Issue Articles
Sweden’s Jonas Bernholm Publishes His Soul Odyssey: U.S. 1968
In his native Sweden, Jonas Bernholm is known as Mr. R&B. A music researcher, writer and record label owner, Bernholm became enraptured with American rhythm-and-blues and rock and roll music in the late 1950s. He began writing about music in the late 1960s, publishing much of his work in the Swedish blues magazine Jefferson. In 1976, he launched the first of his many reissue record labels.
How Women Made Music: An interview with Alison Fensterstock
New Orleans writer and WWOZ radio host Alison Fensterstock is the editor of How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music. Inspired by National Public Radio’s Turning the Tables series, How Women Made Music contains a lively bounty of engaging essays and interviews, many of them culled from NPR’s 50 years of music coverage.
Herb Alpert Talks Back
Trumpet star Herb Alpert and his wife, singer Lani Hall, are returning to New Orleans for a December 14 performance at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center in Metairie. The couple’s A Christmas Wish tour features Alpert’s many hits with The Tijuana Brass and solo hits.
Minos the Saint: Atchafalaya Child (Independent)
There’s likely no better example of chamber-pop music in Louisiana than Baton Rouge’s Minos the Saint. For the band’s second album, Atchafalaya Child, Peter Simon’s earnest yet playful songs are dressed in elaborate arrangements crafted by the band’s multi-instrumentalist polymath, Ben Herrington.
From Classical to Cajun: The LPO invites back the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Sweet Crude
Louis Michot, fiddler and singer with the Grammy award-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers, eagerly anticipates the Cajun band’s encore appearance with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. The LPO’s and Ramblers’ first collaborative concert at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans, released last year as Live: Orpheum Theatre NOLA, won both a Best of the Beat Award in January and a Grammy award in February for best regional roots music album.
Walking to New Orleans: The golden anniversary for John Broven’s groundbreaking book
John Broven’s Walking to New Orleans, the first comprehensive book about the golden age of rhythm and blues in New Orleans, was published 50 years ago. Following its original publication in the United Kingdom in 1974, Pelican Publishing Company in Gretna issued the first American edition in 1978, retitled Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans.
David Shaw Talks Back
David Shaw, singer and songwriter with the Revivalists, reached national fame with the New Orleans band’s 2015 single, “Wish I Knew You.” A number one hit, the song was certified three-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Nation Beat: Archaic Humans (Ropeadope Records)
Nation Beat is the vibrantly realized musical vision of its leader and founder, Scott Kettner. A drummer, percussionist, composer and educator in New Jersey, Kettner formed Nation Beat to merge his jazz foundation with Brazilian rhythm.
Piper and the Hard Times: Revelation (Hard Times Records)
Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Piper and the Hard Times play a brawny array of blues, rock, soul, rhythm-and-blues and funk. Individual songs on the band’s new album, Revelation, can tilt closer to one style or another.
White Noise & Lightning: Author Sean Kelly’s tribute to The Continental Drifters
In 2005, Susan Cowsill met 13-year-old Sean Kelly at a Hootie and the Blowfish concert in Buffalo, New York. As an opening act that night, Cowsill was setting up her merchandise table when Kelly introduced himself.
