Wilmington bluesman Randy McQuay leads Mardi Gras band for Fat Tuesday
Wilmington musician Randy McQuay led the Port City Players during their annual Fat Tuesday concert at Waterline Brewing on Feb. 17, 2026.
For more than a quarter-century, blues singer and songwriter Randy McQuay has been a steady presence on the Wilmington music scene, his gritty guitar riffs, groovy harmonica playing and warm, gruff vocals helping form the soundtrack of the Port City.
A regular at area music venues and festivals, McQuay has also made national waves, winning the prestigious International Blues Challenge’s solo/duo division in Memphis in 2015.
On Friday, March 6, McQuay will release new music for the first time since 2017 when he and David Bolton play a sold-out album release show for “Roadkill Mojo: Swamp Songs Vol. I” at Live at Ted’s on Castle Street in downtown Wilmington.
Live performances by McQuay aren’t rare exactly, but they’re more rare than they used to be. He said he played “only” about 125 shows in 2025, down from upwards of 200 in recent years, and close to 300 a year in his younger days.
The duo’s new record includes two originals from Bolton, one from McQuay and seven re-arranged covers, everything from blues favorites (“Spoonful”) to gospel standards (“Just a Closer Walk with Thee”).
As the record’s “Swamp Songs” title might imply, its sound was inspired by the music of New Orleans, which McQuay has been increasingly associated with over the past decade.
Feb. 17 marked the 10th anniversary of McQuay’s Port City Players ensemble playing a Fat Tuesday show at Waterline Brewing in Wilmington, and on Feb. 22 McQuay was scheduled to help lead the Sunset Park neighborhood’s annual Mardi Gras parade.
Over beers at Sunset Park’s Dram Tree Tavern watering hole, McQuay explained his attraction to the music of New Orleans.
“It’s a rhythmic thing,” he said. “There’s a specific, off the back of the beat. It’s The Big Easy, and if you’re running a little late, it’s not that big of a deal. … You would never want to push it. You would always want to be behind it. And it’s just an interesting thing that it’s such a relaxed feel.”
McQuay first came to notice in Wilmington playing with The Root Soul Project, an original roots-rock band, while in college at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in the late 1990s. He’d always been a blues guy, but he came to the music of New Orleans almost by accident.
“I got forced into the Fat Tuesday thing,” McQuay said with a laugh, adding that it came out of a regular Tuesday night gig he had at Duck & Dive in downtown Wilmington for a decade.
McQuay estimated he played some 500 Tuesday night shows at Duck over the years, and through his friend, the late, legendary Wilmington bartender Greg Matheson, what started as a small Fat Tuesday celebration grew into an annual event that now attracts hundreds to Waterline.
What really inspired him to take the festival to the next level, McQuay said, was a 2015 cruise he played after winning the International Blues Challenge, sharing the stage with such New Orleans legends as Allen Toussaint and Stanley Dural, aka Buckwheat Zydeco.
His fascination with New Orleans blues continues on “Roadkill Mojo: Swamp Songs Vol. I,” an album he shares with Bolton, a member of Wilmington New Orleans-style R&B band The Rhythm Bones.
McQuay and Bolton shared a long-running regular gig at Quanto Basta in downtown Wilmington, from which they decided to put all the money they earned into making a record.
They recorded the album’s 10 songs — five picked by McQuay, five by Bolton — over a number of sessions at Trent Harrison’s Hourglass Studios in Wilmington. It was mixed at Earthtones Recording Studio in Greensboro by Benjy Johnson, and mastered at Esplanade Studios in New Orleans by Bruce Barielle.
McQuay said they were initially going to keep the album as a true duo record, with only two people playing on each song, but the songs really came alive when they added bass, drums and percussive instruments like bones and washboard.
McQuay also beat-boxes on most of the album’s songs, something he said might be a first for a traditional blues album.
Initially, the album will only be available as a physical CD while the duo shops it to blues labels. McQuay said they also plan to submit it to the IBC for consideration in the best self-produced album category.
McQuay, a youthful-looking fortysomething who could be mistaken for a thirtysomething, has deep roots on the Wilmington scene. He formed his style playing at bygone clubs like Percy’s jazz club, the Marrz rock club and even the old Ice House, torn down in 2004.
McQuay isn’t blind to the optics of a White man playing the blues, a musical form invented by Black Americans.
“Sometimes I feel like Vanilla Ice in a way,” he said with a laugh, referencing the oft-maligned white rapper. “I don’t want to culturally appropriate anything. I want to honor the music in a way that also helps preserve it.”
“African-American music inspires me,” he added. “But I do think am soulful.”
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