Sometimes a rediscovered concert lands with the kind of electricity that makes you lean in and remember why an artist mattered in the first place. Live At The Village Gate does exactly that. It captures Dr. John at full voltage in March of 1988, deep in the New York groove, pulling decades of spirit, swagger, and street-corner magic into a single night.

Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack had already rewritten the rules by then. From the voodoo-psychedelic blur of his 1968 debut, Gris Gris, to the chart-rattling strut of “Right Place, Wrong Time,” he built a career on constant reinvention. No two albums landed in the same place. No two eras sounded alike. But onstage? That’s where it all met, the gris gris, the gumbo, the grit, the piano fire, and that unmistakable charm that carried him from the late sixties through the 2010s without ever dimming.

This newly unearthed recording drops you straight into that room. The Village Gate crowd gets the full gamut: “Mess Around,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “Mardi Gras Day,” and a spontaneous request for “Mama Roux” that he answers like someone who never left those early songs behind. He plays it all with the cool authority of a man who knew his catalog could fill a dozen setlists and still leave people wanting more.

Multiple Grammy-winner Michael Graves handled the restoration and mastering, bringing the tapes back to life without losing the warmth or the grit that gave the show its punch. Joe Marchese of The Second Disc contributes new liner notes that trace the night with the kind of detail longtime fans will appreciate.

Clocking in at more than 90 minutes, Live At The Village Gate is a reminder of what made Dr. John a singular force in American music. The energy is high, the grooves are loose, the band is locked in, and the man at the piano sounds like he’s having the time of his life. Dr. John always said, “Let the good times roll.” Now we get to hear a night when they really did.