New Orleans-based singer/songwriter Jerry Giddens has released his new album “Sad Songs at Sunset, Chapter 1.” The new songs are out now on your favorite streaming service. This is his first album since 2010’s “Damn It Abby”. 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.
The four songs on the album each tell their own story. “Meet Me at The St. Roch Tavern” was written about the artist’s yearlong weekly residence at the Tavern in New Orleans.
"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.
“The Beauty of Shadows” 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 “The Bridge of Signs,” 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.
"Wait" was written in the 1990s with alumni of Giddens’ first band Walking Wounded in L.A. Says Giddens, “it still rings true for me now and our con-man president appears long before his presidencies and the despair his game brings.”
Giddens is also developing “Sad Songs at Sunset” 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, 2026.
“As the clowns would say: ‘It's never too late.’ Keep playing and Keep the faith, whatever faith you hold.”
Track list:
1. Meet Me At The Saint Roch Tavern 03:22
2. The Waltz Of The Clowns 03:11
3. The Beauty Of Shadows 03:28
4. Wait 05:47
Producers: Jerry Giddens with Adam Keil
Engineered by Adam Keil
Recorded at Marigny Studios in New Orleans, Louisiana
Musicians: Rod Hodges, Joe Cabral, Doug Garrison, Rene Coman, Tom Marron, Gal Holiday, Stumps Duh Clown, and Adam Keil.
Thanks to Rick Nelson at Marigny Studios. Special thanks to The Iguanas.
All songs written by Jerry Giddens
Jerry Giddens
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 “the 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’s home.” 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’s 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.
“When 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.” 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. “We even headlined Tipitinas, in New Orleans, one TUL night and Better Than Ezra joined us.” After the Wounded split up a New Orleans connection remained. Giddens worked with Jack Groetsch at The Howling Wolf. “Jack 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.”
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’s records (cassettes actually) had led the musician to Ethan James and Radio Tokyo, and their many collaborations were sadly followed by Ethan’s death in 2003.
Giddens’ discography, with Ethan James and Dusty Wakeman often on the production, also includes The Ballad of Gaucho Gil and four solo records: Livin’ Ain’t Easy, The Devil’s Front Door, For Lydia, and Little Demons.
In 2008, he left California after a decades long fling with “show business” 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. “The class is a product of my lifelong love of The City That Care Forgot”, says the writer, “I guess like Jimmy Buffet, New Orleans was my Paris.” The teacher has taught at Xavier U and a stint at The University of Southern Mississippi at Long Beach.
Giddens recorded his first New Orleans record, “Damnit Abby,” in 2010 at Piety Studios with producer Mark Bingham and “musicianers” Rod Hodgers, Doug Garrison, Peter Jones, Spencer Bohren, Rene Coman, John Fohl, Tom Marron, and Michael Skinkus. In 2025 The new world of “Sad Songs at Sunset” was born and the balladeer’s music lives on.
Giddens is also developing “Sad Songs at Sunset” 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, 2026.
He teaches now at Degado Community College in NOLA, dreams of California, and readies for a life in theatre.
For more information:
https://www.jerrygiddens.com/
http://jerrygiddens.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/album/46w5CJB0IRO7iVla8u5uPw
Coming shows include:
Hotel Utah in San Francisco on May 29th and The Porch Fest May 30th in The Mission District of the City by the Bay.
House Concert in Baltimore on June 27th
Debut of “Sad Songs at Sunset” a stage play on July 3rd at The Always Lounge in New Orleans
Press inquiries: Keith James, Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158 (USA), glassonyonpr@gmail.com
