Leo Nocentelli - Another Side

 

First-ever solo album by legendary guitarist Leo Nocentelli of The Meters

All tracks previously unreleased and never-before-heard in any format!

Featuring Allen Toussaint, James Black and both George Porter Jr. and Zigaboo Modeliste of The Meters

Recorded at Cosimo Matassa's Jazz City Studio in New Orleans in the early 1970s

New Orleans color edition pressed on purple, yellow and green wax!

Liner notes by Sam Sweet with additional contributions by Pesuky of Nocentelli, featuring a new interview with Leo Nocentelli

Vinyl plated at RTI in California

LP includes 20-page booklet with hand-written lyrics by Leo Nocentelli

Design by the muti Grammy-winning designer Masaki Koike

"Things happen for a reason, man." — Leo Nocentelli

At just 16, Leo Nocentelli was backing up Otis Redding. Soon after, he was playing on hits for Lee Dorsey, The Supremes, and The Temptations. As an original member of The Meters, Leo wrote instant classics "Cissy Strut" and "Hey Pocky A-Way," but his greatest moment on record may be totally unknown, until now...

Recorded at Cosimo Matassa's Jazz City Studio in New Orleans in the early ‘70s and then lost to the ages, Another Side is one of Leo Nocentelli's most personal and definitive moments ever cut to tape. A mixture of funky folk and rootsy, raw emotion (think Bill Withers and James Taylor meeting Allen Toussaint at Link Wray's Three Track Shack), this previously unheard album shines like the sun on a spring day on the New Orleans fairgrounds.

Backing Nocentelli is an all-star line-up of New Orleans royalty, including Allen Toussaint (piano), James Black (drums), and both George Porter Jr. (bass) and Zigaboo Modeliste (drums) of The Meters. Deeply introspective, the album features nine original songs by Nocentelli, plus a soulful rendition of Elton John's "Your Song." Half a century later, these recordings sound just as fresh and engaging as the day they were recorded. What makes Another Side even more extraordinary, however, is the fact that the album — which could have easily become a classic in the ‘70s singer-songwriter canon — sat untouched for decades; miraculously surviving the devastating blow of Hurricane Katrina, only to be found 2,000 miles away at a Southern California swap meet in 2018 by record collector Mike Nishita.

The album's incredible journey is documented in the liner notes by Sam Sweet (New York Times, Los Angeles Times), who spoke with Nocentelli and Nishita about the recording process and re-discovery of the tapes. Sweet's full notes appear in the release's accompanying booklet alongside hand-written lyrics by Leo Nocentelli. Rounding out the package are original designs and layout by the multi Grammy-winning designer Masaki Koike.

Nocentelli fondly refers to this as his "country-and-western album," painting a picture of a young man yearning to find a sense of purpose. "I was going through some changes which were reflected in the songs that I wrote during that time," he tells Sweet. Among them is the mid-tempo "Getting Nowhere," in which he expresses a sense of frustration, as he watches others find success around him. Similarly, "Till I Get There" details a man who is struggling to persevere in his goals. In the soaring "Tell Me Why," meanwhile, the singer contemplates the existence of God.

Other songs center around fictional characters. "Pretty Mittie," for instance, is sung from the perspective of a farmer who longs to give up his arduous life for the city. "You've Become a Habit" is about a man who falls for a sex worker named Fancy. "Riverfront" is based on stories that singer Aaron Neville shared, about his days working on the New Orleans waterfront. Nocentelli also chose to perform one cover: Elton John's breakthrough hit, "Your Song." The guitarist made the recently-released ballad his own-infusing it with a loping, head-nodding cadence, ever so tastefully "funkdafied" in true New Orleans fashion.

 

 

1. Thinking Of The Day

2. Riverfront

3. I Want To Cry

4. Pretty Mittie

5. Give Me Back My Loving

6. Getting Nowhere

7. Till I Get There

8. You've Become A Habit

9. Tell Me Why

10. Your Song

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