...A stranger to New Orleans...upon entering the square finds the multitude packed in groups of close, narrow circles, and in the center of each circle sits a musician...
—Henry Edward Durell, 1853.

Street music. A singular phrase, yet multifaceted; a phrase fraught with resonance, taunt as cat gut, redolent with the vibrato of centuries. A phrase evocative of the soul of the city itself.

As a culture, New Orleans has always evolved more from the streets-up than the usual tr...