New Orleans-based singer\/songwriter Jerry Giddens has released his new album \u201cSad Songs at Sunset, Chapter 1.\u201d The new songs are out now on your favorite streaming service. This is his first album since 2010\u2019s \u201cDamn It Abby\u201d. The songs on the record were recorded at the end of 2025 at Marigny Studios in New Orleans with The Iguanas, John Fohl, Gal Holiday, Stumps Duh Clown, and Tom Marron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The four songs on the album each tell their own story. \u201cMeet Me at The St. Roch Tavern\u201d was written about the artist\u2019s yearlong weekly residence at the Tavern in New Orleans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Waltz of the Clowns” is a reference to the clowns who lived in Rosalie Alley (one of whom, Stumps Duh Clown, performs on the album). The song and the alley are neighborhood favorites in Bywater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Beauty of Shadows\u201d was born when the poet saw an old gothic bridge in Pittsburgh, PA. The bridge ran across the street from the courthouse to the jail. The songwriter imagined the souls that had crossed on \u201cThe Bridge of Signs,\u201d the path to the jail and the despair. And wrote of a husband calling out to his wife, a boy longing for his home in California, and a lonely man who had committed a murder for which he would never be forgiven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Wait” was written in the 1990s with alumni of Giddens\u2019 first band Walking Wounded in L.A. Says Giddens, \u201cit still rings true for me now and our con-man president appears long before his presidencies and the despair his game brings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Giddens is also developing \u201cSad Songs at Sunset\u201d into a stage play about an ancient songwriter and the stories he’s told of Murder, Mayhem, and the End of Times. The play will debut in New Orleans at The Always Lounge on July 3rd<\/sup>, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs the clowns would say: \u2018It’s never too late.\u2019 Keep playing and Keep the faith, whatever faith you hold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Track list:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Meet Me At The Saint Roch Tavern 03:22<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. The Waltz Of The Clowns 03:11<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. The Beauty Of Shadows 03:28<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Wait 05:47<\/p>\n\n\n\n Producers:<\/strong> Jerry Giddens with Adam Keil<\/p>\n\n\n\n Engineered by Adam Keil<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recorded at Marigny Studios in New Orleans, Louisiana<\/p>\n\n\n\n Musicians:<\/strong> Rod Hodges, Joe Cabral, Doug Garrison, Rene Coman, Tom Marron, Gal Holiday, Stumps Duh Clown, and Adam Keil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to Rick Nelson at Marigny Studios. Special thanks to The Iguanas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All songs written by Jerry Giddens<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jerry Giddens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jerry Giddens is a singer-songwriter, poet, and teacher. He was born on the banks of the Red River, in Shreveport, Louisiana and raised at a crossroads six miles from Ringgold, Louisiana, a small-town of 1500 people. His earliest memories of pop music are \u201cthe Fats Domino records my older sisters smuggled out of New Orleans where us kids spent many Mardi Gras and summer vacations at my Aunt Nina Ruth\u2019s home.\u201d But his earliest memories of music are those housed at Springhill Baptist Church, a little country church down the road from his home. There, the kid first sang from the stage, at age six. As a teenager he would direct the church\u2019s youth choir for Sunday services and appearances around North Louisiana. On Saturdays he and a local guitar player would sing Everly Brothers tunes for the new coffee houses springing up in the 60s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I finally escaped that lonely crossroads, I headed for LSU and freedom. On many weekends, we would head to New Orleans to see a show at the old Warehouse.\u201d In the late 70s Giddens would relocate to Southern California where his life in music accelerated. He would be a part of the vibrant 1980s and 1990s indie music scene in Los Angeles and the imagination behind Walking Wounded with whom he recorded four records: The New West, Raging Winds of Time, Hard Times, and Artificial Hearts. That early Walking Wounded played all over L.A., The Lingerie, The China Club, The Palamino, The Anti-Club, the legendary Troubadour, and a host of others. Finally, the band toured nationally. \u201cWe even headlined Tipitinas, in New Orleans, one TUL night and Better Than Ezra joined us.\u201d After the Wounded split up a New Orleans connection remained. Giddens worked with Jack Groetsch at The Howling Wolf. \u201cJack was always supportive of me. He would even let my underage cousins from Metairie slip in for the evenings. Jack was one of my key supporters, and as a solo act, I opened shows for Tim McLaughlin, Snooks Eaglin, Dash Rip Rock, and the wonderful Alex Chilton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early 90s Giddens and family moved to Austin where for three years, he worked Tejas and the Hill Country around Austin and San Antonio at Cibilo Creek Country Club and Gruene Hall. In Houston he played at Fitzgeralds and always made the public radio station, KPFT, in H Town. He was joined by The Stoney White Punks, and in the van traveled coast to coast. He returned to Hollywood after that three-year stint, kept recording and enrolled for graduate school at Cal State Long Beach where years earlier he had played alongside The Minutemen with Walking Wounded. The Minutemen\u2019s records (cassettes actually) had led the musician to Ethan James and Radio Tokyo, and their many collaborations were sadly followed by Ethan\u2019s death in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Giddens\u2019 discography, with Ethan James and Dusty Wakeman often on the production, also includes The Ballad of Gaucho Gil and four solo records: Livin\u2019 Ain\u2019t Easy, The Devil\u2019s Front Door, For Lydia, and Little Demons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2008, he left California after a decades long fling with \u201cshow business\u201d and returned to Louisiana to take a teaching position at Southern University at New Orleans. While in New Orleans he has taught at Tulane University, where he taught Jazz Biography and Storyville. \u201cThe class is a product of my lifelong love of The City That Care Forgot\u201d, says the writer, \u201cI guess like Jimmy Buffet, New Orleans was my Paris.\u201d The teacher has taught at Xavier U and a stint at The University of Southern Mississippi at Long Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Giddens recorded his first New Orleans record, \u201cDamnit Abby,\u201d in 2010 at Piety Studios with producer Mark Bingham and \u201cmusicianers\u201d Rod Hodgers, Doug Garrison, Peter Jones, Spencer Bohren, Rene Coman, John Fohl, Tom Marron, and Michael Skinkus. In 2025 The new world of \u201cSad Songs at Sunset\u201d was born and the balladeer\u2019s music lives on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Giddens is also developing \u201cSad Songs at Sunset\u201d into a stage play about an ancient songwriter and the stories he’s told of Murder, Mayhem, and the End of Times. The play will debut in New Orleans at The Always Lounge on July 3rd<\/sup>, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He teaches now at Degado Community College in NOLA, dreams of California, and readies for a life in theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n