as again Eaglin’s zigzagging lead guitar scrambles and passionate vocals graced such gems as “Cover Girl,” “Yours Truly,” “That Certain Door,” and “Don’t Slam That Door.”  The whole of Eaglin’s many musical faculties were captured on these outings, and he stayed with Imperial Records until it ceased doing business in 1963.  Unfortunately, though Eaglin’s Imperial Records music was quite astounding, it did not provide him national exposure, though he was highly esteemed in New Orleans.

Eaglin continued to perform in and around New Orleans, and was a favorite by audiences wherever he played.  One aspect of Eaglin’s performance style that needs understanding is that he was thought to be something of a human jukebox, with a repertoire of tunes he was able to perform in a moment’s notice numbering in the thousands, ranging from blues, rock-n-roll, jazz, Latin, ethnic, and even more types still.  He was known to be impulsive on the bandstand, often confounding his band members.  He loved nothing better than to take requests from his audiences, further making each Eaglin performance uniquely exceptional to all involved.

In the later part of the 1980s, Eaglin brought his immense talent to the Scott brothers’ Black Top Records label, at that time a powerful player in the blues, R&B, and New Orleans recording scene.  While there, Eaglin recorded five collections of brilliant blues with the sounds of related genres of music thrown in.  Once Black Top Records folded its business, a Scott brothers produced outing also saw the light of day on another label.

The P-Vine label out of Japan released a 1995 Eaglin “live” set.  His last outing of new music was 2002’s The Way It Is for the Money Pit Records label.  And in 2005, the Smithsonian Folkways imprint released some of his earliest sides on a collection entitled New Orleans Street Singer. 

One can get a glimpse of Eagin performing in the 2005 Make It Funky! documentary film, a picture that stresses just how important the New Orleans musical fabric has been on music of all sorts.  In the film, Eaglin is seen performing with George Porter, Jr. and a backing band. 

In February, 2009, Eaglin was identified as having prostate cancer, and was admitted into Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.  Eaglin ultimately succumbed to the ravages of a heart attack in Ochsner Medical Center on February 18, 2009.

New Orleans was awash with grief when Eaglin passed, with his death being felt in the manners akin to when fellow New Orleans master musicians James Booker, Professor Longhair, and Johnny Adams died, such was the love the city held for him. 

Fellow musical artists from other genres who counted Eaglin as an influence and favorite include former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant, former Beatle Paul McCartney, slide guitarist and singer Bonnie Raitt, and revered rock guitar man Eric Clapton, all who were known to catch Eaglin perform when they could.  Such was the pervasive appeal of Eaglin and his music.

Recommended Eaglin collections include:

• Possum Up A Simmon Tree – Arhoolie Records 2014 – Released in 1971
• That’s All Right – Prestige Bluesville BV-1046 – Released in 1994
• The Complete Imperial Recordings – Capitol Records CDP 7243 8 33918 2 – Released in 1995
• Country Boy In New Orleans – Arhoolie Records CD 348 – Released in 1991
• Baby, You Can Get Your Gun – Black Top Records BT-1037 – Released in 1987