A big man, with a big voice and a big heart, "Big Al" Alton Carson died April 26, felled by an apparent heart attack. He was 66.

A French Quarter musical legend, the larger than life Carson, and his band the Blues Masters, have long been a fixture at Earl Bernhardt’s and Pam Fortner’s Bourbon Street club, The Funky Pirate [recently renamed the Bourbon Street Honky Tonk, after Carson no longer played there]. Despite occa...