Bo Dollis Jr. &
The Wild Magnolias
A New Kind of Funk
One More Time Records
The Wild Magnolias is a band founded in Mardi Gras Indian tradition, but, above all, it is a funk band. After more than forty years as the band leader, Bo Dollis Sr., passed the torch to his son, Bo Dollis, Jr., as the chief's health declined. A new face and fourteen years between studio albums might have been the inspiration to call the album A New Kind of Funk, but instead Dollis Jr. has simply renewed the band's traditional sounds with a little less noise. The track list borrows from the New Orleans catalogue of music with variations of standards like "Firewater," "Cha Wa," "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky," and "Liza Jane," which benefits from Tommy Malone's slide guitar. The album succeeds in the same way the Wild Magnolias have before, by crowding the sound with more than 20 contributors, producing a high-energy spirit that feels more like a roving intercontinental party of instrumental revelers than a troupe of studio musicians. Guest personnel include Malone, Cyril Neville, Mike Zito, Robin Clabby of Brass-A-Holics, and others. The most interesting track is the opener, "We Come to Rumble," which uses resonator guitar and violin to underscore the vocals and tambourine rhythm with some folksy Cajun string-work. "Hell Out the Way" is the album's funkiest song, with tropical layers of guitar, African drums, keyboard, and brass backed by the choral vocals of Bo Dollis Sr. and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux. "This ain't the same music you're used to," says rapper Joseph Hills in the title track. but his lyrics are misguiding. Bo Dollis Jr. is more interested, justifiably, in continuing the tradition of his father's band than ushering in anything new, and even a few verses of hip-hop can't disguise that this is more or less, the same old kind of funk. Regardless, it's a good funk and channels a lot of the band's famed energy. While the album isn't exciting on its own, most of its tracks show potential to play well live on the stage, even if they are reruns on tradition. If any city audience can dig that, it's New Orleans. -Sam Nelson
