Seventyish soul man Andre Williams has made his reputation with delightfully sleazy, foul-mouthed rhythm & blues greasy enough to fry more chickens than you, humble fan, could ever hope to eat. As David Kunian said on his Tuesday night all-Andre show on WWOZ: “He chose to build his character rather than enhance his constitution.” Which in plain English translates that it’s amazing he’s made it this long - in fact, last Christmas (in the middle of recording an EP with the Morning 40 Federation) he fell into a coma and made a totally unpredictable recovery in time to, against all odds, complete the record and play a show with them at Mardi Gras ‘07.

Last weekend, with a Sunday afternon set with the 40’s planned for Voodoo and a Sunday night gig on the roster at One Eyed Jacks, Andre was again hospitalized with a shaky prognosis. The One Eyed Jacks gig was hastily turned into a benefit show. As of today, though, apparently he’s out of bed and planning to come to New Orleans after all, and the shows are - at least as of this writing - back on.

Hey, it works for Keith Richards.