Aaron Neville and his Quintet at House of Blues

“These songs have always been with me. They have helped me through some rough times. When I felt like I had nothing, I still had these songs.”

-- Aaron Neville

NEW ORLEANS | Sunday Night I rang in the Christmas Season New Orleans Style to the unmistakable sweet delectable voice of Mr. Aaron Neville. This is my idea of a New Orleans Christmas as much as "Mr. Bingle" and "Christmas In the Oaks."

The Aaron Neville Quintet featuring Charles Neville put on a great show on Sunday night at the House of Blues, but what else would expected from a Crescent City music royal family like the Nevilles?

Aaron Neville came onto the R&B scene in 1966 with the now classic "Tell It Like It Is" and has been topping charts since then, both on his own as a solo artist and as part of the Neville Brothers band.

The crowd at House of Blues on Sunday was very mixed, including a lot of older folks in suits and Christmas like attire as well as many young college age fans. I also kept hearing a lot of French being spoken throughout the night. My guess is a convention was in town and the vocal stylings of Mr. Neville are appreciated all over the world.

• Click here to see photos from the show!

The show began promptly at 8:20 with an instrumental, the bass and drums leading in to showcase Charles Neville's sax. The first vocals began as Aaron Neville walked on stage to the refrain of "It's alright, have a good time cuz it's alright." The audience welcomed Aaron, clapping along in time.

"Clap your hands, YOU got soul and everybody knows that it's alright," Aaron Neville pronounced. I must say I thought at that very moment that I'm glad I got soul to enjoy awesome music like this.

The band swung seamlessly into "Voodoo," which is one of my favorite Neville Brothers songs and one of their most popular hits. I sang along loudly as I made my way to the best spot in House of Blues, the right-hand side bar by the stage. You can usually get a pretty good visual on the stage and hear all the sounds very clearly. "You must of put Voodoo on me, you must of cast a spell, the way you got me loving girl...."

This song featured a really great keyboard solo towards the end and flowed right into a cover of The Main Ingredients' "Everybody Plays the Fool," which was a Top 10 hit for Aaron in 1991.

This was the first time during the night I thought about how much I absolutely love Aaron Neville's voice and believe he was put on this Earth to sing and entertain. This thought would cross my mind plenty more times as I marveled at this man's voice but in the meantime I sang along some more "Now you cry but next time around someone cries for you..Everybody plays the fool, Sometimes-- use your heart just like a tool..."

Once again the audience clapped along to the rhythm of the popular love song.

I was just anxious to hear what was next when I looked below me to the floor level. I spotted two dear friends: James "12" Andrews (brother to Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews) and Chief Doucette. I called them over to me and they and joined my one-person party with their entourage.

One of the many reasons I love New Orleans is because I know I can go somewhere alone and always find friends. I must say from that moment on they truly added to my experience, dancing second line style as Chief played his tambourine along to Aaron Neville's music. It was quite a spectacle in the crowd on the right hand side of the stage and I enjoyed being part of it as much as the I enjoyed the music.

The next lyrics I heard were "It's your thang, do whatcha wanna do," which set the group off in a dance frenzy.

The two songs that followed were both classic soul Christmas ballads. A cover of "Please Come Home for Christmas," originally done by Charles Brown in 1960 on the King Label, had the biggest crowd response since the beginning of the night and set the Christmas tone for the show. This led into "Merry Christmas Baby," and I couldn't help but sing along again. "I'm feeling fine, got good music on the radio/I'm all lit up like a Christmas tree." Charles Neville chimed in with his saxophone and delivered an impressive solo in the middle of the song.

A few songs after these soul Christmas tunes, Aaron and his son Jason did a great version of Bill Wither's classic "Ain't No Sunshine." Father and son harmonized beautifully. In midsong, it went into a reggae beat which led to a moving guitar solo.

At one point in the tune Jason Neville took over the lead vocals as Aaron sang falsetto impeccably. The set turned back to Christmas music as Aaron Neville sang a “White Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” medley.

The best Christmas song of the evening was "Go Tell it on the Mountain." I watched the crowd singing and clapping along boisterously. The song started in a doo-wop style that combined the available Neville voices in a beautiful display of tone and control. Charles Neville once again delivered a beautiful sax solo and played a few notes of "When the Saints go Marching In," much to the crowd's delight as every single New Orleanian is cruising through Saints heaven right now. I was sure this would be a pre-cursor to the 'Who Dat" song that without a doubt had to be part of the set list, but it would not come until later.

The two-hour set was filled with Neville classics intermingled with songs of the season, providing a wonderful mixture of music. Aaron's version of Johnny Mathis' "I Can See Cleary Now" is always very fitting to our New Orleans experience as we know all about torrential rains of various hurricanes and smiling through the clouds and looking forward to a "bright, bright, bright sunshiny day"

And then, with the crowd still on a high after the Saints' win over the Washington Redskins hours before, the band kicked into the "Who Dat" song. It started with Aaron's sweet, sweet New Orleans voice filling House of Blues, singing "When the Saints Go Marching In" and leading into the ever-so-popular "Who dat, who dat, who dat say you gonna beat dem Saints!" The energy from the crowd was amazing as we all sang danced and chanted in unity and in honor of our city and our undeafeated football team. Trombone Shorty got on stage at this point, but not with his trombone. Instead, he had asked his older brother James for his trumpet to join the joyful celebration on stage.

After the thrill of "Who Dat," we were brought back to soul mecca with another Bill Wither's classic, "Use Me." This set me off like I was at a karaoke bar as I know every single word. Chief Doucette sang along with me, too. "My brother--he sit right down and he talked to me/He told me that I oughta not let you just walk on me/And I'm sure he meant well but when our talk was thru/I said brother if you only knew, you'd wish that you were in my shoes/Just keep on using me until you use me up."

Aaron Neville's soulful voice definitely did the song justice.

This whole time I was waiting patiently for "Tell It Like It Is" and "Yellow Moon," both of which came towards the end of the night. "Tell It Like It Is" came first, and sounded as beautiful as I'm sure it sounded back in 1966 when Aaron delivered my favorite line from that song, "Life is too short to have sorrow."

"YellowMoon" followed and is, in my opinion, the best of the Neville Brothers' songs. It evokes images of Creole New Orleans ladies and haunting full yellow moons. "Yellow Moon, yellow moon, yellow moon have you seen that Creole woman? You can tell me, Ain't you a friend of mine?" Such an awesome, funky soulful groove! I can't get enough of it.

The last song of the night from the Aaron Neville Quintet was "Amazing Grace." Hearing this song done so masterfully by Aaron Neville is such a beautiful experience. This song posseses a reverent and haunting quality that made everyone in the room just listen and admire the heavenly voice delivering this gospel classic. The show ended and I was thinking I couldn't have asked for a better Sunday night during the holiday season in New Orleans. Thank you, Aaron Neville.