Chuck Carbo

The success of the Spiders, New Orleans’ foremost R&B vocal group of the 1950s, owed much to the mellifluous vocal tones of Chuck Carbo. He later launched a credible solo comeback, issuing a pair of Rounder albums during the 1990s: Drawers Trouble in 1993 and The Barber Blues in 1996.

Gospel-rooted Hayward Carbo shared lead duties with his brother Leonard, better known as Chick, throughout the Spiders’ Imperial years. Those sessions produced the two-sided hit “I Didn’t Want to Do It”/“You’re the One,” the suggestive 1954 single “I’m Slippin’ In,” and the 1955 release “Witchcraft,” later revived by Elvis Presley. Imperial’s New Orleans mainstay Dave Bartholomew produced the quintet’s entire 1954–1956 catalog and supplied several of its strongest songs, among them the risqué “The Real Thing.” After leaving the group, Carbo cut scattered 45s for Imperial, Rex, and Ace, while Chick recorded for Atlantic, Vee-Jay, and Instant.

Carbo never abandoned performing altogether, yet he earned his living as a lumber truck driver during slower periods. In 1989 he scored a regional success with his version of Jeannie & Jimmy Cheatham’s “Meet Me with Your Black Drawers On,” a song he later reprised on Drawers Trouble. That comeback set reunited him with pianists Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack and Edward Frank. The Barber’s Blues sustained his renewed visibility by adding two further Cheatham compositions and the second-line anthem “Hey, Mardi Gras! (Here I Am).”