Issue Articles
Essence Festival: The Funk You May Have Missed
This year, Essence Music Festival brings an especially strong lineup of old-school funk artists, from England’s Loose Ends to perennial Essence fave, the Gap Band’s Charlie Wilson. You know the […]
The Grammy Up Sides
Earlier this year, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) decided to reduce the number of Grammy Awards that are contested each year by “consolidating”—their word—many categories. Needless […]
Joe Adragna, Fall Back (Greenleaves Sound)
Joe Adragna’s a pop purist. As the Junior League, he embraced pop’s exuberance as well as the craft that makes great songs. On Fall Back, the energy’s dialed down and […]
Wendell Pierce
“Work always gets you work, man,” Wendell Pierce says while driving. He’s in the last week of shooting for the second season of HBO’s Treme, but he has been splitting […]
Mayor Mitch Landrieu
During his tenure as the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Mitch Landrieu made “cultural economy” his calling card. He worked to show how cultural products aren’t simply valuable in an aesthetic, intellectual […]
Quintron, Sucre du Sauvage (Goner Records)
Quintron and Miss Pussycat put their creative lives on display at NOMA earlier this year in the show, “Parallel Universe.” She displayed her puppets, photos and videotapes, while Quintron set […]
Kelcy Mae, Pennies in Hand (Parish Road Records)
The sound of Pennies in Hand is familiar enough. Kelcy Mae and the album exist in Lilith Fair’s long shadow, evidenced by her good musical taste and the emphasis on […]
Jimmy Buffett on Bourbon Street
This year’s Jazz Fest poster, “Busking Out: Becoming Jimmy Buffett,” depicts Buffett on a street corner playing for tips. This scene doesn’t come from painter Garland Robinette’s imagination; Buffett started […]
Don’t Mess with Irma Thomas
Irma Thomas, variously known as the “Soul Queen of New Orleans” and “The Voice,” is truly one of the most beloved of New Orleans musicians, not only for her phenomenal […]
Various Artists, Nine Lives (Mystery Street Records)
Nine Lives is an attempt by Paul Sanchez and screenwriter Colman DeKay to adapt Dan Baum’s account of the lives of nine New Orleanians for a musical. Knowing that doesn’t […]
