John Mooney & Bluesiana - Live At The 2025 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

John Mooney embodies the direct connection between today and the music of the blues’ founding fathers: Professor Longhair, and the Mississippi Delta bluesman Son House, who mentored a teenaged Mooney and fostered his driving slide style and vocal sound.

Mooney was born in 1955 and raised in upstate New York. He left home at 15, and met Son House a year later. The senior artist took young Mooney under his wing, and the two became friends. Mooney’s distinctive rhythmic style, adapted from the acoustic to the electric guitar, evolved directly from Son House.

Mooney moved to New Orleans in 1976, and was soon gigging with Earl King, The Meters, Snooks Eaglin, and Professor Longhair, with whom he worked for some time. He released a solo album on Blind Pig in 1979, “Coming Your Way,” and has put out a dozen releases since then, including the 2016 tribute to his mentor, “Son and Moon.” He’s recorded with Jon Cleary and Dr. John, among others.

In 1981, he formed his long-time band, Bluesiana, and began touring across the country and in blues-friendly Europe. The Bluesiana lineup has included the late Jeff Sarli and Bobby Sheehan, Rene Coman (of the Iguanas), Kevin O’Day, and Kenneth Blevins. Mooney also works with Marc Stone, percussionists Alfred “Uganda” Roberts and Michael Skinkus, and Carlo Nuccio.

As with so many musicians, Mooney faced addiction issues that caused him to bow out of the performance scene in 1996. Two years later, he returned to the Crescent City in a triumphant performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival that people still talk about today. Since then, he continues to tour and record with his own band and on a variety of other projects.