Vocalist, percussionist, consummate entertainer; Snug Harbor mainstay; scion of one of New Orleans’ most celebrated musical families: Charmaine Neville chats about guests from Aretha Franklin to Bill Clinton, plus the importance of passing the music on to the next generation.
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[Neville at Snug Harbor, December 2025. Photo by Camilo León-Quijano.]
“We’re not afraid of anything.”
Charmaine Neville, 11/3/2022: The thing about New Orleans is this: when it comes to music, we’re not afraid of anything. We want you to be able to sit in. The universities would bring the kids [to Snug Harbor] on Monday nights– they would take up the whole balcony upstairs, and they knew that I would get them on stage to perform.
Hannah: Are you talking about the Loyola program, or Tulane, or …
Charmaine: Everywhere, from everywhere. I’m not just talking about in New Orleans; I’m talking about kids would come here from Duke, from Oxford, from everywhere. I would get whole universities bring their kids wherever I was playing so that they could get on stage. They would come because New Orleans is the music mecca.
Most of that was at Snug, but it could be anywhere– I play at a lot of different places where the young musicians end up. They understand it’s about the music; they know that I’m going to pull them up on stage and make ‘em sing, play their instrument, or whatever.
It didn’t matter if I was playing it at the Pontchartrain Vineyards [in Bush, LA – now called Wild Bush Farm + Vineyard]. I’d make the [little] kids come on stage and open up the case with all the percussion in it: “Just pick something and do what you want.” It was always so much fun.
I’ve had singers and other musicians tell me, “You shouldn’t do that” and I’m like, “Why?” I’m not afraid. I want you to get up here because you’re next.
I have a picture of Trombone Shorty, when the trombone was bigger than him. And he was on stage with me! I have a picture of Davell Crawford– he’s been playing piano since he was two.
[Laughter]
Kids are important. My granddaughter [unintelligible word] is upset with me that I sent her drums, a piano– the next instrument I’m going to send is a tuba…. [laughter] She’ll love it. Eventually.
So, when people would say things to me like, “Don’t bring the kids on stage, don’t do this, you don’t want to have another singer on stage with you–” I’m not afraid to let anybody get up on the dang stage. Because you’re going to do what you do, and I’m going to do what I do. The whole thing is about you being up there and getting the chance to spotlight.
I’ve had other well-known singers say to me, “I would never do that.”
Well, that’s you.
“On the shores of the Mississippi River…”
Charmaine: I’m going to tell you the worst thing that ever happened. I invited this guy to sit in. He had just moved here, and I heard he was a guitar player. I said, “Why don’t you come and sit in with us one Monday night at Snug Harbor?”
He said, “I’m from New York. We play real music.”
I said, “What?” I said, “I lived in New York. We played music in every club that’s there. But I’m going to tell you this: the music that you’re poorly interpreting started here.”
The music is the whole thing about this city. If it wasn’t for the music that started on the shores of the Mississippi River, from the slave ships that came into this country and just changed everything…. It left here and went to Chicago, it went to New York, it went to Tennessee, but everything started right here.
Guest stars & regular band members
Charmaine: I’ve had so many great people come to sit in with me at Snug Harbor, you’d be surprised. One night Aretha Franklin came– oh my gosh, it was tremendous. She and her son. She just walked up on stage, and I said, “Amasa [Miller, piano player], move!” [laughter] And she sat down and she played with us and it was phenomenal.
James Brown has sat in with me at Snug Harbor. Bill Clinton!
Laura: I heard about that!
Charmaine: Played saxophone. And also his brother–
Laura: Was he [Bill] good?
Charmaine: He was fabulous. And then he got mad with me because I… [laughs] I did the song about the “Right Key, but the Wrong Keyhole.” It was during ‘The Blue Dress Debacle.’ He leaned over and he told me, [does a voice] “Charmaine….” [laughter] because he had that drawl–“Don’t ever sing that song again.”
