“They call us the sound police,” explains Juan Lobostrie, a festival staffer who makes his way around the grounds on foot and via golf cart. Lobostrie and two others work to ensure that sound doesn’t bleed through from one stage or tent to another. “Before the festival starts,” Lobostrie explains while taking me around in [...]
Many jazz loving out-of-towners think the annual Satchmo SummerFest is the perfect excuse to come to New Orleans in August. The festival is far from attracting the hordes of tourists on a scale with Jazz Fest, making it easy to see a seminar about Satchmo on film. Still, a highlight for many is the Friday [...]
Oklahoma guitarist, singer and songwriter Watermelon Slim is breaking new lyrical ground in modern blues music, and that’s a good thing. Some blues fans are getting tired of the same old themes: a woman or man who drinks too much; trains that don’t run on time, or yet another song from yet another jilted lover. [...]
Block offers up a great collection of acoustically rendered original songs on her new disc. Block’s voice and guitar stylings are so original that her covers of classic blues like “Stones In My Passway” and “High Water Everywhere” are rewoven into something else entirely. She also includes her take on a more obscure Muddy Waters [...]
