This was his first appearance made under the new guise ofย Dr. John Creaux, the Night Tripper. Before then, he'd been a pivotal figure on the crescent city R&B circuit. Afterward, he became one of its most significant blues ambassadors. This album is a classic of the admittedly specialized psychedelic swamp-gumbo genre, boasting at least four tracks that have become cult favorites.ย Gris-gris Gumbo Ya-ya, Mama Roux, Jump Sturdy, andย I Walk On Gilded Splintersย each delicately mix catchy choruses and weird spatial sound effects, with radical stereo separation, intensely croaking, close-quarter vocals from the doctor, pneumatic keyboard riffs, pinprick electric guitar, and booming afro-caribbean percussion. The album still stands at its original 33-minute length, with no bonus cuts unearthed, but its high density more than compensates for any brevity.
