Song of the Day 3/4: Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, “Carnival Time/Mardi Gras Strut”

Hey, gang, it’s Mardi Gras! Yeah, I don’t feel much like celebrating either, but the celebration will still go on in New Orleans today, though the weather forced Krewes to move their parades to earlier in the day. Partiers are advised collect all the Mardi Gras throws they can before Trump’s tariffs take effect – all those cheap plastic gewgaws won’t be cheap by this time next year.

Al Johnson’s “Carnival Time” is so well-known in NOLA that it became the singer-pianist’s nickname. The song was recorded in 1960 and quickly became a Mardi Gras standard. As so often happened to Black artists back then, Johnson didn’t see any royalties from it until the 1990s. This version of it was recorded in 2007 when Johnson was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, and it segues into Johnson’s then-new record “Mardi Gras Strut.”