Over the course of the year, musician Paul Sanchez and screenwriter Colman deKay’s opera and album Nine Lives has blossomed into one of the most celebrated New Orleans releases of 2011. On stage, the musical adaption of Dan Brown’s 2009 book of the same title takes the form of a pop opera. Backed by a [...]
Tag Archives: Alex McMurray
Washboard Chaz: Man of a Thousand Bands
June 1, 2011 – 12:12 am
Washboard Chaz is a lucky guy. Not everybody gets a festival named after them, but Chaz has become the iconic figurehead of one of the most interesting musical events to develop in New Orleans since the 2005 flood, the Bywater celebration called Chaz Fest. For a musician whose only equipment is a tricked-out washboard and [...]
Lynn Drury, Sugar on the Floor (Old Shoes Records)
May 1, 2011 – 12:44 am
Sugar on the Floor is Lynn Drury’s trump card. The talented New Orleans singer-songwriter has built a strong local following through her emotionally-charged live performances, but her strengths as a musician and songwriter haven’t been adequately captured on record until now. Part of the problem is that New Orleans is a difficult environment for songwriters. [...]
Video du Jour: The People Say Project
March 17, 2011 – 12:20 pm
On February 22, the Louisiana Humanities Center hosted the first in a series of discussions about culture and commerce called the “People Say Project”. This first event featured singer/songwriter/guitarist Alex McMurray and veteran hip-hop MC Truth Universal. This is the whole video of their talk with moderator Brian Boyles (LHC Program Director and OffBeat contributor) [...]
YouTube du Jour: Kristin Diable
October 4, 2010 – 10:35 am
Tonight, Kristin Diable, Alex McMurray and Amy Speace from Boston launch the New Orleans Speakeasy Songwriter Revue at Three Muses at 7 p.m. Here’s Diable at d.b.a. singing “Be My Husband.”
The Tom Paines, The Rites of Man (Threadhead Records)
August 1, 2010 – 12:34 am
The Rites of Man is the debut album from the Tom Paines, the latest incarnation of veteran New Orleans jacks-of-all-musical-trades Alex McMurray and Jonathan Freilich. They’ve collected folk songs from throughout the English-speaking world in the decades surrounding the turn of the 19th Century into the 20th. There’s plenty new about the songs on The [...]
Matt Perrine & Sunflower City, Bayou Road Suite (Threadhead)
May 1, 2010 – 12:54 am
New Orleans locals are familiar with sousaphonist Matt Perrine playing any style in any situation. His virtuosity brings forth the inevitable “I’ve never heard a tuba played like that” comment; then you take it for granted until you hear another tuba player. Less noticeable, but apparent to his bandmates, are Perrine’s arranging and composing chops. [...]
Various Artists, A Very Threadhead Holiday (Threadhead)
December 16, 2009 – 11:26 am
The artists that cut or are cutting albums for Threadhead Records came together to record A Very Threadhead Holiday, a charming, often irreverent Christmas album. The album succeeds in being seasonal (if not always holly and jolly), and it represents the musical personalities of those involved. Craig Klein’s “Christmas on My Mind” is a good-natured [...]
What Will Santa Say?
December 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
The adults are sitting around a table on the back porch, some with beer, some with coffee. They’re swapping wisecracks and stories while the kids are upstairs. Coats are tossed in a corner, and the Christmas lights are strung with semi-deliberation in one of the rooms of the house. It could be Christmas, but it [...]
