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Known as the “Soul Queen of New Orleans,” Irma Thomas is a pillar of American R&B and blues history, known for her soulful voice and distinctive southern twang. She immediately made a splash with her 1959 Billboard-charting debut single, “Don’t Mess With My Man,” which she followed with a string of unforgettable hits recorded with producer Allen Toussaint including “It’s Raining” and 1964’s top 20 pop hit, “Wish Someone Would Care,” a slow-burning, self-penned soul ballad based upon her life as a 17-year-old mother of three children. Recorded the same year, Thomas’ “Time Is On My Side” inspired The Rolling Stones to record an almost note-for-note rendition that proved their first top 10 single in the US. Though Thomas’ influence was firmly entrenched in New Orleans and around the globe for over five decades, she received her first-ever GRAMMY® Award in 2007 honoring her 18th studio album, the moving post-Katrina reflection After the Rain. Among her many other honors and accolades include two Blues Music Awards for “Soul Blues Female Artist,” the Americana Honors & Awards’ 2018 “Lifetime Achievement Award For Performance, and induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Galactic has proven an equally essential cornerstone of New Orleans’ dynamic music landscape over their own past three decades. The always adventurous group has evolved continuously since first together in the 1990s as a late-night funk outfit steeped in the unique sounds of their beloved city, thanks in part to their penchant for collaborating with a wildly diverse array of guest artists. While those experiences have afforded a steady stream of musical perspectives and ideas, other elements of their work – like their role as stewards of the historic New Orleans music venue Tipitina’s – have only served to deepen Galactic’s inextricable relationship with their city and its music community, providing an even richer foundation for their ongoing explorations of new creative terrain.
Now, with Audience With The Queen, Galactic and Irma Thomas have come together to create a career-defining milestone for both artists, an uplifting joint effort that shines new light on the incomparable singer’s timeless, soulful sound. The album’s origins date back to 2010, when Thomas collaborated with Galactic on “Heart of Steel,” a standout track on the band’s critically acclaimed album, Ya-Ka-May. The song quickly became a setlist staple for both Thomas and Galactic, inspiring the possibility of further collaboration.
Both Galactic and Thomas kept busy in the years that followed with countless live performances and in the band’s case, a string of inventive studio albums like Carnivale Electros, Into the Deep, and Already Ready Already. Things got even more hectic in 2018, a year that ended with Galactic’s purchase of Tipitina’s, the uptown New Orleans club that had long been their home base for fabled all-night shows during Carnival and Jazz Fest. When the pandemic shuttered live music, however, the ever-resourceful band got creative and in 2021, they launched Tipitina’s Record Club (TRC), the all-vinyl label that’s since allowed them to share music by their favorite artists from New Orleans and beyond with fans around the world. In addition to previously unreleased recordings, historic reissues, and stunning live performances, TRC producers Ellman and Mercurio wanted the label to serve as a vehicle for them to record new material with other local artists.
“We were just going through a wish list and we thought, ‘Oh, we should do an Irma Thomas record,’” Ellman says. They first considered asking Thomas to bring a band into the studio but “then we kind of had a moment where we’re like, ‘Whoa. Maybe it should be Galactic.’ We had a label to put it out on and an audience and we had a history with her in the studio, so we approached her.”
Sessions got underway in New Orleans in December 2022 and continued through 2024. A selection of new songs were written by Galactic expressly for Thomas, with highlights including the buoyant “Where I Belong,” which sees her reflecting on an incredible life in music.
“We wanted to contemporize the whole thing, bring her into our sound,” Mercurio says. “We wanted every song to feel real coming from Irma Thomas, given the life she’s lived.”
Looking back on the recording process, Thomas says working with Galactic made her “feel youthful” in ways she didn’t expect.
“The fact that I’m sounding better now than I did when I was 20,” Thomas says, “that is definitely surprising me! But I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve been singing a long time and I’ve learned what I can and cannot do with my voice.”
With Audience With The Queen, Galactic and Irma Thomas have come together to create a dazzling testament to what’s possible when the band opens up their progressive sound to a truly iconic vocalist who has helped shape the canon of modern New Orleans music. Indeed, the album is emblematic of Galactic’s longstanding belief in collaboration and experimentation, creative choices that see them constantly evolving thanks to the contributions of fellow musicians spanning generations and the diverse spectrum of New Orleans’ awe-inspiring musical history.
“There’s something about pushing ourselves that creates even more of a spark of energy and creativity,” says Mercurio, “even after all these years. Working with different artists always brings that out in us. It shows us new possibilities and new limitations that set our goalposts in a different spot each time.”
“I feel incredibly fortunate that we’re able to work with somebody like Irma Thomas,” says Ellman. “I mean, we’ve worked with Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Cyril Neville, Corey Glover – just incredible lead singers, who have really contributed to the fabric of contemporary American music. I just feel like a kid in a candy store.”
As for the 84-year-old Soul Queen of New Orleans? “I won’t ever retire from singing,” Irma Thomas promises. “I’m having too much fun.”
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GALACTIC AND IRMA THOMAS
AUDIENCE WITH THE QUEEN
(Tchuop-Zilla Records)
Release Date: Friday, April 11, 2025
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