Issue Articles — Features
They Call Us Wild: The Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans
Urban American culture begins and ends in the street, where wave after wave of ethnic immigrants has crested, broken, and, largely, dispersed into the vast suburban landscape of metro America.
Why? John Boutté asks the question that’s on all our minds
John Boutte took the outdoor stage in Austin’s Town Lake Park on March 18 around 6:45 p.m. He was part of the South by Southwest Music Conference’s free outdoor concert to honor Louisiana music and its resilience since Hurricane Katrina. The event had begun early in the afternoon with dancers two-stepping on the green grass to the rural swamp music of Beausoleil and Buckwheat Zydeco, and then to the urban funk of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk.
Bobby Charles: Talking to New Orleans
Legendary songwriter Bobby Charles has the soul of a Native American. In the history of rock and roll, Charles is one of the genre’s great mysterious spirits, a man who feels guided by his art. He doesn’t play any musical instruments and can’t read music, yet he’s composed such songs as “See You Later Alligator,” “Walking To New Orleans,” “But I Do,” Ain’t Got No Home,” and “The Jealous Kind,” as if he was pulling them out of the wind.
Interview with Aaron Neville
Aaron Neville, born January 24, 1941, is “the” voice of New Orleans. In a city that has a long history of diverse song stylists—from the early originators such as Louis Armstrong in jazz and Mahalia Jackson in gospel, to distinctive and influential R&B shouters such as Professor Longhair and Fats Domino, to generations of major movers on the pop scene such as Dr. John and the new heir apparent, Harry Connick, Jr.—it’s saying a lot to say that anyone singer is “the” voice, but Aaron Neville has certainly earned the honor.
Blue Lu Barker Remembers
Music has always surrounded the life of Blue Lu Barker. The living room of her Sere Street home is filled with the mementos of a lifetime of jazz she shared with her husband, the late great jazzman Danny Barker. Photos and awards hang and lean from the walls and along tabletops. Boxes filled with memorabilia crowd a comer of the low-ceilinged room, while yet another room is devoted entirely to storage of similar treasures.
Interview with Dr. John
Twenty years have elapsed since Mac Rebennack set aside the extravagances of his “Dr. John” character to record the acclaimed Gumbo album, a relatively low-key homage to New Orleans R&B that included such pillars as “Iko Iko” and Professor Longhair’s “Tipitina.”
An Interview with Zachary Richard
Ralph Zachary Richard, 42, writes in the liner notes to Snake Bite Love, his 12th and latest album, released last fall: “I have careened through this life like a 12-pound cannonball thrown from a privateer’s frigate toward the galleon fleet off Southwest Pass.”
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.
