It wasn’t really that long ago that Eric Lindell was doing scattered gigs at the Old Point Bar near his house in Algiers and playing every Monday night at the Circle Bar. On many nights during the early days of the Circle Bar gig, the audience was still sparse enough to make even [...]
Remembering Big Daddy
You couldn’t park on the same block as the Notre Dame Catholic Church that bright Wednesday morning. Summer had settled into St. Martinville, but the Louisiana heat didn’t stop people coming from far and wide to say goodbye. Small waves of mourners and well-wishers continued to file into the already packed church during the service. [...]
No Borders for Vasti
“I don’t smoke crack, I don’t get high, I ain’t into sports. Music is what I do. The core of it is what I got from my grandmother and my grandfather.”
Sitting on the couch of his studio in Hattiesburg, fifth-generation Mississippi musician and A-list guitarist Vasti Jackson is discussing the main impetus behind his life-long, [...]
Spirit in the Steel
“Our music and sacred steel music has always been about the congregation, and right now the congregation is starting to be the world.” These are the words of Chuck Campbell, master of the pedal steel and a decades old musical tradition that is only in very recent years being heard outside of a small number [...]
The World’s Oldest Teenager Dies
Legendary Memphis singer Rufus Thomas, who died this past December 15th at the age of 84, was the originator of the Funky Chicken, the World’s Oldest Teenager, and the Crown Prince Of Dance. But despite his notable and influential contributions to funk, soul, and R&B, Thomas began and ended his musical [...]
