Owner Barry Smith at the Louisiana Music Factory. Photo by Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee.

When it started, it was a long, rectangular room with a couple wooden racks for records and CDs on a section of North Peters street that had very little going on. Twenty years later it’s a must-visit store for the legions of New Orleans music lovers around the world, but Barry Smith, owner of the Louisiana Music Factory, never thought it would make it this far. “Honestly,” he says laughing, “we weren’t thinking that far ahead.”

The Louisiana Music Factory started in 1992 when Jerry Brock, co-founder of radio station WWOZ and producer of the first Rebirth Brass Band record, met Smith while both were working at local independent record store Record Ron’s. Brock had an idea to start a store focusing on New Orleans and Louisiana music, and he and Smith paired up to open one on the 200 block of North Peters Street in 1992. They made the move through an alley to Decatur Street in 1996. “The doors opened up to one another on Clinton Street, so we made carts to haul the racks through the back doors,” remembers Smith.

Photo by Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee.

“Our vision was never as big as it has become, both physically and product-wise,” he says. There have been uncountable highlights from all the in-store performances, but Smith remembers best the ones where “some of the top performers who didn’t need to come in still did to do promos at our little store. People like Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Johnny Adams, Danny Barker, Dave Bartholomew. Things like that are touching. It means something to me that people are willing to come and give their time to support what we are doing.”

Smith appreciates all the great musicians that the store has developed relationships with and who have come to perform at the Louisiana Music Factory’s famous, free in-store performances. However, with the music industry in the midst of what some call a restructuring and some call an apocalypse, it hasn’t been easy. “We’re hanging in there, and we’re proud we’ve come this far, but with the economy and music retail in general and the availability of everything online and downloads, it’s certainly a tough business to be in. I think the only reason we’re still here is that we’re a specialty shop in New Orleans that focuses on local musicians with so many great musicians in town. We offer unique products and independent product that you don’t see in many record stores, so we’ve beaten the trend of chain stores going out of business.” He continues, “I like to think that we’ve become a singular place where it all comes together and people can come and see the amazing music in the region and find out about artists they’ve never heard of.”

The Louisiana Music Factory’s 20th anniversary party is Saturday, February 25. Everything is 20 percent off from noon to 6 p.m. that day. Kermit Ruffins, Little Freddie King, the Stooges Brass Band and more will perform.

Here are Louisiana’s rooting interests in the Grammys:

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: In Concert on Broadway, Harry Connick, Jr.

Best Rock Album: Rock ‘n’ Roll Party Honoring Les Paul, Jeff Beck. Trombone Shorty makes a guest appearance.

Best R&B Performance: “Pieces of Me” Ledisi. From Pieces of Me. Ledisi was born in New Orleans.

Best R&B Song: “Pieces of Me” Charles Harmon, Claude Kelly & Ledisi Young, songwriters (Ledisi). From Pieces Of Me.

Best R&B Album: Pieces of Me, Ledisi.

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: “I’m On One” DJ Khaled, Drake, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne. Track from We the Best Forever.

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: “Motivation” Kelly Rowland & Lil Wayne. Track from Here I Am.

Best Rap Song: “Look at Me Now” Jean Baptiste, Chris Brown, Ryan Buendia, Trevor Smith, Dwayne Carter, Jr. & Wesley Pentz, songwriters (Chris Brown, Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes). From F.A.M.E.

Best Rap Album: Tha Carter IV, Lil Wayne.

Best Gospel Album: Angel & Chanelle Deluxe Edition, Trin-I-Tee 5:7.

Best Americana Album: Blessed, Lucinda Williams. Williams spent years in New Orleans and Lake Charles.

Best Blues Album: Roadside Attractions, Marcia Ball. Ball has been associated for years with New Orleans.

Best Folk Album: I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive, Steve Earle. For his time on Treme.

Best Regional Roots Music Album: Can’t Sit Down, C.J. Chenier.

Best Regional Roots Music Album: Grand Isle, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.

Best Regional Roots Music Album: Rebirth of New Orleans, Rebirth Brass Band.

Best Children’s Album: GulfAlive, The Banana Plant.

Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media: True Blood: Volume 3, Various Artists, Gary Calamar, producer. C.C. Adcock produced “She’s Not There” by Neko Case and Nick Cave for the album.

Krewe of 'tit Rex Parade in 2011. Photo by Kim Welsh.

It’s hard to imagine a more literal case of someone picking on the “little guy” than this: the powerful Krewe of Rex has pushed the satirical Krewe of ‘tit Rex (‘tit being a common Cajun shortening of “petit”) into altering its name due to perceived copyright issues.

‘tit Rex parades through the Bywater with shoebox-based floats, usually of a farcical nature. How such frivolity could possibly be confused with the grandiose Rex parades we’re all accustomed to is a mystery to all including ‘tit Rex captain Jeremy Yuslum. “Rex seemed obsessed with the idea of some precedent being set,” he says.

“The Rex representatives seemed earnest about taking the matter to court if need be; however, they were impeccably polite. Our counsel was of the opinion it was bluster. I guess we’ll never know now.”

Yuslum doesn’t concede Rex’s legal point, but the krewe has changed its name. Now it is the Krewe of ‘tit Rǝx. Note the inverted “e,” a grammatical flourish derived from Latin known as the “schwa.” It usually makes the unstressed “e” sound you find at the end of the word “the,” but according to Yuslum the krewe’s name is still pronounced as before.

There is no word as to whether the name change will be enough to satisfy Rex, but Yuslum says “the sticking point was the order of letters, r-e-x, as well as the inclusion of ‘e.’” One can only hope this scandal has reached an amicable conclusion; as Yuslum politely put it, “We are all New Orleanians and Saints fans, after all.”

On November 4, Dugas finally had an operation to insert a plate and screws in his left index finger, but recovery and therapy have left him unable to play music, his main source of income, ever since. He is married with two teenage boys and a young daughter.

The Playboys have made frequent trips to Rhode Island as guests of Lagniappe Productions, which has produced roots music festivals, dances and concerts that have featured Alison Krauss, Buckwheat Zydeco, Dewey Balfa, Beau Jocque and many others.

Lagniappe organized the Dugas Krewe for their 20th Annual Cajun and Zydeco Mardi Gras Ball February 18 in Cranston with the Mamou Playboys, along with fellow Louisiana musicians Preston Frank, Ed Poullard, the Pine Leaf Boys and C.J. Chenier. The group is raising money for Dugas and his family through T-shirt sales and special festival packages.

Donations for Dugas are being accepted through MardiGrasRI.com. Funds can also be mailed to Lagniappe Productions, 51 White Oak Court, Wakefield, RI, 02879.

Float design from Mistick Krewe of Comus 1912 parade, "Japan sends an embassy." Photo courtesy of the Carnival Collection, Louisiana Research Collection at Tulane University.

“We do not own it, society does.”

Leon Cahill, head of the Louisiana Research Collection (LaRC) at Tulane, is referring to its Carnival collection, which it finished digitizing in time for Mardi Gras 2012. Now, float and costume design sketches by legendary designers, including Jennie Wilde, B.A. Wikstrom and Charles Briton are online and viewable at the center’s website. In honor of the project’s completion, the LaRC is showing a collection of Proteus costumes at its home on campus.

“Some pieces have holes where they were tacked up, pieces cut out and notes for construction purposes,” says Cahill. “These were actually used ephemera intended to be thrown away. We depend on krewes to donate these simple throw-away items because preserving them is very important. Most krewes don’t exist very long. There are some krewes we only have a record of through their dance cards and invitations, nothing else.”

The digitized collection is online at larc.tulane.edu/exhibits/carnival.

"The Cow" is the longest sura of the Koran. Float design from Mistick Krewe of Comus 1910 parade. Photo courtesy of the Carnival Collection, Louisiana Research Collection at Tulane University.

This season, the New Orleans Hornets and Irvin Mayfield’s I Club are working together to bring the city’s music to the game. A live band will play throughout home games on the Irvin Mayfield’s I Club Stage, and Mayfield was part of it on opening night, kicking off player introductions with an original Hornets theme song. Music and musicians will also be a part of the in-game video entertainment.

