![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsZ4ZE2rCCw0uNGhVe8g6QzdVAFJFYrDvAUmbGlp-u3hYJeaFGV9f41dnceuhxPZl1VI74hxetf1S8YuRSo1e62tJJovG3zEQzvJhx9umYFiCcQt5MFj6Xpwvi_a2ep-75NlJuQpxN0Q/s320/it.jpg)
I can't let Mardi Gras week pass without another Black History missive, to celebrate another milestone birthday for another icon of everything.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwCawpc_2XlBm48Wt2EpmPHyiS9l8bbD4Ugh2BLlTGBTg5S9oj152GqXgLS9sARcIz243PehjK6jH84GfGdC1LVllU1TqA5fqfaNvsCyuJ04ny5T2FZ1xK39OoxZzhMV6qf4LTD91kdWk/s320/it2.jpg)
Look at that picture, when is it from? She's been around forever, since kinescopes were the primary means of archiving TV broadcasts, even.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwNOLQd6TZDdxoGmiOg-WRKDtnB-d6FO-JeoCRXn9VisCKaZhXluWRXrsOgWkYTbtwbIXIY6vH9HT9UrJjUiW3du7aSUPJnN9CjSTB12HYe4f-2XC88kQZlUHuKvEw9EUvsZYI118OEcA/s320/it4.jpg)
She still records and gigs, too. A whole Gospel Soul concept now. I guess now that Little Richard has gone, someone's gotta carry the torch.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ0unNVpkZxVZ573uIfBw9UNbTeO3bEOAmzy3RX0NpJVYTpLDR41qOmQcBRuwzCtTwRZMB2Scxlc4NB_0R082FE0ye4PJ2Jx3P17EnHtpnglpv390idbMdKEgxthKmUJGq3NIR0TjbvAE/s320/it5.jpg)
They call her the Soul Queen of New Orleans, but she's really one of the greatest living Soul Queens of the planet by now.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhToP6ZRYMt-LU6aX4E59RdWF2-zwA3reigyD3I54lmS3ITmLvaFJih_oJSCJQ0JwAhbjXavK1PIV1ZTJvkrsqECxPigxnB_HUQfB_Imp0FbC4U9q9My_5vripNanEz64-a5NF_Z-7SohU/s320/it6.jpg)
She had her first Top 25 R&B smash in 1959, can you believe that? She's been in the charts since before most of us were but glimmers.
Leave it to her to be born exactly a week prior to Mardi Gras Day too, which jumps around depending on when Ash Wednesday falls and in 1941 was the 25th. She probably wanted to get here a week in advance, to prepare.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlpxsX2hOWAJwcBzZH4MJAl_ID4-Ru9m00wpdFedWiqgD-pjVd7ijFDYOnP0dJCRWDZzN3v5ABxFTtDFgPScEVL6_bEHYVzzumfi0QYe_TNn-TYVkHVkBIeQm1EeYBx3McJEdAFBs580A/s320/it7.jpg)
When the history of Soul is written, there's gonna have to be a whole Irma Thomas -- born this day in 1941 -- chapter or six. One for each decade of her career, maybe.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlePEA5ZMHWnb90HV5lUVS3Tw9aaX2F4V1xp298yBSjTJ94fLOH8sNN16V2Pu1XrP8aQXx5_PkitbvwpzqcrV0hpDaxu_HG-rMeTTnMoJMyvh0q-kQ0h3Zal1iv8QBIKAA068H8ykPThc/s320/it8.jpg)
She's explaining during this set from 23 years ago about how she's come down with bronchitis. You'd never know unless she told you, the way she belts this hour out.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3_ceFGhLY_tapO5ajlJ4o9k9VoHGA26CjSdqQwH1P7roU6_9Cyhz3VpqbKjMLI0tP30WglP8B511oe49Oh_xfFijgXCnG9CukWauJSmCfjwzX4Z9zOQbu3lJi3hOaI0WD1QOKDWowBAY/s320/it9.jpg)
Even more astonishing, she invites the crowd to come see her later that night, in a club. Because she's playing again, in a few hours. Bronchitis never stood a chance, did it? Too bad no one taped that one.
Irma Thomas
Fair Grounds Race Course
Jazz & Heritage Festival
New Orleans, Louisiana USA
4.22.1998
01 Chicken Shack
02 To Be Real/Irma Thomas intro
03 Love Makes a Woman
04 The Story of My Life
05 Love Don't Get Better Than This
06 Hold Me While I Cry
07 You Can Have My Husband
08 Hip Shakin' Mama
09 I Did My Part
10 Ruler of My Heart
11 Breakaway
12 It's Raining
13 I Done Got Over It incl. Iko Iko & Hey Pocky Way
14 band introductions/Simply the Best
15 Sing It
Total time: 1:02:19
Irma Thomas - vocals
Warner Williams - keyboards & vocals
Kim Phillips - keyboards
Arthur Bell - guitar
Robert Harvey - bass
Wilbert Widow - drums
Emile Hall - saxophones & vocals
Charles Earland III - saxophones & vocals
Frank Parker - trumpet & vocals
Marcia Ball - vocals on Track 15
master DAT capture from a multitrack mix provided by a mobile truck at the venue
retracked -- and volume fluctuations repaired throughout -- by EN, February 2021
344 MB FLAC/February 2021 archive link
344 MB FLAC/February 2021 archive link
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I'll be Black Sunday with another BHM bombshell, concerning another criminally underrated superstar.