****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Matt Lemmler: The Book Of Psalms Volume One, Powerhouse: New Orleans In Stride Volume III (Trios, Quartets & Quintets)

New Orleans pianist and vocalist Matt Lemmler steps into the void left by Dr. John and brings a Crescent City marrow’d feel on a pair of rich and wondrous albums. Both have deep roots, but still speak to ears both modern and eternal.

In fact, The Book Of Psalms is about as eternal as you can get, since Lemmler sings and plays piano to one of the oldest songbooks of all time, namely God’s (through mostly the pen of King David, no slouch at the  harp, either). The puts music to the lyrics of various Psalms (after all, they WERE written for singing), including ”hits” like the 23rd, as well as from the ‘biggie’, Psalm 119. The topics range from crying out to God for help (Psalm 34), to the glory of God’s communicating to us through the heavens and His word (Psalm 19) , to simple praises of God’s goodness (Psalm 8) to even the blues of Psalm 3, with “the anguish of the grave”. The music perfectly fits the moods, and Lemmler sings like he’s lived it.

The second album  has him in various settings with Brian Blade/dr, Joel Frahm/ts-ss, Nathan Lambertson/b, Arlin Parker/tp and Shane Theriot/g for a collection of tunes ranging from a  wide range of sources. The famous Looney Tunes piece “Powerhouse” by Raymond Scott is a wild white knuckler that swings like a tetherball, with Lemmler’s avuncular deliver on the stride filled “The City Of  New Orleans” hipper than Kim Kardashian’s latest dress. Lemmler’s voice is kind of like Dr. John with a dash of latter day Boz Scaggs, street wise and working well with Frahm on “Nature Boy”. The whole band jams on the funky take of “Bye Bye Blackbird”, with the whole album as tasty as a beignet at Café Du Monde

www.mattlemmler.com

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