Until the day I heard a blues song with piano in it, I never loved a blues song. Oh, I had heard blues songs I liked, but none of them knocked me over. I just aprpeciated them and dug them a bit, you know? Then, one song or another (I can’t clearly remember now) took my attention and from then on, I was hooked.

I’ve posted piano blues and other piano players to Vociferous Slam before, in its older incarnation (we’re currently the Second Coming), but there’s always more amazing stuff to be found, I feel, and thus, more amazing stuff to be shared.

As you may or may not be aware, I kinda have a thing for New Orleans as well. When my piano obsession and my New Orleans obsession collide, you get Professor Longhair and James Booker–but that’s been covered. I’ve recently been going through a mountain of compilations and other gem-filled mines of music, and I thought I’d share a few of my favorites, piano-filled, New Orleans-born, or otheriwse.

To start we have a Paul Gayten track off the Chess New Orleans compilation, a fairly extensive collection of the Chicago label’s artists from down here. Gayten was a nephew to Little Brother Montgomery and lead a fairly substantial band during his heyday. The tune, “Nervous Boogie,” is an prime example of one of my favorite things in the world: instrumental piano boogies. I admit it: I dance around to this when no one is looking. You should, too.

Then we have a tune by Archibald, a sorely neglected New Orleans piano man. He had a minor bit of success with his cut of “Stack-O-Lee,” but the tune that gets me tappin’ my feet the most is “Great Big Eyes” off the Crescent City Soul: the Sound of New Orleans compilation. Never did get much attention beyond that initial little burst, despite being at least a partial influence on many of the big names that came from here.

Up next is the Spiders, the New Orleans-based RnB group (not the Japanese group by the same name). Such vocals, these men! This one is a from a later date than the two above, if I am not sorely mistaken, this “You’re the One.” Off their The Imperial Sessions, this tune is perhaps their best known tune (as far as I can tell). The band featured as members both Chick and Chuck Carbo.

Then, we move out west a bit with Floyd Dixon. This song, which features far more than just a piano, is about one of the best subjects a blues song can be about: fat women (see also: “Great Big Eyes,” above). This tune, “450 Pound Woman” contains such pearls as “I like to see those big hips/as you walk through that gate” and “don’t worry about your weight now/I like a lot of meat with my bread.”

Then we have “Chain ‘Em Down” by Blind Leroy Garnett off the Boogie Woogie Stomp compilation. I cannot find any decent information about Garnett (beyond calling him a “genius,” etc. and the fact that he was from New Orleans). The song itself features some ace ivory tickling, some encouragement, and some scratch (making something just short of perfect, but only just).

Finally, we go back out west to hear a bit of one Queen Victoria Spivey. A long careered blues woman who played with damned near everyone, apparently, her album Three Kings and the Queen features Roosevelt Sykes on piano and Big Joe Williams and Lonnie Johnson on guitar, as well as, apparently Bob Dylan on harmonica on some of the Joe Williams tracks. This tune, “Brown Skin” is a harrowing little account by Spivey on her lonesome.