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Hear New Orleans’s Roots With Henry Butler

For music fans whose idea of New Orleans is No Limit vs. Cash Money, take a minute to check out Henry Butler. The 58-year-old piano legend is the reigning champion of the classic NOLA gumbo of Afro-Caribbean funk-soul that birthed the oft-sampled Meters in the ‘60s and the syncopated Bounce beats of Mannie Fresh in the ‘90s.

Blind since birth, Butler’s also a respected photographer and even finds time to tool around in classic cars in his spare time. He’s playing the Cutting Room in NYC tonight and the Blues by the Bay Festival in Eureka, CA on August 31, so go pay respect to a true O.G. After the jump, check out a video of Butler at NO’s Preservation Hall, and a track off his latest CD, PiaNOLA Live.

Henry Butler “North American Idiosyncrasies”

from PiaNOLA Live (2008)