Big Freedia Goes Gospel; Shannon McNally Has a Long Night

Big Freedia

The Queen Diva shows her spiritual side, and Shannon McNally shows her love for J.J. Cale.

[Updated] Recently, Big Freedia previewed her upcoming album when she played what has been announced as the final SXSW Music Festival. Last Thursday at Stubbs’ in Austin, she was joined onstage by a choir to give the audience a first listen to the gospel she plans to record for her next album.

She has yet to announce a title or release date for the album, but she has released one track, “Take My Hand,” which is more like house gospel and true to Big Freedia’s energy and big picture. (Unfortunately, I can only link to it; it’s not embeddable at this point.)

It’s a project Big Freedia talked about in the second season of her Fuse reality show, Big Freedia Means Business. She told Black Enterprise, “God does everything for a reason. He put this on my heart. I had a spiritual awakening one day. Here in New Orleans. And I think that it is just time for me to give God the glory and the praise that he so much deserves for just keeping me so long in the game of music and the longevity.”

It’s just part of Big Freedia’s hustle. Recently, we announced Boyfriend’s upcoming album, In the Garden, which will be released on Big Freedia’s Queen Diva Records. In February, Nola.com reported that the planned boutique Hotel Freedia just off Frenchmen Street is back in process after two-years of delays.

Big Freedia will play Jazz Fest on Saturday, April 26, probably before Babyface on the Congo Square Stage.

Shannon McNally will return to New Orleans to play Jazz Fest on Friday, April 25, and she has a new track, “It’s Going to Be a Long Night.” While in New Orleans, McNally linked herself to some of the giants of roots music, working with members of Dylan’s band, hanging out with Bobby Charles, and recording an album of his songs, Small Town Talk, produced by Charles’ long-time friend Dr. John.

In 2013, I interviewed McNally about Bobby Charles and his circle of musical friends.

As she explains on the Bandcamp page for “It’s Going to Be a Long Night,” it’s inspired in part by another legend, J.J. Cale. She wrote:

Real J.J. Cale fans smell each other out really fast. We are like Trekkies. We get this little twitch in our eye when he comes up kind of like a junkie who gave up heroin solely because they didn’t want to die, not because they found addiction morally repugnant, had sunk to great moral lows or they didn’t like it anymore. They just didn’t want to die but they still like talking about it. When true J.J. Cale fans find each other there is always an audible sigh of admiration and a little head shaking that signals their complete delight in joining forces with a kindred spirit to reminisce about their low fi anti-hero. Such was my experience upon meeting Adam Wright, a staff writer and wonderful guitar player who Mike McCarthy had introduced me to at Carnival Music Publishing. Writing with strangers in office rooms is a hit or miss affair. It is an art all unto itself. It’s a kind of speed dating and you have to quickly establish a starting point. Adam and I had each had a gig the night before and were a little crispy this particular morning. We began telling each other tidbits of silly things that only happen to musicians doing “working-mans gigs” and the swirling chaos of alcohol, late nights, bar personnel and neurodivergent personality patterns of our bandmates. “It’s Gonna Be A Long Night” came together pretty fast from there.

Updated on March 21 at 3:05 p.m.

The story has been updated to include the link to Big Freedia’s “Take My Hand.”