One of the sonic jewels to be had at this year’s Festivals Acadiens et Creoles was Best of Festivals Acadiens 2002, released by Valcour Records. Its 14 tracks include such titans as Belton Richard, Walter Mouton and the Scott Playboys, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, and Wayne Toups, and another 10 tracks are available [...]
The Music Box in the Bywater: A House in E Major
The dark, ramshackle house at 1027 Piety St. was a haunting presence on the block even before the flood. It was the oldest house on the street, dating back to the end of the 18th Century when it was surrounded by swamp and muddy sandbars built from the seasonal overflow of the Mississippi. Since 1999, [...]
Sing a Song of Santa: New Christmas Albums
Listen to Alex Rawls’ “An OffBeat Christmas 2011″ playlist on Spotify Once upon a time, everybody cut a Christmas song. Country singers, R&B singers, surf bands and crooners—they along with countless jazz men and novelty artists cut celebrations of Santa, snow and the spirit of the season. These days, Christmas albums aren’t as ubiquitous as [...]
The Songs of the 2009-2010 New Orleans Saints
Listen to our Saints Songs playlist on Spotify On the projector screen behind me, Peyton Manning’s mouth twists in puzzled defeat. To my right, DJ Justin Thomas begins to scream. Around us, a roomful of our fellow citizens follows suit, wildly embracing each other, weeping, throwing their hands in the air. My finger rests on [...]
Voodoo Experience Highlight: Bonerama featuring Dave Malone
New Orleans is full of musicians who epitomize the genre-busting goal of turning old school New Orleans music into an egalitarian mash-up, and no one has done more to realize this goal than Mark Mullins. The suave trombonist paid his dues in the tradition, earning his funk stripes playing in bassist George Porter, Jr.’s band [...]
Voodoo Experience Highlight: High Ground Drifters
The High Ground Drifters have made a name for themselves as one of the only bluegrass bands in a jazz town. The six-year-old outfit developed out of a shared love of bluegrass music among the band’s five members—Paul Williams, John Noble, Jeff Bagwell, Grant Ligon, and Greg Nichols—all residents of Mid-City. “We met like bluegrass [...]
Voodoo Experience Highlight: Los Angeles Bands
She had to leave Los Angeles / sippin’ on gin and juice / it’s the story of my life / just work the angles the city I’m from is Los Angeles. A boy can dream, can’t he? It’s just so tantalizing, the thought of an L.A.-in-LA extravaganza at Voodoo in which four iconic Angeleno [...]
Voodoo Experience Highlight: DJ Tony Skratchere
DJ Tony Skratchere began as a breakdancing B-boy in the late 1980s, progressed to skating and graffiti in the 1990s, and then settled into his current role as a master of the turntables in the early 2000s. Throughout it all, Skratchere, also known as Ben Hebert, has revolved his life around his two real passions—music [...]
Voodoo Experience Highlight: Jeremy Lyons and Members of Morphine
Jeremy Lyons, guitarist and leader of the greatly missed Deltabilly Boys, never thought he would end up playing with two of the surviving members of Morphine, the 1990s “low rock” trio of drum, saxophone and bass. “I had not heard Morphine before, but I had heard of them peripherally,” says Lyons over the phone from [...]
Voodoo Experience Highlight: Bobby Rush
Consider the booty jam. A booty jam holds no allegiance to style, propriety or length. A booty jam will go wherever it must to find that booty or lament its getting away. Old school, new school, rough, smooth—the booty jam will prevail. Bobby Rush is one of the world’s foremost practitioners of the form. Born [...]
