New Orleans musicians share their favorite Christmas songs, from bounce to blues

NEW ORLEANS — When you think about music in New Orleans — you probably think of jazz or blues, or maybe funk and bounce.
Christmas carols? Not so much.

But many musicians in New Orleans have deep roots in the church.
Since it’s that time of year, Rosemary Westwood from member station WWNO asked a few of the city’s favorite musicians about the songs they like to listen to around Christmas.

John Boutte, jazz singer

John Boutte’s singing career lifted off after a chance encounter with Stevie Wonder. “He told me I had a signature voice,” Boutte says. “And I was like, ‘What’s that?’ He says, ‘You sound like you — nobody else.'” Music was embedded in the city’s Treme neighborhood, where he was raised. During Christmas Eve Mass, he sometimes sang along to “O Come All Ye Faithful.” But Boutte said Stevie Wonder’s “Someday at Christmas” best embodies the purpose and hope of the Christmas season. “One of these days, we’ll get it straight and we will have a really beautiful Christmas,” he said. “I don’t know if it’ll be this year.”

Big Freedia, bounce queen of New Orleans

Freedia grew up in a Baptist church and has never shied away from her faith, filling her Instagram profile with booty-shaking videos and prayer hand emojis. “Being that I’m a Black, gay artist, I’m not afraid to let people know that I believe in God,” Freedia said. She started in her church choir, later became choir director, and has gone on to record a handful of Christmas songs that are “strictly Big Freedia.” Among her favorites? Freedia’s “Santa is a Gay Man.” Her family didn’t have much growing up, but her parents always found a way to make Christmas joyful. “They made sure that they went hard and did everything in their power to make sure that we woke up with gifts and we were thankful for the day that Christ was born,” she said.

Tarriona “Tank” Ball, lead singer of Tank and the Bangas

Ball is known for blending genres, with a sound that’s both playful and full of soul. Her grandfather was the preacher in the Baptist church where she was raised. “I think church gave me a big moral compass, just about how to treat elders or community, family,” she said. Some of her favorite Christmas songs are Eartha Kitt’s “Santa Baby,” anything by Donny Hathaway, and “Silent Night” by The Temptations. Singing feels like church, she said, and she hopes that the audience can feel that spirituality when they hear her sing “Silent Night.” “I hope people feel closer to God. I hope they feel comforted.”

Leroy Jones, jazz trumpeter

Jones is part of the Preservation Hall collective, a group of musicians who play in a tiny venue in the French Quarter, where you can hear New Orleans jazz every day of the week — entirely acoustic. He’s recorded an album of Christmas hymns in three-part trumpet harmony, including one he loves most, “Away in a Manger.” The song brings the listener back to the night Christ was born, Jones said. “The lyrics to that song really paint the picture for that whole scene and that night, when he was discovered by (the Three Wise Men), which was probably a magnificent experience.”

Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes, accordion and harmonica player

Christmas in Bruce Barnes’ childhood home was full of instruments and songs. “They would play music, especially during the Christmas season, all night long,” he said. “Blues, blues and more blues.” Barnes still plays some of those classics, including “Christmas Tears” by Freddie King. His family were sharecroppers. “So everything around Christmas meant that, for the most part, they could get some relief from the everyday hardship of doing what they were tasked to do,” he said. Through music, they created “magic and medicine and healing.” His mother’s side was Baptist, his father’s side was Pentecostal. Other blues sung at Christmas were spiritual songs that reminded you not to forget about those who were struggling, said Barnes, asking God to bless the soldiers, the wounded ones, the ones on welfare, and people everywhere.

Irma Thomas, soul queen of New Orleans

Irma Thomas has been a titan in New Orleans music for decades, and at 84, she’s still singing at church. “I’ll probably be singing in my church choir till I cross over,” she said.
Thomas has long been a mainstay in the gospel tent at Jazz Fest, and she calls gospel music a form of prayer and praise. “A lot of times when you can’t find the right words to say a prayer, you can just find a good song, a good gospel song, and just sing it, and it’s coming from the heart,” she said. Thomas has twice recorded “O Holy Night,” a song she hopes gives people solace at Christmas, no matter what they might be going through. The song reminds people to have hope. “All I want to do is bring joy to folk,” she said.