Kermit Ruffins Live At Vaughn's

 
 If you have watched HBO's Treme you experienced a brief glimpse of Kermit Ruffins playing his standing Thursday night gig at Vaughn's. This Live recording picks up where the Treme left off, taking you into the heart of of the crowd to experience a self described Master Chef laying down some incredible "Crescent City Smoke". This album elaborates on what HBO's Treme' started by highlighting the best music New Orleans has to offer post Katrina. The complete live tracks of "Skokkian", "Hide the Reefer" and cover's of "If you Want me to Stay", " Be Thankful for What you Got", and "Ohh Child" were only previewed during various episodes of the show but come to new light in their full length glory on this compilation. HBO's Treme brought back a new appreciation for New Orleans Music to the general public. Thanks to them many new ears have became aware of Kermit Ruffins, and his original band The Rebirth Brass Band. Buying  this live recording is not quite seeing it for yourself live at this intimate bar in the Bywater on a Thursday Night, but if you close your eyes while listening you might smell some of Kermit's B B Q!

According to Basin Street Records: "It takes all of 30 seconds.Whether listening to a track on his newest CD, engaging him in conversation or hearing his voice on an answering machine message, one word springs immediately to mind to describe Kermit Ruffins. Passion.
The 44-year-old New Orleans native lives it, plays it and sings about it, and nowhere is it more evident than when he discusses his craft  the swinging, good-time jazz that lured him in as a teenager and continues to whet his appetite even three decades and 10 solo recordings later.

JazzTimes (pp.127-128) - "Many of the songs are built on blues riffs or vamps, and when these guys start blowing, it's hard to sit passively..."