From Gambit Weekly: “Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias released “My Name is Bo” last weekend. It’s the Black Masking Indian tribe’s first album since 2013’s “New Kind of Funk,” which carried its own importance as Bo Dollis Jr.’s first album fronting the Wild Magnolias. His father, who died in 2015, provided backing vocals for that record.

While

From Gambit Weekly: “Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias released “My Name is Bo” last weekend. It’s the Black Masking Indian tribe’s first album since 2013’s “New Kind of Funk,” which carried its own importance as Bo Dollis Jr.’s first album fronting the Wild Magnolias. His father, who died in 2015, provided backing vocals for that record.

While “New Kind of Funk” could be seen as a transition from father to son, on “My Name is Bo” the son forges his own path forward while honoring his father’s legacy.

“My name is Bo, too. I’m not trying to take [my father’s] name. I’m going to carry his name, but I’m not going to try and fill his shoes. I’m gonna fill my own shoes and carry the name on,” Dollis told Gambit.

“My Name is Bo” is close to a double album. One half of the record is filled with charismatic Mardi Gras Indian funk that weaves in heavy influences from all corners of New Orleans: rolling rhythm and blues, second line rhythms, hip-hop, reggae, even zydeco.

The second half of the album is a set of traditional-style recordings — including “Shallow Water” and “Indians Here They Come” — that could have been made by the Wild Magnolias on Mardi Gras Day, if the pandemic hadn’t kept the tribe from stepping out earlier this year. The cover itself is split in two — Dollis is wearing casual clothing, the kind he wears on stage, on one side and a bright white suit with gold and sky-blue beadwork on the mirrored opposite.

“I wanted all aspects of New Orleans. I can’t do one without the other,” Dollis says. “I came from Mardi Gras Indians, so I couldn’t leave that out. And I’ve never done it before, a straight percussion album. This was something different for me.”