Jazz Fest Playlist: The Mercy Brothers

A Spotify playlist of outlaw gospel courtesy of Mark Meaux of the Mercy Brothers.

[My Spilt Milk has asked a number of artists performing this weekend to select playlists of music that is meaningful to them. Thursday, former Bluerunner Mark Meaux plays Jazz Fest with his new band, The Mercy Brothers. Here's his list.]

These artists and songs represent a much larger tradition that The Mercy Brothers hope to tap into, using Gospel in various forms of secular music. There's an obvious joyful quality in the music, but also darkness, fear, defiance humility, etc. The fight between good and evil, the sacred and the profane, is almost never fair or unambiguous. Every shade, every degree of human vulnerability, is fair game. Plus it gives us the chance to rock the hell out in almost any style of music in the Southern Songbook. Thank goodness we stumbled upon it!

The Mercy Brothers play the Gentilly Stage at Jazz Fest Thursday at 11:15 a.m.