Haggard had originally planned on releasing a studio-themed album called I Love Dixie Blues - test pressings and cover art had been prepared - but changed his mind, opting to rerecord some of the tracks live in New Orleans.

The album was Haggard's third live LP in four years and features his usual backing band The Strangers augmented by a small horn trio named the Dixieland Express.

[1] The album is noteworthy for featuring several songs originally recorded by Emmet Miller, a minstrel show performer and recording artist from Georgia whose high falsetto and yodel-like voice had been a major influence on country stars like Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, and Hank Williams, and it is likely that Williams became aware of "Lovesick Blues" from Miller's 1928 version.

The addition of the Dixieland Horns gives the songs drives and character without sounding quaint..."[1] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote "Haggard's gamble works quite well, since the brass section never feels like it's grafted onto the core band—they sound integrated, unlike his previous experiments with dixieland horns.

"[3] Music critic Robert Christgau wrote "The care Haggard put into his Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills tributes was palpable; this live-in-New Orleans-with-horns affair is slovenly.