Olu Dara

“Your lips…your lips…your lips…your lips… are juicy!” If your ears (and radio) were tuned into WWOZ during the last two years, it would’ve been virtually impossible not to hear Olu […]

Wild West

Home is, of course, where the heart is. In the case of nouveau hillbilly multi-instrumentalist Mike West, home is "Da Nint’ Ward" and Home is the title of his sixth […]

Fredy Omar Con Su Banda, Latin Party! in New Orleans (Mardi Gras)

Jonathan Moffett

Various Artists, Putumayo Presents Carnival (Putumayo World Music)/Various Artists, Mardi Gras in New Orleans (Rounder Heritage)

Al “Carnival Time” Johnson

For diehard Mardi Gras traditionalists—those of the rhythm and blues camp, at least, there are but four songs that truly matter: Professor Longhair’s “Go To The Mardi Gras” and “Big […]

The Floating World

Kidd Jordan

Saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan, a native of Crowley, Louisiana, is the recipient of OffBeat’s first Lifetime Achievement Award for Music Education. Jordan is the Associate Professor of Music at Southern […]

Good Goth! It’s Borgessa!

What is Goth? The Teutonic barbarians who conquered the Roman Empire in the 3rd-century? Suburban kids dressed in black with a predilection for the novels of Anne Rice, the albums […]

Lorelei Fuller

Lorelei Fuller, known professionally as Miss Lorelei Lane, is the genius behind the Shim Shamettes, New Orleans’ (and perhaps, the nation’s) only functioning burlesque company. On December 10 at the […]