Save My Soul

AMG Review of Save My Soul

Hal Horowitz
All Music Guide

For their first album in four years, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy realized they needed to switch gears since the freak, late-'90s ig band craze had become about as hot as yesterday's scrambled eggs. Thankfully, a trip down to New Orleans to play Jazzfest (recounted in this album's title track) reinvigorated and reinvented the group's sound. Gone are the smarmy Vegas charts, replaced with a swampy Crescent City, slinky Bourbon Street swagger. Add Latin mambo on the percussive "I Like It" and "You Know You're Wrong," along with some second-line funk straight out of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on "Zig Zaggity Woop Woop, Pt. 2" and you've got a swinging, finger-popping disc that should keep the band's established fans happy, while expanding their previously limited, and nearly dead-ended scope. Most of the tunes are originals -- if derivative ones -- except for a cover of Blue Lu Barker's ""Don't You"" Feel My Leg" (also a moderate '70s hit for Maria Muldaur). However, the barroom swagger turned Dixieland jazz of "Simple Songs" seems a bit forced and frontman Scotty Morris' voice hasn't improved. This material would benefit from a gruffer approach. But Save My Soul is a surprisingly enjoyable and fresh album from a band many might have written off as already expending their allotted 15 minutes of fame. The disc's CD-ROM content includes three live tracks, information, pictures of each band member, and shots from the making of the album.