Issue Articles — Features
Christmas Without Tears: A conversation with Harry Shearer and Judith Owen
Welsh multi-potentialite and quadruple-threat performer Judith Owen sits next to her husband, Harry Shearer, as she brings up the concept of hiraeth—a Welsh term that defies direct translation into English. Hiraeth evokes a profound mix of homesickness, longing, and a deep sadness for what has been lost. When Owen moved to Southern California, she certainly felt a pining for her “melancholy” home across the Atlantic.
Kelly Love Jones: Alchemist of People
Kelly Love Jones seems to be everywhere. Between releasing her album Surrender and popping up all over town with various high-profile appearances, she does it all with a genuine organic spirit of grace and connection. She’s been building, and it’s long overdue to go deeper with her story.
How Women Made Music: An interview with Alison Fensterstock
New Orleans writer and WWOZ radio host Alison Fensterstock is the editor of How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music. Inspired by National Public Radio’s Turning the Tables series, How Women Made Music contains a lively bounty of engaging essays and interviews, many of them culled from NPR’s 50 years of music coverage.
Donna’s Bar and Grill: Donna Poniatowski Sims’ new book is a labor of love
The history of New Orleans music is overflowing with venues where the musicians of the city have piled their trade and developed the myriad of styles the city has been known for since its earliest days. From the Funky Butt and the Iroquois Theater on North Rampart Street where Buddy Bolden and a young Louis Armstrong wowed early 20th century crowds to the famed Dew Drop Inn on Lasalle Street in Central City, which was an epicenter on both the national “chitlin’ circuit” and home to local R&B legends like Earl King and Guitar Slim.
The Deezle Chronicles: Part II
Darius “Deezle” Harrison is not only a multi-Grammy-winning producer who is now shaping the best and brightest musicians at The Throne, but he is also a great storyteller. His history is as New Orleans as it gets, and is a testament to focus, determination, and following what fulfills you. This is the second part in a series.
From Classical to Cajun: The LPO invites back the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Sweet Crude
Louis Michot, fiddler and singer with the Grammy award-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers, eagerly anticipates the Cajun band’s encore appearance with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. The LPO’s and Ramblers’ first collaborative concert at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans, released last year as Live: Orpheum Theatre NOLA, won both a Best of the Beat Award in January and a Grammy award in February for best regional roots music album.
Evolution of Rebelution: Soul Rebels “Walkin’ round in the 6th Ward…”
The highly successful and internationally renowned Soul Rebels have been around the world and, as they say, back again. The progressive, innovative, horn-heavy, eight-piece band that first caused a commotion on the brass band scene in 1991 and killed with its socially conscious, jamming anthem “Let Your Mind Be Free”—“free your mind with education, help build a better nation”—has faithfully returned to perform in its hometown of New Orleans and in particular at its long time gig at Le Bon Temps Roule.
Cosmic Traveling to Tomorrow: Yizracyah’s creative spirit is infectious
Yah’el Yizracyah Yisrael is a breath of fresh air on the New Orleans music scene. His expansive album Sunlight was released earlier this year, and another album is slated for 2025.
Walking to New Orleans: The golden anniversary for John Broven’s groundbreaking book
John Broven’s Walking to New Orleans, the first comprehensive book about the golden age of rhythm and blues in New Orleans, was published 50 years ago. Following its original publication in the United Kingdom in 1974, Pelican Publishing Company in Gretna issued the first American edition in 1978, retitled Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans.
Bringing Baton Rouge Blues to the Crescent City: Kenny Neal at the Blues & BBQ Festival
Those who missed Kenny Neal’s killer Jazz Fest performance this year get another chance to catch the multi-talented, Grammy-winning bluesman at his set at the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival.
