Mashed Potato Records (MPR) is a new recording label and project in New Orleans that - borrowing inspiration from community-supported Mississippi Records and the field recordings of folk music ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax - is currently seeking to bring the music of New Orleans’ under-represented street and club musicians to fresh listeners all over the world.

Mashed Potato Records is the brain-child of New Orleans-based musicians and producers Duff Thompson (Duff Thompson & The Full Grown Men) and Sam Doores, (Sam Doores & The Tumbleweeds).

As well playing music, Thompson and Doores have spent the last two years capturing the sounds and songs of New Orleans’ lesser-known but up-and-coming street musicians and local singer-songwriters in analogue on an old reel-to-reel recorder, using make-shift studios set up in the musician’s homes, or tour vans. Often captured in a single take to preserve the energy that typifies New Orleans’ music, MPR intends to use the recordings to create compilation albums showcasing New Orleans’ richly eclectic music scene.

As well as a running a Kickstarter campaign, they will also host a fund-raising event on Friday January 12^th at The Tigermen Den, 3113 Royal St., New Orleans, 40117 in support of the project.

“We are focusing primarily on original music informed by the musical traditions of New Orleans,” said Doores. “It might be experimental but it all comes from a deep understanding of New Orleans’ many music traditions.”

“Studios are expensive,” said Doores. “We wanted to create a sliding scale studio situation over the last couple of years so we could record musicians, document what is happening right now New Orleans, create a complication album, and open up avenues and opportunities for musicians at a price they can afford.”

The proposed compilations will include Twain & The Deslondes, Carver Baronda, Duff Thomspon and the Full Grown Men, The Lostines, Good Gollies, Max Bien Khan, Johnathan Henley and Jackson and the Janks, The Lostines, Leonie Evans, Pony Hunt, Duff Thompson, Carver Baronda, Liza Cane, Jackson and the Janks, Chris Acker and the Growing Boys, Lee Walker and Sabine McCalla, and Esther Rose.

 “I believe in the project 100 percent,” said Esther Rose. “We have a powerful community of musicians and songwriters here; people live their music in New Orleans, it’s ingrained in the culture. What is lacking are ways to get that music out into the world. That is why the Mashed Potato project is so great – it’s a way to show the world what New Orleans is doing.”

Rose recorded her debut album, This Time Last Night, with MPR. While on tour, she said, she gave her CD to a friend who then, on his own reconnaissance, forwarded it to Jack White’s record label.

“And I got a call from Jack White asking if I wanted to record on his new album,” said Rose. “It was so exciting and so beautifully random, and it came about because I had something to send out into the world. Just one random trip, and one random connection. That is how the world works, you have to get your music out there.”

“What I love about New Orleans is that not everybody is trying to get famous, or competing with each other like in places like Nashville, where the industry attitude often takes the community aspect out of the scene,” said Sam Doores.  “Mashed Potato Record’s short-term goals are to get the funds to release our first compilation but our long-term goals are to find a permanent home, be able to record artists at a price they can afford, and bring more interest into New Orleans evolving musical scene as a whole as well as each artists’ individual projects.”

 “And,” said Doores, “the rest of the world is always interested in New Orleans’ music, whether they know it or not. So much of the world’s music comes from here; New Orleans is a creative hotbed. What we are trying to capture on our CDs is what New Orleans musicians are doing now.  We want to spread that word.  And bring your dancing shoes.”

Mashed Potato Records will present Tuba Skinny, Jackson & The Janks, Duff Thompson & The Invisible Mans, Pony Hunt and other special guests on Friday January 12 2017 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at The Tigermen Den, 3113 Royal St., New Orleans, 40117.

More information about Mashed Potato Records is available here:

More information about the event is available here: