Les Getrex is one of New Orleans' undiscovered musical treasures. A product of the culturally profuse 6th Ward, Les has backed up many of the Crescent City’s most profound heavyweights, from Johnny Adams and Lee Dorsey to Ernie K-Doe, Walter “Wolfman" Washington, Barbara George and Marva Wright. He spent eight years in the guitar chair of the mighty Fats Domino orchestra and another five with the late Rockin’ Dopsie & his Zydeco Twisters.

For his third solo album, the versatile guitarist and powerfully persuasive singer weighs in with a set of blues, R&B and country standards. The songs range from Les’s terrific reading of the ancient Mardi Gras Indian anthem ‘Indian Red’ to Kermit Ruffin’s great 21st-century lament, ‘I Can’t Take My Baby Nowhere,’ complete with trumpet commentary from the composer and some salacious lyrical changes by Getrex himself.

Les hits a lot of musical stops along the way, swinging stone country tunes like ‘Tennessee Waltz’ and Hank Williams’' ‘Jambalaya’; pumping up a pair of pop chestnuts with his lounge-favorite arrangement on ‘Misty’ and a hot 2nd-line romp on ‘When My Dreamboat Comes Home’; paying devout homage to personal favorites like Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland (‘Farther On Up the Road’) and Otis Redding (‘Mr. Pitiful’); digging deeper into blues with John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom‘ and ‘I Found A Love’ by the Falcons; striking another bawdy note with the irrepressible Chick Willis version of ‘Stoop Down Mama’; and shining on three outstanding selections from the Ray Charles mid-1950s Atlantic Records catalog: ‘A Fool For You,’ ‘Hallelujah I Love Her So”’ and ‘Mary Ann.’

Getrex is in splendid form throughout, ably abetted by an all-star cast of Crescent City characters anchored by bassists Alonzo Johnson and Vitas Paukstatis and drummers Dwayne Nelson and Ken Thomas. Raymond Fletcher (organ), Bob Andrews and Nick Farkas (piano) and Keith Vinet take care of the keyboards; Earl “"Skip”" Thompson is on percussions; and the stellar horn section of trumpeter Tracy Griffin and saxophonists Tom Fitzpatrick and Jerry Jumonville is joined by Ruffins and trombonist Corey Henry for the final cut, along with drumming legend, Shannon Powell.