At 29 years old, Luke Winslow-King is already a bit of an old soul, channeling the bygone sounds of Delta blues, ragtime, cabaret and retro folk in his own music. A Michigan native who relocated to New Orleans during his late teens, he brews up his own brand of neo-traditionalist gumbo with The Coming Tide, a record that rolls the eclectic sounds of the Big Easy into a single tracklist.
On the album’s title track, Winslow-King trades harmonies with bandmate Esther Rose over stuttering drums, horns and bottleneck slide guitar. It’s gospel music set to a soundtrack of jazz and early rock & roll, the sort of song you might hear blasting from a juke joint or emanating from a crackly AM radio.
“‘The Coming Tide’ was one of those songs that just kind of wrote itself,” says Winslow-King, whose album hits stores on April 23. “It’s a warning to take shelter.”