Four Strong Winds and Showing Mike Love

New music and a preview of the week in music in New Orleans, including Dylan LeBlanc, Dale Watson and "We Heart Mike."

As Isaac approaches, we look forward to the week in music from the Cone of Uncertainty.

[The presence of Isaac in the Gulf of Mexico has slowed down Team Milk as we hunker down for its arrival. This Week's Soundtrack previews shows under the assumption that all will go on as planned. As of this writing, though, I know some are being reconsidered. Check with My Spilt Milk and/or the venues to confirm the shows previewed today.]

This Week's Spotify Soundtrack:

1. "Four Strong Winds" - Ian and Sylvia: In honor of (at this point) Tropical Storm Isaac. As much as I like Neil Young's version of this song, this one remains definitive.

2. "Elbow Grease, Spackle and Pine-Sol" - Dale Watson: The Texas honky-tonk true believer plays the Rock 'n' Bowl Saturday night. Is there another song with "spackle" in the title?  

3. "Shirley" - Creole String Beans: Weather has forced the postponement of the "We Heart Mike" benefit originally scheduled for Thursday at the House of Blues, When it's rescheduled, the Creole String Beans will be among the bands playing to help raise money for engineer and guitarist Mike Mayeux, whose medical bills to deal with a congenital heart valve defect are staggering.

4. "Chesapeake Lane" - Dylan LeBlanc: On Cast the Same Old Shadow, Shreveport's Dylan LeBlanc is charismatically brooding, so much so that "Chesapeake Lane" cries out for one more episode of Twin Peaks, where he can sing in the roadhouse. He'll be at One Eyed Jacks on Saturday night with The Lackadaisies.

5. "Scarecrow" - The Lackadaisies

6. "Highway 42" - Grayson Capps and the Lost Cause Minstrels: Grayson Capps is now based in Alabama closer to the rural region his voice and vision have always inhabited. He'll be back in New Orleans Thursday night at d.b.a. to reunite with The Stumpknockers in a benefit for Earl Maddox.

7. "Mohammed's Radio" - Susan Cowsill: Susan Cowsill would have been part of the "We Heart Mike" benefit. Here's her lovely cover of Warren Zevon's "Mohammed's Radio."

8. "Cloud 9" - The Vox and the Hound: The New Orleans indie rock band plays the Howlin' Wolf Saturday night with Gold and the Rush and Prom Date.

9. "That's My Lover" - Garland Jefferys: Jeffreys was among the crop of songwriters in New York hailed as new Dylans in the mid-1970s. He added a little reggae to his writerly songs and convincingly revisits that part of his sound on the new Wildlife Dictionary.

10. "In a Phantom Mood" - Shintaro Sakamoto: How to Live with a Phantom is self-consciously '70s album that visits the same sort of pop/rock/R&B place marked off by Todd Rundgren's work from that period.

11. "Trans Europe Express" - Senor Coconut: A faux-Latin lounge take on the Kraftwerk classic from El Baile Aleman, an album of faux-Latin lounge takes on Kraftwerk classics.

12. "Yakiniku" - Papa Grows Funk: Another band engineered by Mike Mayeux who would have played the "We Heart Mike" benefit. (Obviously, this soundtrack was developed before the show was postponed, but I enjoy the mix so we're going with it.)

13. "Funky Donkey" - Big Sam's Funky Nation: Big Sam's Funky Nation plays the final Free Friday at Tipitina's for the summer this week with Khris Royal and Dark Matter opening.

14. "Njoka" - Mokoomba: This acclaimed band from Zimbabwe has a great new album, Rising Tide.

15. Mature Themes" - Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti: The title track from the new album.

16. "Devil and the Dead" - Yeasayer: From the new album, Fragrant World. Yeasayer plays The Republic on September 7.

17. "Stop the Sun, Stop the Moon" - the Boswell Sisters: A new album reissuing material by the New Orleans-based vocal group that inspired the Pfister Sisters.

18. "Wade in the Water" - Matt Lemmler's New Orleans Jazz Revival Band: From his new album Ubuntu, an expansive take on the classic spiritual that evokes early Dr. John in the breadth of influences and sounds it incorporates.

19. "Get Ya Hustle On" - Juvenile: Juvie's supposed to have a new mixtape online this week. I've always thought of this as one of the great post-K songs as it predicted the world we were about to enter, so on the anniversary week it seems only appropriate.