Issue Articles
Bad-ass Babe: Ghalia Volt is a lot about feel
Ghalia Volt is one bad-ass babe. Though I came late to her raucous blues-rock party—she first hit town in 2014 and made New Orleans her homebase in 2017, when she Let the Demons Out on her Ruf Records debut with local bar-band faves Mama’s Boys—I became an instant convert when I blasted her latest release Shout Sister Shout! in my earbuds and kept it in heavy rotation.
A Personal Essay: The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger taught me how to dance, as anyone who saw me strut my stuff on the dance floor in my prime can attest. Like many other smalltown Yankees in the ’60s, I was first introduced to the blues by the Rolling Stones, who mined the motherlode of music by Black artists from the deep south and its northern outpost in Chicago by listening to “race records” far more available in England than in Jim Crow America.
Alex McMurray Band & Tin Men: The Most Eagerly Anticipated
Alex McMurray is so deeply woven into the fabric of New Orleans music and culture, it’s hard to imagine his adopted hometown without him. He’s also no stranger to Jazz Fest, where he’s been performing in multiple configurations for 31 years.
Gogo Jewelry: Celebrating 20 Years at Jazz Fest
Bold. Bright. Geometric. There’s no mistaking a piece of Gogo jewelry, handcrafted by Gogo Bordeling, who’s celebrating her 20th anniversary as a Contemporary Crafts vendor. And if you’ve been to Jazz Fest before, chances are you already own a piece or two.
Helen Gillet: A Whirling Dervish Improviser
Helen Gillet’s cello is much more than just an instrument. It’s a visceral extension of her body and soul and her peripatetic mind, which ranges as far and wide as a childhood spent shuttling between Belgium, Singapore and Chicago, where she first picked up the cello at age nine.
A Tale of Two Allens: Luke Allen and His Son Arlo Talk Music—and Poultry
Over a fresh goose-egg omelet, prepared by Luke Allen, we dig into Happy Talk Band’s history and their new album, Low Shoulder, and trace the musical evolution of Luke’s prodigious son Arlo.
Quintron: Ephemeral Ponds (Independent)
“Nature is the best drummer,” Quintron notes at the end of a short video documenting his six-week residency with Miss Pussycat at A Studio in the Woods.
The Rolling Stones: Hackney Diamonds (Polydor)
The Rolling Stones have not mellowed with age. Not by a long shot. Proving time, time, time is on their side, they shatter the glass ceiling of age on the aptly titled Hackney Diamonds, Brit slang for the shards of broken glass car thieves scatter in their wake. On track after track of their first album of originals in 18 years, Keith starts me up harder than ever with his iconic riffs, while Mick has never sounded more petulantly pouty than he does spitting out the lyrics on Hackney. Like he sings on “Whole Wide World,” one of many instant-classic additions to the canon: “When you think the party’s over … it’s only just begun.” And boy, is it a rager.
WWOZ Ready to Move: A “Game Changer”
From the moment it was launched from a beer storage room above Tipitina’s, where DJs sometimes dropped a mic down to the stage to send live music across the airwaves, the namesake radio station of the Wonderful Wizard Of Oz has kept its laser focus exactly where it belongs: on the musical heartbeat of New Orleans.
Harry Shapiro: John Campbell: Spirit of a Bluesman (The Crossroads Press)
John Campbell: Spirit of a Bluesman
