Creole Moon

1	You Swore 4:24
2	In the Name of You 4:52
3	Food for Thot 4:56
4	Holdin' Pattern 4:44
5	Bruha Bembe 5:25
6	Imitation of Love 4:41
7	Now That You Got Me 3:31
8	Creole Moon 8:34
9	Georgianna 3:47
10	Monkey and Baboon 7:46
11	Take What I Can Get 3:49
12	Queen of Cold 3:43
13	Litenin' 3:28
14	One 2 A.M. Too Many 4:24

Barnes & Noble

At first listen, Dr. John’s Creole Moon is a funk foray into the New Orleans sounds of the '70s. But once you get the James Brown bounce going, the lyrics jump out, capturing your ear with both their cleverness and depth. Four tunes come out of the era when Dr. John teamed with the late, great pop songwriter Doc Pomus, who penned songs for Elvis, Ray Charles, B. B. King, the Drifters, and dozens of others. “You Swore,” set to heavy bass and Dr. John’s electric keys, is a simultaneously funny and touching tale of a woman who has found her liberation, much to the chagrin of her man. Against the second-line groove set by drummer Herman Ernest, “In the Name of You” explores the bittersweet relationship between musicians and their fans. “Imitation of Love,” the most straight-ahead tune in the set, is a moving blues ballad about a romance that just won’t spark, while “One 2 A.M. Too Many” looks at the dark side of the barfly life. For an animal fable about a life of crime, “Monkey & Baboon,” written by Big Chief George Landry and updated by Dr. John, Cajun guitarist Sonny Landreath plays slide around horn arrangements by one of the original funksters, trombonist Fred Wesley. And the atmospheric title cut features the sweet saxophone of David Fathead Newman. Though quite different from Duke Elegant, Dr. John’s tribute to Duke Ellington, Creole Moon shines full and bright on the New Orleans sounds that the indigenous Night Tripper has been exploring since the ‘60s. Roberta Penn

All Music Guide

Between his various standards albums of the '90s and the heavily collaborational Anutha Zone from 1998, by the end of the millennium it'd been nearly a decade since Dr. John's last record of straight-ahead New Orleans R&B. Creole Moon rectifies that situation nicely -- it's "a personal interpretation of New Orleans" (as he says in the liner notes), and these 14 vignettes of New Orleans life are soaked in Crescent City soul. Creole Moon is also a return to the sound of his classic mid-'70s records (Dr. John's Gumbo, In the Right Place), right from the spidery electric piano and testifying back-up vocals on the opener "You Swore." Most of his band, the Lower 9-11 Musician Vocaleers, have been playing with him for close to 20 years, and provide solid accompaniment. Dr. John also invites some friends along, including David "Fathead" Newman, slide guitarist Sonny Landreth, fiddler Michael Doucet, and a tight horn section led by Fred Wesley. And there's few better than Wesley to knock out a tough James Brown groove, as he and the band do on "Food for Thot" while Dr. John vamps over the top. Most of the other songs are little more than those loose grooves, and the booklet's constant references to African-derived rhythms (or an included Creole dictionary, aka "Gumbo-izms") may be too much for most listeners, but Creole Moon shows Dr. John doing what he's done best for nearly 30 years. John Bush

Jazz Times

Never before...has Rebennack delivered such a deeply personal collection.