The Preservation Hall Jazz Band recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of it’s founding and with that occasion, the current members were left to consider the sort of soul-searching questions that every institution should ask themselves. in the case, of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the questions they asked themselves were how do they make a uniquely 20th century art form connect to 21st century audiences? And how do they continue to pay homage to the genre’s legendary artists? The answer was pretty simple – spend the next 50 years looking forward. Their forthcoming album That’s It! does this by having the band play original compositions for the first time in their history, and based on the material that i’ve heard the band sounds truly liberated. 

Just as they announced a week-long residency at the McKittrick Hotel to celebrate the release of the new album, the band released the next single from the album, “Rattlin’ Bones.” The track shuffles and swings in the classic Dixieland fashion, all while telling a humorous but also kind of frightening story of coming across skeletons rising from the cemetery on St. James Day, and walking about restlessly. You can almost hear bone rattling upon bone …