DR JOHN

GIVEN the range of Mac Rebennack’s decades-long journeying and his talent for transmuting roots and folk music into a rock’n’roll style so distinctive it’s almost its own genre, it’s odd that he never made a country album. After all, country music was one of his first loves: along with the blues and jazz records in his father’s collection, he grew up listening to Hank Williams and Roy Rogers, and came to admire its strong narrative tradition. With Things Happen That Way, which he saw through to completion before his death in 2019, Rebennack is both paying respect and indulging his affection.

It was recorded in 2017, first at co-producer Shane Theriot’s home in New Orleans, then in a local studio and finally, as his health deteriorated, at Rebennack’s house. As the title suggests, it’s heavy on the covers: there are two Hank Williams numbers, two songs recorded by Johnny Cash (the title track, written by Jack Clement, and the Willie Nelson-penned “Funny How Time Slips Away”), one reworking of a Traveling Wilburys tune and one gospel traditional. A rerecorded “I Walk On Guilded Splinters” also features, with three new originals completing the set. To realise these songs, Rebennack called on New Orleans session players, while Theriot does most of the acoustic and electric guitar work.

It’s a record inevitably weighted with both the memory of a singular artist and broader intimations of mortality – “Funny How Time Slips Away” is a poignant choice of opener – that sees Rebennack in a reflective mood on his original songs. At some point, he must have known for certain this would be his last album, but there’s nothing maudlin here. Though Things Happen That Way has its sparky moments, it plays more as a resonant and well-pitched, easy-swinging record full of cross-generational spirit and the pleasure won from collaborative creativity.

Despite the covers’ original sources, it’s far from a strict country set; every track is slung Rebennack’s way via blues, Southern soul, R&B, gospel and boogie-woogie, with fresh arrangements and piano and/or keyboard doing most of the melodic lead work, his voice, with its familiar growl, capable and true. There’s no hint of voodoo shtick – that was expunged long ago.

After that bittersweet opener, the deep-grooved take on “Ramblin’ Man” swings in, with