Preservation Hall to release high profile CD

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band‘s continued revival just took a surprising turn: They’ve announced the release of a new album co-produced by their fan and collaborator of recent years, Jim James of My Morning Jacket. The album, That’s It will be the first in the group’s entire history to feature only original material.

Pres Hall Thats It CD cover July 9 2013

Preservation Hall teams up with Jim James of My Morning Jacket for July 9, 2013 release.

The venerable group’s latest phase began after Katrina with the beautifully-produced box set, The Hurricane Sessions, which combined a CD and DVD with archival material salvaged from the flood, including doubloons, publicity photos and vintage gig flyers. Along with a number of standards from the Hall repertoire, the CD hinted at new influences with a Kinks song, “Complicated Life.” The tune featured recently-joined frontman, Clint Maegden (also of the highly non-traditional New Orleans Bingo! Show), who was also featured in a music video for the song, one of the group’s first. Next came the 2010 benefit album, Preservation, which featured the band alongside a raft of high-profile admirers, from Merle Haggard to Dr. John to Pete Seeger. One highlight of the disc, Tom Waits’ version of “Tootie Ma Was a Big Fine Thing,” has been getting regular spins on WWOZ ever since.

The band’s friendship with My Morning Jacket started flourishing around this time, with the two groups touring together and teaming up at Jazz Fest. (Preservation Hall also made a surprise appearance with Billy Joel at this year’s Fest).  Maegden, leader/bassist Ben Jaffe and bandmembers Charlie Gabriel and Rickie Monie all wrote songs for the new album, which will be released July 9 on Sony/Legacy, which released the band’s boxed set in 2011. Meanwhile they’ve released a video documenting the sessions and teasing some of the new music.