February 2015
Cover Story
- Kristin Diable Creates Her Own Mythology
Not long ago, Kristin Diable experienced an epiphany. She’d just moved into her current Bywater home, and with the work done…
BackTalk
- BackTalk: Glen Hansard
As a musician and storyteller who channels his heart and soul to his fans using nothing more than his voice and…
Features
- The Zulu Mardi Gras Parade's Coconut Lady is Hard at Work
In a former day care center just off Earhart Boulevard in Hollygrove, Sarah Barrow is happily watching paint dry. Her neighbor… - Talk that Music Talk: Passing Along New Orleans Music
In New Orleans, music, tradition and culture live and thrive in neighborhood communities, in the streets and among generations. Many people… - Bead Dames of Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras is almost here, and the Dames de Perlage have been beading all year in preparation. The members of the… - Mardi Gras Day With the Skull and Bones Gang
As the sun prepares to rise on Mardi Gras Day, strange rumblings start to reverberate throughout the Sixth Ward. Scary figures… - The Oldest Mardi Gras Indian on the Streets
Thomas Sparks, Sr., Big Chief of the Yellow Jacket Mardi Gras Indian gang, marks a unique milestone this month. On February… - Boyfriend Is a Girl
She calls herself Boyfriend, which is as succinct a summation as any of her mission statement: not so much bending genders… - High School Marching Bands Roll for Mardi Gras
High school marching bands can be the highlight of any Mardi Gras parade. The booming bass drums push the crowd back… - The Baby Dolls are an Iconic Mardi Gras Tradition
Lifelong New Orleanian Millie Charles, best-known as the founding dean of SUNO’s school of social work, was born in 1924. She… - 2014 Best of the Beat Award Winners
We celebrated our 20th anniversary of the Best of the Beat Awards on January 22 at Generations Hall with a big…
Fresh
- 10 Mardi Gras Songs
Carnival season is here and it’s time to stock your music player accordingly. Here’s 10 of our favorite Mardi Gras songs,… - Soundcheck: Five Questions with
Ken Swartz
How did you come up with the name of your latest album, While I Was Waitin’? About two years ago, we… - 10 Random Mardi Gras Facts
In the days leading up to Lent, merrymakers traditionally would binge on meat, eggs, milk and cheese, preparing for several weeks… - My Music: Fred LeBlanc
As a child, one of my earliest memories is watching Mardi Gras parades and having the drum section pass by and…
Dining Out
- Dining Out: Martin Wine Cellar
In 1946, David Martin, Jr. opened the original Martin Wine Cellar in half of a shotgun double on Baronne Street at…
In The Spirit
- In the Spirit: Alana Moran of Araña Taqueria y Cantina
I started bartending by chance because a bartender didn't show up for work the first day I was working as a…
Letters
- February 15 Letters to OffBeat Magazine
CELEBRATING CARNIVAL I’m sitting here on my couch, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, wanting so badly to be celebrating Carnival in New Orleans.…
Mojo Mouth
- Mardi Gras for Newbies
One of the most fun things about New Orleans is introducing newbies and visitors to all the quirky cultural things we…
Obituaries
- Obituary: Big Chief Bo Dollis
In a city of originals, Bo Dollis stood out. Over the last half century, he was an integral part of the… - Obituary: Kim Fowley
There is so much to say about Kim Fowley, but rather than tell you about his life, I’ll suggest that you… - Obituary: Al Belletto
Al Belletto, saxophonist, bandleader and general humanitarian, died on December 26, 2014 at his home in Metairie at the age of…
OffBeat Eats
- Dining Out: Martin Wine Cellar
In 1946, David Martin, Jr. opened the original Martin Wine Cellar in half of a shotgun double on Baronne Street at…
The Spot
- Ashlin Parker hits the Spot at Parkway Bakery
What did you order today? I ordered a hamburger po-boy, but I’m regretting not ordering the roast beef. What do…
Reviews
- Write Brothers, First Flight (Threadhead Records)
For the past century, New Orleans has been known as a place of great instrumentalists and great singers. The emphasis has… - Canebreakers, Frame and Floor (Dead Relatives Music)
Things got diluted and sloppy drunk fast in alt-country once too many ambulance-chasing bands jumped into the game after ’90s pathfinders… - Duke Heitger’s Steamboat Stompers, Volume Two (GHB Records)
Hot trumpeter Duke Heitger came from Toledo, Ohio and settled in New Orleans in 1991 immediately upon graduation from college and… - Gal Holiday & the Honky Tonk Revue, Last to Leave (HTRP Music)
Vanessa Niemann relocated to the Crescent City in 1999 to sing in big band/swing ensembles. A stint in rockabilly followed but… - Yojimbo, Ghost Birthday (Independent)
Yojimbo’s new record has almost a silly aura to it. Singer Carly Myers emphasizes and exaggerates words and phrases in a… - Gregory Good, Savage Lands (Milo Records)
These days you’ll find Gregory Good chunkin’ chords with Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue but this solo project came… - Otis Clay & Johnny Rawls, Soul Brothers (Catfood)
Graduates of the old school of deep Southern soul, the team of Otis Clay and Johnny Rawls would seem like a… - Funk Monkey, Funk Monkey (Independent)
A ferocious-yet-groovy brand of funk is the expected sum result in the musical equation for a NOLA-scale supergroup that counts members… - Thomas W. Jacobsen, The New Orleans Jazz Scene 1970–2000 (LSU Press)
Thomas Jacobsen is well qualified to assess New Orleans jazz in the last third of the last century. He wrote many… - Marty Christian, What I Came Here to Do (Sabidog Records)
Marty Christian originally intended this as a solo project since his songs really didn’t fit his band Rue Boogaloo’s funky-bluesy grooves.… - Sean Bruce, Staring at Maps, Part 1 (Independent)
There’s a line in the biopic Ray in which Mr. Charles explains that his love of country and western music is… - Eddy Giles, Southern Soul Brother: The Murco Recordings, 1967-1969 (Kent)
Eddy Giles was a Shreveport-based, gospel-influenced blues/soul artist who waxed a small clutch of inventive and catchy singles in the late… - 79rs Gang, Fiyo On the Bayou (Sinking City Records)
It is an accomplishment to be celebrated any time that a new Mardi Gras Indian record comes out—and doubly so when… - The Wanderer’s Drift, Rowdy (Independent)
The one instant comparison drawn from a listen to The Wanderer’s Drift’s Rowdy is the White Stripes. A closer listen reveals… - 40 Watt Dreams, After the Show (Truckstop Honeymoon Music)
When you’re a rocker at heart, there’s only so much folk/alt-country music you can take before you want to let it… - Various Artists, Hard to Explain: More Shattered Dreams, Funky Blues 1968-1984 (BGP)
Most baby boomers attracted to the blues initially were introduced to the genre via albums containing vintage recordings of artists like… - Sideburner, Sideburner (Independent)
Lafayette’s Sideburner owes a lot to the sounds of a plethora of heady (not heavy), instrumental metal bands of the early… - Doug Kershaw & Steve Riley, Face to Face (Valcour Records)
Do opposites really attract? You would think so with this unlikely pairing of 78-year-old Doug Kershaw, the Ragin’ Cajun, and forty-something…