… I said, “Okaaay.” He stayed for the second show, and I did it again. I said, “This is for you.” [laughter] Ya know, don’t tell me not to do something. The Secret Service guys were like, “Yeeah…”
Bill was something else. But still, we’re friends. After Katrina–I didn’t even know what cell phones were, I still had a house phone– but after Katrina I had bought a little cell phone so I could be in touch with people. And it rang! And it was Bill Clinton and Hillary, and they was like, “We can find you, wherever you are.” You know? They said, “We’re just wondering how you’re doing, and what do you need… .” Because they had come to my house and sat in my kitchen. I still get Christmas cards from Hillary, and she’ll call me every once in a while and we’ll talk to each other. She’s a sweetheart. People really don’t understand who she truly is, but she’s a strong woman. She is such a fighter. And her daughter is the same way. She’s grown up to be that fighter too.
Hannah: Going back to Aretha for a second, was that pre-Katrina or after Katrina?
Charmaine: It was after Katrina. [Another time,] I was in London playing at Ronnie Scott’s, and all of a sudden the caliber of the piano changed and I turned around and there’s Paul McCartney on the piano! And I’m like, “What?! Thank you.” [laughter] One of my loves… Of course, my real love was John Lennon….
Laura: I like George Harrison….
Hannah: I would take any of The Beatles, personally….
[laughter]
Charmaine: And of course, people like Fats Domino would come and sit in, and Allen Toussaint… When I tell you so many great people came and sat in and played… It was tremendous. Lionel Hampton came. Elton John came one night!
Hannah: Who’s your regular band besides Amasa?
Charmaine: Oh gosh, I raised most of them. Russell Batiste [Jr.], he played with me. Harry Connick, Jr. was my piano player for years. Let’s see, Raymond Weber. Herlin Riley was my drummer for a while. Yes, and matter of fact, he’s my drummer now. And his son played with me for years, when his dad left and went and started playing on Monday nights somewhere else. Unfortunately, we lost his son not too long ago. Gerald French, he was on drums. Who was on bass? Jesse Boyd was my upright bass player for a while. Professor Jesse Boyd, I will say, because he’s a professor at Loyola. He played with me for many years. Let’s see… I had a guy who played steel pans with me, his last name was Boyd too.
I had every conglomeration that you can imagine. My father [Charles Neville] would sit in on saxophone, and then Al Hirt… Drummers from all over the world… Buddy Guy. Oh my God. I’ve had drummers from– you can name it, any drummer that you name has come and sat in with me. Because I’m a drummer, but I don’t play a set anymore. I’m the percussionist.
Hannah: Did you ever play kit on Mondays?
Charmaine: No. I never played a kit at Snug Harbor.
Hannah: Did you guys rehearse, or did you not because you guys had the weekly thing?
Charmaine: “rehearsal” was on Mondays: We would go there, and do a sound check before the gig, and that was our rehearsal. My thing was baptism by fire. Anybody who came on stage with me [doing a voice] “Are we going to rehearse?” … “No: You’re going to get up here and you’re going to play.”
Hannah: Did you usually have at least the same instrumentation, like drum, bass, piano and sax?
Charmaine: Yes. And then other people would come in, and you know. One night we had a whole horn section: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band!
Hannah: That’s a horn section!
Charmaine: Tell me about it. We all went to school together, so we all knew each other forever. I think that was a New Year’s Eve, and we played at Snug Harbor and the stage wasn’t big enough for all of us. [laughter] It was so much fun, we had a great time.
One Halloween I went as the Invisible Woman, and I was never on stage. I was upstairs singing. I had my dress on a hanger.
Laura: [laughter] That’s a good idea….
Charmaine: And I think that night the piano player was James Booker. That was waaay a long time ago, believe me.
James Booker was actually the first piano player I ever worked with. At a little place called Cosimo’s. Him, my dad, James Black on drums, and… who was it? Ramsey McClean, on upright bass. … [Ponders a minute, then with a smile in her voice] Little Queenie. Was my singer. Oh my God, I miss her so much. And Marva Wright. And Marva played at Snug too, on Saturdays or something–she had a weekly thing there.
Snug Harbor–and before, when it was Valentine’s and Faubourg’s–has seen a transmission of different musicians from around the world. When I was starting out there in the ‘80s, it was the mainstay; that was the big club that was on Frenchmen Street.
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Interviewed by Hannah Kreiger-Benson and Laura DeFazio, Bywater Bakery, 11/3/2022
Initial transcription by GoTranscript
Corrected by Faith Carr (UNO Public History grad student, Prof. Max Krochmal)
Interview edited for clarity & concision by HKB & LD
Posted to Frenchmen Notes 4/24/2026
