John offers this classic New Orleans tune, first performed in New Orleans the 1870's for a visiting Russian prince whose love interest made it her signature song.  Carnival balls have featured the song ever since. John's version starts sedately and ends in an uplifting manner, much like brass band second lines that transition from a dirge to a dance.

About John Rankin

John Rankin is one of  the best known and most versatile  guitarists in New Orleans. He is a master of finger-style guitar, specializing in an impressive variety of styles: classical, jazz, folk, blues, and classic New Orleans music. He frequently performs both as a soloist and with groups, as well as teaching guitar at three major universities.

John has been a featured solo performer at every New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival since 1981 except 2004, and in 2003 he won his second Big Easy Award for Best Folk Music. Fess’ Mess, a New Orleans style vocal and guitar CD was premiered in April of 2005. In 2002 he released Guitar Gumbo, a CD of New Orleans music in a variety of styles played on solo acoustic guitar, which was voted a top ten Louisiana CD for 2002 by Gambit Weekly and top 20 Louisiana CD for 2002 by The New Orleans Times Picayune. He previously released an album of original music, Something I Ate, and was a winner of the 1985 American Finger-Style Guitar Festival,. He has opened for such acts as Leon Russell, Leo Kottke, Doc Watson, J.J. Cale, John Fahey, Roger McGuinn, David Lyndley, Graham Nash, and many others.

Whether on recordings or live, Rankin artfully blends New Orleans jazz, New Orleans R&B, jazz, standards, folk, blues, and classical guitar, as well as a wide array of originals, playing 6, 7, and 12 string guitars along with harmonica in a neck rack and singing in a baritone.


WHERE YAT Magazine, February 2005
GUITAR GUNSLINGERS
by Billy Thinnes

 A tall, dapper man with a sly smile, John Rankin plays the guitar southpaw style with a finger-picking skill that elicits visions of Mississippi John Hurt and Joao Gilberto at the same time. Rankin’s weekly gig at the Columns is a music connoisseur’s treat, with melodic clusters of notes spilling out of his guitar and filling the hotel’s front lounge with warmth and tonal brilliance. Rankin dabbles in compositions from a wide array of songbooks, and oftentimes provokes the largest grins among audience members when he completely rips open the guts of a familiar standard tune and takes it to places that even the most jaded of ears have yet to hear...

WHERE YAT Magazine, July 2005
by P. Countryman

...the accomplished guitar virtuoso widens his musical scope and delves deeper into the New Orleans musical tradition with Fess’ Mess, an album that pays homage to the styles of such local legends as Professor Longhair, Snooks Eaglin, Gatemouth Brown, and Fats Domino. Rankin’s talent cannot be overstated.

...the album’s musical offerings are very indicative of New Orleans. Moreover, Rankin is not satisfied in simply rehashing classics and compiling them in something of a musical museum. Turning the traditional Mardi Gras anthem “If Ever I Cease to Love” into a beautiful acoustic melody and adding new lyrics to familiar numbers, Rankin seems to only strengthen the musical traditions as he archives them.
 

THE TOP 10 LOUISIANA CDS OF 2002
No. 5) John Rankin -- Guitar Gumbo (STR Digital) One of the long under-appreciated veteran players in New Orleans showcases his formidable guitar playing in this solo program stacked with New Orleans favorites. Whether he's playing the piano and horn of Earl King's "Big Chief" or taking "Iko Iko" back to the Caribbean with a chorus that sounds like steel drums, Rankin always sounds breezy and effortless, but never cliched. The album's centerpiece is his Jesse Fuller tribute "Mr. Fotdella," where Rankin's 12-string guitar workout sounds like the work of three guitarists.


 Veteran New Orleans guitarist and Loyola School of Music professor John Rankin is a scholar of New Orleans music and all things six-string, and his long-overdue new CD Guitar Gumbo plays like an unpretentious and joyous master class...

 One of the charms of the album is its warm, pristine recording, which captures the sound of Rankin's fingers gliding across the strings, and the faint wooden echo reverberating from inside his guitar. It sounds pure and natural, just like the music on this fine offering from an underrecognized New Orleans virtuoso.