For the past 50 years Irma Thomas has been the undisputed Soul Queen Of New Orleans, recording for labels such as Chess, Imperial and Island, scoring pop and R&B hits and releasing Grammy nominated albums. Despite this illustrious career many soul fans regard her earliest recordings as her finest.

Thomas was discovered by bandleader Tommy Ridgley while waitressing in the Pimilico club in New Orleans. Ridgley helped her win a contract with the Ron label, before moving to the Bandy and Minit label, where she teamed up with the legendary producer Allen Toussaint.

Disc 1 of this 2CD set features the all the singles she recorded for Minit, Ron and Bandy along with b-sides and demos. The demos have been specially enhanced for this release to remove the audible tape noises which versions blighted previously available.

The second disc features a 1976 live performance recorded at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, originally released that year on Island Records. For the show Thomas was reunited with Tommy Ridgley and blasted through many of the New Orleans classics featuered on disc 1 along with her covers of contemporary disco hits Lady Marmalade and Shame, Shame, Shame.

Soul Queen Of New Orleans is packaged in a deluxe rigid double digi-book.