Music
Kim Carson, Classic Twang (Banks Street Records)
Kim Carson has great taste in country music. This much you know just looking at the track listing on her latest release. What you learn upon hearing the fourth track […]
Tony Joe White, The Shine (Swamp Records)
The formula might seem familiar: older artist strips down to his barest elements, his age injecting a new depth to each turn in his voice, and puts together an introspective, […]
Kermit Ruffins, Happy Talk (Basin Street Records)
In 2007, Kermit Ruffins got married in Woldenberg Park during the French Quarter Festival. As his beloved bride Juicee mounted the stage, Kermit and the fellas pointed their horns in […]
Jamal Batiste, The Unorthodox Drummer: Just Jamal (Jam-All Music Records)
So where are we with the next generation of the musical dynasties? Will they surprise us with innovation, or deliver mere updates on their fathers’/aunties’/cousins’ legacies? The Unorthodox Drummer: Just […]
Dash Rip Rock, Call of the Wild (Alternative Tentacles Records)
“Didn’t come to college to learn how to think / Came here to learn how to drink.” That’s a line from Professor Cuervo, an instructor for the class “Party 101.” […]
Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, Up in Flames (Sound of New Orleans Records)
A churning dynamo, fully powered from start to finish, the latest release from Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers backs up the threat of its title. All 10 tracks burn […]
Various Artists, Classic Sounds of New Orleans from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways Records)
This collection from Smithsonian Folkways does what any visit to our origins should: broaden the mind. Beyond the sonic revelations, these recordings remind musicologists that the streets and churches are […]
Ann Savoy and Her Sleepless Knights, Black Coffee (Memphis International Records)
Through 12 standards about love’s tricky turns and soft whispers, the sound on Ann Savoy’s latest release is sweet, but rarely sugary, a good album for the deep summer. Tin […]
Cyril Neville, The Essential Cyril Neville 1994-2007 (MC Media)
An album of Cyril Neville’s tracks from 1994-2007 labeled “essential” might raise eyebrows. After all, how large is the Cyril Neville canon? But we shouldn’t be surprised that the percussionist […]
Russell Batiste and Friends, Follow Your Dreams (Ruff Pup Records)
The influence of the jam band phenomenon on the local music scene deserves more refection. As a commercial enterprise, the genre has an obvious impact on the bookings and audiences […]
