Music
Michot’s Melody Makers, “Blood Moon” (Sinking City Records)
Not since the madmen of Fat Possum Records got Tom Rothrock (engineer of Beck’s early recordings) to remix R.L. Burnside’s Hill Country blues-drone on Come On In has someone so […]
Neslorchestra, The Primordial Epiphany (Album Review)
Not all records can combine gonzo, dystopian conspiracy narratives and heartfelt pretty playing, but somehow long-awaited Neslorchestra record makes these seeming opposites work. It might be due to leader Rick […]
Cats on Fats
In April 2015 OffBeat writer David Kunian asked New Orleans piano players three questions: What is your favorite Fats Domino tune and why? What does Fats Domino and his music […]
Lifetime Achievement in Music Business: Sonny Schneidau
In New Orleans, there are people who make the music and people who make the music happen. The people who make the music happen are the record store owners, the […]
You Blows Who You Is: Louis Armstrong embodied the folksy sophistication that marks New Orleans
It is difficult to say something about Louis Armstrong that is original or new. He is one of the most analyzed and debated American and New Orleans figures. As I […]
The Ed Frank Quartet, The Ed Frank Quartet featuring Clarence Ford (504 Records)
This record features a type of music that is rarely played or recorded in this day and age. It’s the music of mature but not elderly African-Americans that was played […]
Eric Bibb and JJ Milteau, Lead Belly’s Gold: Live at the Sunset… And More (Stony Plain Records)
Lead Belly’s been gone for over 60 years, but his music still resonates throughout this fat nation on many different levels. Guitarist Eric Bibb and Mississippi saxophone player JJ Milteau […]
Confetti Park Players, We’re Going to Confetti Park (Independent)
Often childrens’ records suffer from two problems: They are either too cute and cloying or too hip. This new kids’ record from the Confetti Park Players and director Katy Hobgood […]
Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns, Bad Kids Club (Independent)
Before the critics and marketers started using the term rock ’n’ roll (the phrase itself goes back to the earliest days of vernacular music), what was rock ’n’ roll? Just […]
Ironing Board Sam, Super Spirit (Big Legal Mess)
The iconoclastic punks of Big Legal Mess music and producer/guitarist/blues mystic Jimbo Mathus are great music people to bring out the goods in the mysterious piano man Ironing Board Sam. […]