"Backatown" is the first time that Andrews and his Orleans Avenue band — Dwayne “Big D” Williams (percussion), Mike Ballard (bass), Joey Peebles (drums), Pete Murano (guitar), and Dan Oestreicher (baritone sax) — have had an actual budget to capture the Trombone Shorty experience, and they've made a studio record that offers a real taste of the live show’s excitement. Shorty calls his music “supafunkrock,” and it’s an accurate term for the aural gumbo on this fingerpopping, butt-shakin’ mix set. Produced by Galactic’s Ben Ellman, it contains 13 Shorty originals and an original interpretation of Allen Toussaint’s “On Your Way Down,” on which Toussaint plays piano. It crackles and burns with an unburdened, unfettered, passionate live feel. Clocking in at 43 minutes, it opens with “Hurricane Season.” It commences with a marching rhythm on snare and bass drum followed by Andrews playing a trumpet vamp. It kicks into dancing gear with one of the nastiest, funkiest basslines since Parliament’s “Flash Light,” followed by horn vamps, big power chords, and drum kit breaks that are infectious. Proof of Andrews’ vocal prowess is everywhere, but especially on the modern soul ballad “Fallin.” That said, it’s the instrumentals with their drum-heavy, cracking on-the-one funk and second-line rhythms that keep the the entire album moving and grooving — check out “Neph,” “In the Sixth,” and closer “928 Horn Jam.” "Backatown" is everything popular American music should be; yet it’s also what sets Andrews and Orleans Avenue, and New Orleans music in general, apart, without compromise. This is a Best of 2010 candidate hands down.