David and Roselyn, New Orleans Style (Da Ro Productions)

As noted by their previous release Praha Live and now New Orleans Style, the reigning royalty of New Orleans street buskers David and Roselyn are indeed magical live performers. This particular recording, a re-release of an ’84 concert, was never expected to resurface once the master tapes disappeared. But thanks to MasterDigital’s Parker Dinkins, who re-mastered the proceedings from a remaining source cassette, this reasonably clean recording is once again available and underlines how powerful the duo can be without any accompanying sidemen. Their buoyant acoustic sound is wrapped in a folk-blues-jazz sensibility as well as an inexhaustible repertoire spanning a century. On the one end, “Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor” dates back to the 1870s and was one of the first jazz sides ever recorded—by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1917. The pop hit “Lady Marmalade” and Roselyn’s own yippin’ spiritual “You Know They Would” bookend the other end of the spectrum, the 1970s. Other songs, like the cutesy “Barnyard Dance” and Bessie Smith’s “Do Your Duty” hail from the Roaring Twenties. Yet, regardless of the era, in David and Roselyn’s capable hands and voices, new life is breathed into each of these tunes. While David handles guitar and harmonica like the best of folkies, Roselyn enchants with her single-note mandolin playing and her fluttering African finger pianos like the kalimba (“Good Morning Blues”) and the bassier morimbula (“Ode to Billy Joe”). Additionally, the ambassadors of New Orleans eclecticism deliver a taste of the Crescent City to their left coast audience with “Jumbalaya” [sic] and Fats Domino’s “Walking to New Orleans.” After the gospel “Just A Closer Walk With Thee,” Roselyn explains the traditions of jazz funerals before launching into the manically-strummed, harmonica-crazy “When the Saints Go Marching In.” As the title suggests, David and Roselyn are indeed a New Orleans style all their very own.