Mitch Woods – A Night In New Orleans – Live & Solo At Snug Harbor
A rollicking pace kicks off when Mitch Woods sits before his 88-key piano & starts his boogie-woogie piano assault recorded live at the Crescent City’s Snug Harbor nightclub. The recording sounds pristine during the music & vocals. It’s an electrifying performance with Mitch’s fleeting fingers pounding away at the ivories like he had octopus arms. While the vocals are captured well, the dialogue between songs is muddled. No matter, the piano & Mitch Woods vocal comes through well-brewed. Including the between-song patter moments are 18 tracks imbuing A Night In New Orleans – Live & Solo At Snug Harbor (Drops Sept 4/MoMojo Records/50:08) produced by Mitch (piano/vocals) in April 2026.
While the singing isn’t as powerful as raw as Tom Waits, soulful as Ray Charles, or jambalaya spicy as Dr. John, Mr. Woods has the right warm tonality for the boogie-woogie approach with his absorbing piano, which, if nothing else, is entertaining. There’s a retro style smuggled into some of the tunes, like the jump blues of “Choo Choo Ch’boogie,” that has a Cab Calloway thrust & is actually a Louis Jordan hit tune (1946). Jordan was one of the purveyors of rock n’ roll along with Lionel Hampton’s “Hamp’s Boogie-Woogie” from 1944. “Choo Choo Ch’boogie” is a great entertaining number.
A cover of Fats Domino’s “Blue Monday” is a necessity in The Big Easy. With a nice Fats formulation, Mitch Woods revises the oldie to its shiniest best & manages to take an old machine, grease it up & get it humming again as sweet as when it first played. Excellent.
A more traditional piece is Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” a classic that still sounds fresh today with a pianist like Woods. There’s little that sounds as commanding as piano notes when they dance together under that piano lid. Mitch makes it sound easy as he talks to the audience, & his fingers bang out with musical color. Toward the conclusion, his voice offers up a rawer tone as he brings it home.
Most artists have a visual gimmick to get their artistry across to a live audience. Tom Waits has his saloon piano player gig & Louis Armstrong vocals over Beat Generation lyrics or Brecht-Weill carnival darkness. Springsteen has his New Jersey factory worker & labor union route. John Mellencamp does the same with his rural farmer issues. Mitch mines the boogie-woogie ferment with some vintage classic tunes & his exhilarating voice has a generous blend of antique rock n’ roll (“Rocket 88” “Rockin’ Pneumonia & the Boogie Woogie Flu”) to get the wool blend pants & denim asses shuffling in their wooden chairs as their little toes tap in their hi-heels, boots & sneakers.
Mitch gets them moving.
Highlights – “Rockin’ That Boogie,” “Choo Choo Ch’boogie,” “Blue Monday,” “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” “Rocket 88” & “Rockin’ Pneumonia & the Boogie Woogie Flu.”
Color image courtesy of Mitch’s Bandcamp. CD @ https://mitchwoods.com/a-night-in-new-orleans/ & https://mvdshop.com/products/mitch-woods-a-night-in-new-orleans-cd