Sally Baby's Silver Dollars
From Curtis Mayfield to The Radiators and Morphine to the Wild Tchoupitoulas—I still remember where I was when I first heard each of them. It was more than just the sound. It was the way the music made me feel.
The same feeling hit me recently listening to Sally Baby's Silver Dollars' performance on NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts: four songs—26 minutes—and a light clicked in my brain. The light only grew brighter when I saw them a few days later at BJs on Muses Thursday.
I caught up with singer-songwriter Salvatore "Sally Baby" Geloso and trombonist Oliver Tuttle at Café Envie in the Lower French Quarter on a recent Tuesday afternoon. We talked about musical roots, creative instincts, and the long road that brought Geloso from a Frenchmen Street unknown to the frontman of one of New Orleans' hottest bands.
Geloso's History
Geloso arrived in New Orleans on a post-Katrina road trip, already steeped in the sounds of Smiley Lewis, Earl King, Guitar Slim, and the early architects of the Cosimo Matassa Studio era. When his friend headed back to New York, Geloso felt drawn to stay.
His connection to the city deepened over the years while giving musical tours of the French Quarter and working night shifts at Flora Gallery & Coffee Shop in the Marigny, listening to Gentilly Jr. and Murf DJing on WWOZ. Friends hung out late into the night while Geloso mopped the floors "wiping away the tears of the day." It was during those nights that he met bassist Zach Valentine. Shared influences led to jam sessions. Soon, Valentine began assembling what would become the Silver Dollars.
Despite nearly two decades in New Orleans, Geloso somehow flew under the radar. "I feel like I've always kind of just remained in the shadows, like I've always been doing my thing, but it's just taken a lot of forms over the years," he said over bites of chocolate cake. "The little worlds that came up in here, a lot of that kind of Bywater downtown punk DIY—make a parade happen, make a show happen, art house, punk house reality."
Geloso grew up in Brooklyn, then Babylon, NY, just a few towns over from where I grew up on Long Island. His Brooklyn accent thickened when talking about getting away from a difficult upbringing and discovering New Orleans. "I think a lot of people get more free in this city," Geloso said. "It's like you're all outcasts. You're the pariah, the black sheep, the ugly duckling, then you come here and you're in the sky. Peculiar characters that somehow all cohabitate in this symphony, even if it's a little cacophonous, even if it's a little harsh on the ears, it's still everybody's in that number. Everybody's just where they should be."
Tuttle's History
Tuttle, originally from Oakland, California, found a similar sense of belonging when he moved to New Orleans five years ago. A member of the California Honeydrops, he shared Geloso's reverence for both local legends and boundary-pushing players. "I'm inspired by local OGs like Freddie Lonzo and Charlie Halloran, but also by guys like Corey Henry," Tuttle said.
His first major New Orleans gig came almost immediately—subbing in with the Treme Brass Band at the Krewe du Vieux parade. "We're lining up—it's my first real gig with a New Orleans band—and Prince comes over playing saxophone at me," Tuttle recalled. "I'm trying to follow him, thinking he's teaching me a song. Then he stops. I ask what it was, and he says, 'I don't know. I'm just playing.'"
"That's
New Orleans music," Tuttle said. "Play naked. Be aware, but don't follow too
hard. Be your own weirdo—your own wild card."
Geloso
found a similar inspiration in a recent encounter with blues singer Thais
Clark, who, well into her 80s, offered him a simple question: "'Are you an
original?' What she meant was, if you were born out of your mother's womb, you
are an original. Never forget that and don't try to copy anybody, don't try to
copy what other people do. Just be yourself."
That
ethos defines Sally Baby's Silver Dollars.
Sally Baby's Silver Dollars' Career & Future
Formed in late 2023, the band quickly found a home on Thursday nights at BJs. Their crowd—often a sea of dancing young women—locks into the band's throwback groove, charged with a playful, almost electric sensuality as Geloso spins stories between songs.
Momentum grew fast. Within a year, they landed on the Lagniappe Stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. "It was the first time I even went to Jazz Fest," Geloso said. "I used to just hang out outside and listen from the street." This year, they'll be opening the Fair Grounds on the Gentilly Stage for the first Locals' Thursday.
Between those appearances, the band hit major summer festivals such as High Sierra and earned an expanded set on NPR's Tiny Desk Contest after their original "I Got No More Tears Left to Cry" was runner-up in the 2024 new song competition.
Local music guru John Driver has been promoting the band and helping line up gigs both locally and around the country. This month's schedule is packed: Spring on the Bayou at Pitot House on April 7, Earth Day Festival at the Broadside on April 11, French Quarter Fest on April 17, Festival International in Lafayette on April 24 and 25, the Threadhead's Patry fundraiser at the Deutches Haus on April 28, and the aforementioned Jazz Fest performance. Pianist Tom McDermott is working to bring them into his Sunday night house concert series. "Those are the kinds of shows I love," Geloso said.
After Jazz Fest, Sally Baby's Silver Dollars will be playing music festivals in North Carolina and Virginia, then touring the West Coast starting in Southern California. When I said that he was lucky to be getting out of the city for the summer, Geloso quickly interjected. "I enjoy the summer. I am definitely a warm weather person so it doesn't hinder my life. I'm good at adapting to it. I feel like there's just been many summers where, you know, I couldn't make a way to leave." Those years included periods of homelessness—something he references matter-of-factly.
"I've learned to appreciate the summer," he said. "It's quieter. You connect differently. It's harder sometimes, sure—but there's something about it. I feel like when you're swimming through the thick air, it's like I've grown to appreciate the reverse, even though sometimes it could be harder financially. I like the peace and quiet, and I feel like I get different things done and connect with different people. It's just a different vibe. But now, I'm happy to leave whenever the opportunity strikes."
Like the city itself, the band is fluid. With members balancing multiple projects, lineups shift constantly. Two weeks after their Muses show, they were back at BJs without keyboardist Steve DeTroy (formerly of Walter "Wolfman" Washington's band The Roadmasters), saxophonist James Beaumont (The Quickening), and trumpeter Nathan Wolman (Secret Six Jazz Band), but the band didn't miss a beat.
Geloso expounded on the subject: "I think one of the things that will continue to sustain is the amorphous nature of the band that we can be a trio. We can be a duo. We could be an eight-piece band. We could be a five-piece band that still goes. We all have other things going on, other bands, so I think that's one of the bridges we'll continue to cross is, 'What does this (band) look like?'"
Recording, however, has proven trickier. With members scattered and schedules tight, studio time remains elusive—though they hope to change that soon in Lafayette. "Our saxophonist (Beaumont) has been out of town dealing with some family issues, so it's been hard to find the time," Geloso said. "We hope to get into the studio when we're in Lafayette for Festival International."
Whatever
form they take, obscurity seems firmly behind them. "It's good to feel like the
hometown heroes, like the underdogs, because I feel like, regardless of the
outcome, this place will always embrace us, you know, always have our back," Geloso
said. "That's what I love about New Orleans. I never had that feeling even
where I grew up, I was always waiting to leave."
For
someone who once busked on street corners and mopped floors at Flora, that kind
of support means everything. A recent Gambit cover story signals rising
expectations—and if there's one thing that's clear, it's that Sally Baby's
Silver Dollars are here to stay.
If
you haven't felt that spark yet, you will soon.
