Dr. John, the Night Tripper - Gris-Gris

2014 reissue

Digitally re-mastered edition of this album from the New Orleans legend. GRIS GRIS is the New Orleans term for voodoo, and one could be forgiven for thinking this album was recorded in the dead of night in one of the city's famed graveyards.

Long-time New Orleans session man Mac Rebennack wangled some free, after-hours studio time originally intended for Sonny & Cher, gathered the Los Angeles Diaspora of New Orleans musicians including Jessie Hill (known for Ooh Poo Pah Doo), Shirley Goodman (of Shirley and Lee), sax-man Plas Johnson and percussionist Richard Didimus Washington and adopted a new persona of Dr. John the Night Tripper, he of the feathered headdresses and name taken from an 1840s New Orleans root doctor.

The result was probably the spookiest and most hypnotic album ever made voodoo Psychedelia is about as close as you can come.