September 2013
BackTalk
- Van Dyke Parks & Tom McDermott's Fascinating Unconventionalisms
Tom McDermott is that rare musician who is not about technique or virtuosity but ideas. McDermott’s crowd-pleasing manner and the extraordinary…
Cover Story
- Royal Teeth: Ready for the World
Life is about to get interesting for Royal Teeth. The Lafayette-rooted band has built a national foothold in record time, landing…
Features
- Star & Dagger: Rock Goddesses with a Touch of Evil
Sean Yseult grew up in an era of larger-than-life rock stars, from Freddie Mercury to Lux Interior, and it’s safe to… - PJ Morton's Moves
“And now ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce my son...” It is Christmas, 1989. Standing in his living room, Bishop… - Native America: From Bedroom to Rehearsal Room
The notion of a solo artist working under a band name is nothing new. From Nine Inch Nails to Bon Iver,…
Fresh
- It's Five Somewhere: Earth, Wind & Fire's Verdine White
The 2010 Jazz Fest is legendary by now, because you filled in for Aretha Franklin. How much notice did you get?… - My Music: Alvin Youngblood Hart
"My oldest brother was in his mid-teens in the Bay Area in the mid-’60s, so whatever was going on, you picked… - Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker (Film Review)
James Carroll Booker III is the perfect New Orleans icon. In a town where both death and the past are less… - Bringing It Back: Booking Modern Jazz in New Orleans
Melissa Weber is marveling at the architectural details and acoustics-conscious stage set-up at the Little Gem Saloon’s Ramp Room on the…
In The Spirit
- Pops' Smokin' Fizz
by SoBou's Abigail Gullo
This OffBeat's first article for In the Spirit, a new series featuring New Orleans mixologists who create drinks in honor of…
Letters
- September 2013 Letters to OffBeat
LEROY Love this story and thank you OffBeat! Leroy and Katja are some of the best and continue to make New…
Mojo Mouth
- Mojo Mouth: Food for Thought
This is OffBeat’s annual “food” issue, a tradition we started some years ago when we featured what is (in our humble…
Obituaries
- Steve Blailock (1944-2013)
“When people were doing other things, I was always looking for the music,” Steve Blailock explained in a 1997 interview. A…
OffBeat Eats
- Dining Out: Toups’ Meatery (Restaurant Review)
Following in the footsteps of Paul Prudhomme and Donald Link, a new practitioner of Cajun-comes-to-town has staked a claim in Mid-City… - Pops' Smokin' Fizz
by SoBou's Abigail Gullo
This OffBeat's first article for In the Spirit, a new series featuring New Orleans mixologists who create drinks in honor of… - Gerard Maras: Maras the Magnificent and Seven of New Orleans Most Influential Chefs
The most important chef in New Orleans history is sitting across from me. He is lithe and his silver hair is… - Desert Island Dish: New Orleans Musicians Divulge City's Must Eats
Most of us experienced it after Katrina— that horrible anxiety that comes with not knowing whether you'll ever again be able…
Dining Out
- Dining Out: Toups’ Meatery (Restaurant Review)
Following in the footsteps of Paul Prudhomme and Donald Link, a new practitioner of Cajun-comes-to-town has staked a claim in Mid-City… - Gerard Maras: Maras the Magnificent and Seven of New Orleans Most Influential Chefs
The most important chef in New Orleans history is sitting across from me. He is lithe and his silver hair is… - Desert Island Dish: New Orleans Musicians Divulge City's Must Eats
Most of us experienced it after Katrina— that horrible anxiety that comes with not knowing whether you'll ever again be able…
The Spot
- Alexis and the Samurai and Sweet Crude's Sam Craft Hits the Spot at Shortall’s BBQ
What did you order today? I ordered the brisket, but the chicken is amazing—I believe it’s smoked and grilled. It’s our…
Reviews
- Cyril Neville, Magic Honey (Ruf Records)
Cyril Neville is at once among the best-known and most-overlooked musicians in town. As a Neville Brother and former Meter, he’s… - Kristina Morales and the Bayou Shufflers, Louisiana Fairytale (Independent)
Kristina Morales and the Bayou Shufflers keep it sweet and lowdown on the band’s debut CD, which takes its cue—as well… - Trombone Shorty, Say That to Say This (Verve)
This is the album that fans probably expected Trombone Shorty to make three years ago—a straight-ahead R&B disc. At the time,… - Jim McCormick, The Middle of the River (Threadhead Records)
It’s been a bumper crop lately for New Orleans’ native son/Nashville songwriter Jim McCormick, who co-wrote number-one hits for country hat… - Drew Meez on the Keys, Dressed, No Pickles (Independent)
With no less than four, count ’em, four, local bands—P.Y.M.P., Gravity A, Fred and the Big Easy Bounce Band—keyboardist Drew Meez… - Alex Chilton, Electricity by Candlelight (NYC 2/13/97) (Bar None)
Recorded on a portable cassette machine (and sounding that way), this oft-bootlegged tape catches an impromptu acoustic set that Alex Chilton… - Allen Toussaint, Songbook (Rounder)
What’s surprising about this live album isn’t so much the music, but the talking in between. The year 2009 was a… - The Melatauns, Bards of Melatonia (Independent)
From the sounds of this record, Melatonia is the extra-dimensional world where the drinks are always cold, the nights breezy, the… - Smithfield Fair Stick, Brick & Mortar (Stevenson Productions)
Stick, Brick & Mortar marks Smithfield Fair’s 28th album of a 40-year career as a family band that started with Charmer… - Stephanie Nilles & Zach Brock & the Magic Number, … Takes a Big Ship (Independent)
If there’s a takeaway here, it’s that things are never what they seem. If … takes a Big Ship was based… - Willie Sugarcapps, Willie Sugarcapps (Royal Potato Family)
Fans of Southern-stewed roots music will rejoice in the fact that itinerant troubadour Grayson Capps’ opening lines to this superb album… - Breton Sound, Maps (or Cartography and the Art of Generalization) (Independent)
For a five-song EP, Breton Sound concentrates on perfecting a certain sound. There’s hard-rock seriousness, rave ups, and a pretty ballad… - Barrence Whitfield & the Savages, Dig Thy Savage Soul (Bloodshot)
As collections of vintage, long-lost garage rock and R&B go, this one’s mighty hot: The opening “Corner Man” has the primal… - Clarence Bucaro, Dreaming from the Heart of New York (2020)
If you didn’t listen too closely, you might mistake Brooklyn singer-songwriter Clarence Bucaro for a slightly deeper Jack Johnson or Ryan… - Tom McDermott, Bamboula (Minky Records)
Everyone knows Fess and Booker, but New Orleans piano goes deeper, and Tom McDermott understands this. On this new collection of… - Terrance Simien & the Zydeco Experience, Dockside Sessions (MusicMatters Records)
Terrance Simien once recorded a spoken-word-and-music album, 2001’s Tribute Sessions, that paid homage to various Creole musicians. Here, he does another…
