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Wacky doctor performs surgically on the black & whites

On 'Hugh Laurie: Let Them Talk - A Celebration of New Orleans Blues' the titular 'House' actor left me longing for the south once more. The Doc does the blues admirably.

One of those wacky doctors was wailing away on a Steinway & Sons, tinkling ivories in a rather unorthodox version of Swanee River opening a rather interesting show on PBS Friday night.

That “wacky doctor”? None other than Hugh Laurie of Fox’s House committing bluesy renditions of standards on Hugh Laurie: Let Them Talk – A Celebration of New Orleans Blues.

Throughout the program, we got to witness a very different side of Laurie (different to quite a few people, I imagine) while he was on a mission of discovery trotting around spots in the southern states. New Orleans was his ultimate goal and it was a treat to see him reach his dream’s culmination of stepping through the door of The Big Easy and, ultimately, jamming and recording with some pretty profound names in its fabled history. Along the way, we witnessed Laurie playing, singing and swooning in local dives and in The Quarter proper with Allen Toussant, Tom Jones (damned straight Jones does blues, bottom video below) and even The Soul Queen of New Orleans Irma Thomas.

Did Laurie have the chops to jam with these icons of renown? Absolutely. His voice is hit and miss tune to tune (as was evidence of his duet with Irma — he just didn’t measure up in the vocal department during that stint), but there’s no doubt he can pound a piano, no doubt he feels the music. Hearing his take on St. James Infirmary (below) was rather swoony as was his performance with Toussant, Jones and Thomas on Baby Please Make A Change.

Upon entering New Orleans in a loaned bright red Ford Galaxy 500 ragtop, Laurie sniffs the air and mentions to the camera he can “smell the funk” of New Orleans.

There is no question Laurie’s got a lot of that funk inside him, English though he may be.

Laurie Quotes:

“There’s really only two categories of music that matter: Good and bad. Everything else is just indexing.”

“Life is the major key and death is the minor key.”

 

 

Photo Credit: celebwalls.net

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5 Responses to “Wacky doctor performs surgically on the black & whites”

October 1, 2011 at 11:14 AM

Nice Post Michael. I have been hearing the buzz about Hugh Laurie and it seems appropriate. Makes me want to go back and visit No Orlins…

October 1, 2011 at 11:31 AM

Great Post!!

I am definitely on the look out for that PBS show now, thanks for the heads up.

October 1, 2011 at 12:02 PM

. . . . .

Thanks for the link, alpacamike

October 1, 2011 at 12:11 PM

Thanks from me as well! I was hoping to find it streaming somewhere since I had no idea this was going to be on. The worst part? I’m about 40 minutes drive from N’awlins and had NO FREAKING IDEA Laurie was performing there. Had I known I would’ve done everything I could to catch a performance live.

That’s what I get for living in a hole in the ground.

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