Issue Articles — Features
They Play. You Dance. That’s It. The World According to ReBirth
There are a lot of things about New Orleans that outsiders find odd-that St. Patrick’s Day is a de facto postal holiday, for example, or that the recently deceased must […]
Branford Marsalis: Musician as Iconoclast
On Friday, April 30th, The Jazz & Heritage Festival welcomes home saxophonist Branford Marsalis, a New Orleans son who is undoubtedly one of the most important, and controversial, figures in […]
Pah-Rade!
Sitting one hot afternoon for an interview at the former Lu and Charlie’s jazz club in August of 1974, James Black, one of the great unsung drummers of modern New […]
Zydeco!
A new collaboration by photographer Rick Olivier and journalist/musician Ben Sandmel, Published by the University Press of Mississippi covers the musical phenomenon of zydeco. From Creole folk roots to the […]
Groovy! Dude! New Orleans Musical Nicknames
Slim, Red, La La, Tee Tee, Foots, Nose, String Bean, Snowflake, Half A Head, June, Daddy, Pipes, Buck, Pee Wee, Queenie, Stale Bread, Turkey Neck, Groovy, Okey Dokey: sometimes it […]
Chris Ardoin: A Zydeco Family Affair
It’s long way from the gumbo’d vistas of Southwest Louisiana to the chowder’d climes of Rhode Island. But if the subject is Mardi Gras and the entertainment is Chris Ardoin […]
Happy Birthday, Gatemouth!
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown is a rarity: a roots musician who itches to move beyond the already known. His 50-plus year career has taken this Texas-born legend through the intricacies of […]
10th Anniversary of the Louisiana Hall of Fame
When her health began declining in the late nineteen-eighties, longtime musician Lou Gabus realized that performing was no longer an option. Encouraged by friend, Merle Haggard, Gabus embarked on a […]
Boozoo Chavis-Warning: For Mature Audiences Only
The directions to his house that Boozoo Chavis gives journalists who call to schedule interviews with him can be confusing. Sometimes he says “turn right” when he means “turn left” […]
100: The 100 Essential Louisiana CDs, Part 7
In late 1997, the Offbeat staff began developing the list of the 100 Essential Louisiana CDs. Our goal was to pick the 100 compact discs that, Individually, represented influential and/or […]
