The Ruffled Crow

Directed by Lafayette-based visual artist James Tancill, the music video for the Preservation Hall / King Britt remix of St. James Infirmary by the Preservation Hall Hot 4 is an animated romp in the style of Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, etc.) that plays out like a storybook caper set against a backdrop of beloved New Orleans characters and institutions both old and new. Audiences familiar with the iconography of New Orleans music and culture will thrill as characters and beloved landmarks from the past and present find new life in an animated tableau.

Great little video, and a very well done rendition of a classic. My favorite version of the song is done by Hugh Laurie. (Yes, that Hugh Laurie; half of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder, etc. Saw his Let Them Talk concert. Most excellent.) He didn’t put out an animated video, though, and even if he did The Preservation Hall Hot 4 gets the well-deserved nod tonight.