The residential neighborhoods just off of Main Street in Mystic were clogged Monday night as folks parked their cars en route to Mystic River Park for the regular Blue Monday summer concerts series. Walking several blocks to the performance site, it was sort of amusing to note the college stickers on the mostly high-end vehicles — Brown, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Brandeis and so on — that are emblematic of the village's tony demographics.

And I say "amusing" in the context that all these highly-educated folks — a few hundred, at least, gathered in the park for the show — received a different type of schooling on a perhaps unlikely topic known in Louisiana as "swamp blues." Indeed, as conducted by Baton Rouge's Kenny Neal and his otherworldly band over a fevered pair of 45-minute sets, one could imagine a late-Monday-night panic at the Amazon.com warehouse when it was suddenly overrun with Kenny Neal CD orders — all being shipped to stately homes in the 06355 zip code.

The earnest and eternally congenial Neal, looking far younger than his 59 years, with his long braided hair pulled back from his face, gave a brief definition of "swamp blues." It's as much a geological as musical permutation with centrally-located Baton Rouge artists — folks like Neal family patriarch Raful Neal, Lazy Lester, Slim Harpo and Tabby Thomas — infusing their own style with Delta blues from Mississippi, funk and soul from New Orleans, and Cajun/zydeco from southwest Louisiana.

Neal's explanation was cogent and probably summoned exotic worlds, but it all made vivid, joyous, passionate sense when articulated onstage by the musicians.

Drummer Bryan Morris and bassist Darnell Neal (yes, a sibling) were not just super-glued into a relentless groove. Their unison, scattershot percolations soared beyond simple backbeat and recalled the mastery of Neville Brothers rhythm section Mean Willie Green and Tony Hall. Meanwhile, pianist Tyree Neal (a nephew) and organist Brandon Adams brought in jousting keyboard punctuations that sparkled with elements of gospel, Ray Charles, and Thomas.

At the fore, Kenny Neal, serving as singer, guitarist, harmonica maestro and lap-steel sorcerer, was the perfect, impassioned front man. His baritone voice, with a low-end thistle and raw with emotion, served as a call-to-arms instrument unto itself. His guitar work, which sizzles when necessary but is brilliantly effective through use of space or sustain, is hypnotic and powerful; and his harmonica dynamics were profoundly dramatic and hauntingly reminiscent of his late father's work.

Song-wise, the Neal band fluidly emphasized material from his latest record, the wonderful "Bloodline," and mixed in inspired takes on classics such as "Goin' to New York," Guitar Slim's cautionary "The Things That I Used to Do" and an arrangement of Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" that heartbreakingly illustrated the shared DNA between blues and honky tonk.

At the end of the night, Neal and his band stayed on, signing merch and chatting with fans before finally climbing in their van and heading off. It was a summa cum laude evening.