Mayfield and the NOJO are looking to create a database of tracks by New Orleans artists with the idea of making sure that all music played during a Hornets game in the New Orleans Arena—“The Hive”—and during TV and radio broadcasts was made by local artists.

For details on this process, go to TheNOJO.com or write Stephanie Mayne at smayne@thenojo.com.

[Updated] Tab Benoit and Johnny Sansone received four nominations each by the Blues Foundation for their annual Blues Music Awards. The winners will be announced on May 10 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tennessee, where Benoit and his Medicine album face off against Sansone and The Lord is Waiting and the Devil is Too in the categories of Album of the Year, Contemporary Blues Album of the Year and Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year. Benoit is also nominated for the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award, while Sansone is nominated for Song of the Year for the title cut. The big winner in these nominations may be Anders Osborne, who co-produced and played on both albums.

Other locals and semi-locals receiving nominations include guitarist Ana Popovic, who’s Unconditional (up for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year) was recorded at Piety Street Studios with a band that included Jon Cleary. Cleary and Marcia Ball are nominated for Piano Player of the Year and Stanton Moore is nominated for Drummer of the Year. Lazy Lester’s You Better Listen is up for Traditional Blues Album of the Year, and Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton are nominated for DVD of the Year for Play the Blues. Mike Zito is, like Marcia Ball, officially a Texan, but his Pearl River album is dotted with Louisianans (including Anders Osborne). He’s also a member of the Royal Southern Brotherhood with Cyril Neville and Devon Allman, and he’s up for Guitarist of the Year.

For a complete list of nominees, go to Blues.org.

Updated January 5, 1 p.m.

Mike Zito is a member of the Royal Southern Brotherhood, not the Royal Southern Gentlemen. The text has been changed to reflect the correction.

That announcement would be made at next month’s Grammys if zydeco music veteran Terrance Simien had his way. Simien is still steaming that the Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album was one of 31 categories the Recording Academy cut last year in its major Grammy overhaul. Zydeco and Cajun artists are now lumped with Hawaiian, Native American and polka musicians in a new catch-all category—Best Regional Roots Music Album. For Simien, who lobbied for the Cajun/Zydeco Grammy and won the first one in 2008, it makes no sense.

“You have so many different styles of music that are unrelated competing for a Grammy,” he says. “The polka community, they don’t know anything about zydeco or Cajun music. I don’t expect them to. But they’ll be voting in that category, as well as the zydeco and Cajun musicians. It’s like the Recording Academy said ‘Let’s put them in the recycling bin and let them fight it out.’”

Zydeco and Cajun musicians did make the cut. Grand Isle from Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and C.J. Chenier’s Can’t Sit Down are nominees for the new roots Grammy. They’re up against the Rebirth Brass Band (Rebirth of New Orleans)—who benefited from the broadening of the category—Hawaiian slack key artist George Kahumoku Jr. (Wao Akua – The Forest of the Gods) and Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra (Not Just Another Polka).

Simien is disappointed that no Native American artists were nominated, but he’s keeping his vote close to home.

“As a voting member, for this category, I’m voting for Louisiana. I’m voting for somebody’s music that I know. That’s what everybody’s going to do, and it shouldn’t be that way. The music should all be related in some way that you can pick and choose the best.

“That’s what we had with the (zydeco/Cajun) category. It was much more fair than it is now.”

William Shatner

Stan Lee

What happens when the high lords of fandom meet? Star Trek/T.J. Hooker/Boston Legal/Sh*! My Dad Says star William Shatner famously told fans to “Get a life” on a Saturday Night Live sketch, and Marvel Comics’ creator Stan Lee called the cops on Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory. Nonetheless, both are both scheduled to appear at 2012 Wizard World Comic Con January 28 and 29. This is the second year for the Wizard World Comic Con in New Orleans, and they’ll be joined by a returning James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Adam Baldwin, Mary McDonnell, Michael Biehn, and WWE wrestlers Kelly Kelly and Zack Ryder.

The conference includes gaming, comics, a showroom, a costume contest, and some of the top talent in comics today, including Carlos Pacheco, George Pérez, Jesus Merino and more.

For details and an appearance schedule, go to WizardWorldComicCon.com/NewOrleans.

For details and schedules, go to BackbeatFoundation.org.