Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Brings Swing to Texas

If you grew up as a kid in New Orleans, Carnival season and Mardi Gras are tilings you hold onto even after you leave.

Our teacher would bring the first king cake to class in early January, and the student who found the baby would bring the next Friday’s king cake, creating a cycle of cake that lasted into February and sometimes March.

Mardi Gras itself was a school holiday. Anyone with friends on a parade route would go visit them, so you’d have a warm place to stay until it was time to go out and catch your throws. Then you’d run back inside with your loot to warm up. My favorite parts of the parades were the feathery feet of the draft horses pulling the floats, and the high school marching bands playing lively songs.

If you were a college student in the 90’s, there’s a chance you were tuned into the contemporary swing revival on your campus. It had its own aesthetic of pinstripe suits, wingtip shoes, and cool hats for the men, and victory rolls and flirty tea dresses for the ladies. The music was joyful, rhythmic, and energetic.

Taking both of those factors into account— when I heard that Big Bad Voodoo Daddy had left their California base and was touring Texas, I treated myself to a ticket. The show I went to was in New Braunfels on Fat Tuesday itself, although they also had a performance scheduled much closer in Arlington the next day When I arrived at the Brauntex Theater, our admission came with a complimentary string of Mardi Gras beads.

The core of the band consists of leader Scotty Morris (primary vocals, plus guitar and banjo) and drummer Kurt Sodergren. In addition, there were five band members on brass instruments, Joshua Levy on piano, and Dirk Shumacher on double bass.

They performed sixteen songs, then came back with two songs for their encore. The brass section was always prominent. There were plentiful trumpet and trombone solos, with the occasional saxophone or clarinet solo. The setlist included most of their top hits, such as “Save My Soul”, “Simple Songs”, “Diga Diga Doo”, and “You and Me and the Bottle Make Three.”

They played covers of other songs, such as Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher”, Louis Prima’s “Oh Marie”, and Disney’s Jungle Book’s “I Wanna Be Like You.”

They also played “Go Daddy-O”, which they had performed at the Super Bowl XXXIII lialftime show. There was only one glaring omission from the night’s setlist, but it turned out they had saved “Why Me?” and “So Long, Goodbye” for their encore.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy celebrates its 32nd year as a band this coming April. Keep your eyes open for next season’s Carnival festivities (which run from Epiphany through Shrove Tuesday).

They generally require a little travel and planning. Otherwise, who were your favorite artists you remember from way back when? Are they touring nearby in 2025? Make plans to go see a performance that hits your own nostalgia button.