Papa Mali

It’s been a hefty wait since the release of Papa Mali’s careermaking debut album Thunder Chicken, which allmusic.com
called “one of the few truly wild and unruly records to
come from the rock & roll tradition in the 21st century."

It’s not easy to improve upon praise like that, but in the
words of Papa himself, “I am here to bear witness and testify
- the waiting has paid off. Do Your Thing not only delivers on
the promise of my first record, it documents more than a few
journeys and transformations that have occured since then. It
features friends, some of them legendary. It gets inside my
life and spills into yours. It slices, dices and crawls on its belly
like a reptile. It's seductive and sexy... a mesmerizing and
provocative trip into a dark night sky spiked with creamy
overtones of hope and majestic clouds of everlasting fuzzy
redemption. The audio equivalent of a warm mudbath on
Jupiter. Sure, it's just a little bit strange... but in a familiar, comforrting sort of way. And best of all? It's Here!"

The aforementioned legned who came to do their thing:

KIRK JOSEPH - founding member of the Dirty Dozen Brass
Band, Kirk is responsible in large part for the modern New
Orleans brass band sound. But we prefer to think of him as
the James Jamerson of the sousaphone.
BIG CHIEF MONK BOUDREAUX - worldwide ambassador
of the proud Mardi Gras Indian tradition, Monk has been
"masking Indian" since the 1950's and performed at the very
first New Orleans Jazzfest in 1970. He appears on this record
speaking, chanting, and playing percussion. As a further
honor to "Pops" (as he refers to Papa Mali), Monk enlisted his
own tribe The Golden Eagles (and The Rev Goat Carson),
leading them through the blistering call-and-response of Early
In The Morning and heading up a drum circle on Sugarland.
H E N R Y B U T L E R - referred to as "the pride of New
Orleans" by Dr. John, Henry is no less than the singular New
Orleans piano giant of his generation, and keeper of the torch
previously held by James Booker and Professor Longhair.
Tears were shed when Henry finished performing H o n e y b e e with the band, maybe most notably by the cameraman filming
the event, who said he felt "unworthy to be in the room". Papa
Mali later reflected, "the recorded version with him on piano
is so beautiful that it will be hard to play that song live without
him". Kirk Joseph just smiled and said several times, “my
mom would love this song.” It’s hard to imagine higher praise.