Music
Ingrid Lucia: The Big Time: A Memoir (Westview Publishing)
At one point in her memoir, Ingrid Lucia confesses that she’s been dissed in New Orleans for writing “novels” on social media. If you’ve followed her on Facebook—or even read her interviews in these pages—you know what they’re talking about: Her unfiltered posts regularly reveal exactly what’s been going on in her personal and creative life at any given time. That’s who she is as a writer and performer: She gives you all she’s got, take it or leave it.
Kid Eggplant & the Stuffed Melatauns: War…We Love It! (Independent)
This may be the most oddly eclectic album I’ve reviewed in all my years with this magazine. And that’s sayin’ something. Bassist and bandleader Robert Snow has played with a host of different artists—including greats like Little Freddie King, Johnny Adams and Ernie K-Doe—and his band project, now on their third CD, is an outlet for anything he happens to come up with.
007: The Return of Ben Downlow (Independent)
Nobody in the 007 lineup necessarily needs another band, so this has all the earmarks of a labor of love. They play these vintage songs faithfully, but not slavishly: They usually make the tempo a bit faster and the production a bit cleaner but they’re out to spotlight these songs, not redefine them.
Wade Hymel: Who Said That? (Independent)
Anybody who quotes a Yes song title during a rockabilly song is automatically okay by me (The line in question: “Now you’re in my face, screaming yours is no disgrace.”) That’s one example of how eclectic things get on Wade Hymel’s solo debut. Hymel is normally a band guy, playing drums in Dash Rip Rock, but here he sounds more like a songwriter turned loose.
Blue Sky: Allman-Betts Band messing with tradition
The very name of the Allman-Betts Band is steeped in music history. And so’s the band itself, led by Duane Betts and Devon Allman, the sons of Dickey Betts and Gregg Allman. If any band ever seemed cosmically destined to play hard-driving, Southern-styled blues-rock, it would be this one.
A Hell of a Ride: Mac McAnally of the Coral Reefer Band
Singer and guitarist Mac McAnally isn’t about to forget the last time he saw his longtime friend and musical partner Jimmy Buffett. “It was 24 hours before he passed, and I was there with [Coral Reefer Band] keyboardist Mike Utley. ‘Keep the party going’ was exactly what he said to us—and then he put his hand on his heart and said, ‘What a hell of a ride.’ Those were the last things we ever heard him say. And what I saw on his face was that big smile, the one you always saw from him, whether he was onstage or at the grocery store, or the smile that you could just feel when you were hearing him sing. And he took that smile with him to the next place.”
Farewell Tour: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Jazz Fest debut
When you’ve been a band for 58 years and played a key role in country-rock history, you’re entitled to a long goodbye. So it is that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is playing Jazz Fest toward the start of its farewell tour, but they don’t intend to wrap it up right away.
A Whole Lot of Funk: Tower of Power returns to Jazz Fest
Fifty-six years makes for a whole lot of funk. And in Tower of Power’s case, a whole lot of people as well. More than 60 bandmembers have passed through the ranks in that time, but the soulful essence of the band has been consistent.
Kevin Ray Clark talks about Al Hirt “Jumbo”
By all rights Al Hirt should be remembered as one of the New Orleans musical giants. He had the trifecta of serious jazz chops, mainstream pop success, and a larger-than-life personality.
Lights On: Kristin Diable always had a pulse in the real world
“I cannot believe it’s been nine years,” Kristin Diable says with a sigh and a laugh. “Honestly, after being in the business of music this long, and even teaching the craft and business of songwriting at Loyola, it’s as mysterious to me as it ever was. But that’s all right, I’m all for the long game.”
