Issue Articles
Hand-made Music
This year, OffBeat has not one but two covers for the Jazz Fest Bible. Artist/musician Jon Langford of the Mekons and the Waco Brothers will open a show at LeMieux […]
Ingrid Lucia, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (Independent)
On America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks tells the young model-wannabes to smile with their eyes. The contestants pretend they get it, but they never do, and neither does anybody […]
Kermit Ruffins, Livin’ a Treme Life (Basin Street)
Kermit Ruffins has two subjects for songs: How much he loves New Orleans and how much he loves the Treme. Everything else spins off of one of those two themes. […]
The New Orleans Moonshiners, The New Orleans Moonshiners (Independent)
Since other cities have young string bands, it would be overreaching to claim that there’s some special phenomenon taking place here as young musicians that once would have formed punk […]
Allen Toussaint, The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch)
The River in Reverse succeeded not just because it was a timely and human response to Katrina or because it mined one of the richest songbooks in American popular music. […]
Jazz Fest Focus: Chuck Brown
For many, Trouble Funk’s 1982 album Drop the Bomb was their introduction to Washington, D.C.’s homegrown funk, which was dubbed go-go. Others discovered it when E.U.’s “Da Bump” appeared on […]
It Takes Two
New Orleans Duets, Tom McDermott’s new album, was over five years in the making. The album is a collection of duets with people you might expect—Evan Christopher, Matt Perrine, Tim […]
Paul Sanchez: Musician, Heal Thyself
“I hadn’t tuned a guitar in years.” For years, someone handed Paul Sanchez a tuned guitar when he walked onstage with Cowboy Mouth. If it went out of tune, there […]
Ben Hunter, Traveler (Awareness)
Traveler evokes a less ambitious Wyclef Jean, but that’s a good thing. Ben Hunter’s modest, acoustic guitar-driven songs with gentle Island rhythms don’t represent anything more or less than a […]
Cyril Neville, Brand New Blues (M.C.)
You might expect Cyril Neville’s first post-Katrina album to comment on his trials since then, but the only lines that could be heard as a reference are from the spiritual […]
