Are you bummed you won’t be able to see former Beatle Paul McCartney at the Smoothie King Center on June 19?

So is Davis Rogan. But, being Davis Rogan, he decided to do the most Davis Rogan thing possible to fill in the gap left by McCartney’s postponed show: he organized a Paul McCartney show of his own called “A Little Help From My Friends.”

An all star group of New Orleans musicians including Paul Sanchez, Andre Bohren, Felix Wolheben, Chris Boyle, Mary Lasseigne, Darcy Malone, Debbie Davis, Alex McMurray, Skeet Hanks, Jonathan Pretus, Michael Cerveris, and Ben Schenck will join Rogan at the Howlin’ Wolf on June 19 at 8:30 for a Paul McCartney tribute show.

And how were so many ordinarily busy local musicians available on extremely short notice? They were all planning on going to see McCartney anyway.

“There were two voids to be filled. One was everybody who bought tickets to the show and was planning on hearing some Beatles tunes and Paul McCartney songs, and the second one was these badass New Orleans musicians who love the Beatles with all of their hearts and had taken the night off to go to the show,” Rogan said. “From there, it was just ‘well shit, let’s put on a show.’”

By sheer luck, the Howlin’ Wolf was able to offer the perfect combination of an appropriately sized venue that was available at a moment’s notice.

The other piece of luck was that the musicians Rogan rounded up all play Beatles music already, which made preparing for the show that much easier.

“We’re going from Paul cancelling to, a mere nine days later, us having 17 songs ready,” he said. “This isn’t going to be a picture perfect Beatles wedding band. It’s going to be loose, but it’s going to be great.”

Sanchez and Rogan said they have been incorporating Beatles music into live performances for years, making the transition to a full fledged tribute night that much easier.

“The Beatles were every reason I ever picked up a guitar and wanted to play and write songs,” Sanchez said. “I don’t think I ever listened to any other music until I was 10 years old.”

And while this show displays the appreciation for McCartney’s music that can be found in New Orleans, the feelings have definitely flowed both ways. He even recorded an album here during Mardi Gras 1975.

“Paul McCartney had a love affair of his own with New Orleans music,” Rogan said. “I was originally attracted to a tune like ‘Oh! Darling’ because it kind of had a Fats Domino feel, and it turns out that he wrote that tune with that kind of 12/8 New Orleans rhythm and blues sound in mind. The intersection of Paul’s music and New Orleans music is a pretty sick one.”

For Rogan, sometimes it’s hard to tell where covering the Beatles stops and being Davis Rogan starts, but the music has always carried through.

“My version of ‘Oh! Darling’ is in a different key, it has a slightly different chord structure,” he said. “Have I created my own version, or did I just learn it wrong and I’ve been doing it wrong for 15 years? Well, yes to both of those.”

A Little Help From My Friends
A Paul McCartney Tribute Night
Howlin’ Wolf
Thursday, June 19
Doors open at 7:30
Show starts at 8:30
Tickets are $10 before the show and $12 at the door