June 2016

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BackTalk

Chris Robinson
It’s been over 50 years since bands like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company burst… – Jan Ramsey

Cover Story

Tangled Up: Darcy Malone & the Tangle
Born of New Orleans music royalty, Darcy Malone mixes up her music and blurs genres with her band, The Tangle. … – Brett Milano

Features

A Southern Trinity: Rising Appalachia is captivating audiences
Leah Song and Chloe Smith, the effortlessly harmonizing sisters in the folk-jazz-world music group Rising Appalachia, learned how to hold an… – John Wirt
Jazz Fest Redux 2016
By Rory Callais (RC); Sam D’Arcangelo (SD); Laura DeFazio (LD); Frank Etheridge (FE); Brett Milano (BM); Jennifer Odell (JO); Clea Simon… – OffBeat Staff
Marriage and a Food Truck
The partners behind Black Swan Food Experience are getting hitched. When Shana Turner met Shawneki “Nikki” Wright eight years ago… – Elsa Hahne
The Evolution of Zydeco: Sean Ardoin is Back
After 35 years of playing zydeco with his father (Lawrence Ardoin and His French Zydeco Band), leading Double Clutchin’ (featuring younger… – Dan Willging

Fresh

My Music: Khris Royal
"I started playing keyboards first because my cousin used to play keys in church. I would sit behind him and play… – Frank Etheridge
Shell Game: Oyster Festival Provides for Consumption and Conservation
Even more earth-shattering news for Louisiana’s fragile ecology hit home last month. Shell Oil Company discharged nearly 90,000 gallons of its… – Frank Etheridge
10 Remarkable Songs Played at Jazz Fest 2016
This month we look back at the 2016 Jazz Fest and revisit ten of the songs that stood out for us.… – Brett Milano
New Cookbook: The Creole Tomato Festival
John “Spud” McConnell offers up some y’at-tacular wisdom when declaring his preferred way to enjoy South Louisiana’s most celebrated indigenous fruit:… – Frank Etheridge
Five Questions with Kevin Lyman, Producer and Creator, Vans Warped Tour
What is the history behind the Vans Warped Tour? It started out as an offshoot of the skater and punk rock… – Frank Etheridge

In The Spirit

Isaiah Estell at Cavan
“I was going for something almost cartoonishly French. Calling it Cartoonishly French also crossed my mind, but I think the Royal Garden… – Elsa Hahne

Letters

June 2016 Letters to OffBeat
YouTube and Louis Armstrong These letters are in response to Sam D’Arcangelo’s web post, “Crystal Clear Louis Armstrong Recordings Surface,” reporting… – OffBeat Staff

Mojo Mouth

Skeptics Abound—Will The Eagle Saloon Rebound?
In January 2015, OffBeat published a story by David Kunian about how many of the landmarks that mark this city as… – Jan Ramsey

OffBeat Eats

Queen Of Her Castle: Chef Kristen Essig
How chef Kristen Essig walked away from New Orleans’ latest great restaurant and found herself at home. Chef Kristen Essig… – Elsa Hahne

Dining Out

Shaya
It’s a tossup as to which has received more critical acclaim over the past year: the Broadway blockbuster Hamilton or the… – Peter Thriffiley

The Spot

Michael Girardot Hits the Spot
How did you first learn of this place? This is actually my first time eating here, in the restaurant. But I’ve… – Elsa Hahne

Reviews

Creole String Beans, Golden Crown (Independent)
If you’ve never been fortunate enough to get a ladies’ choice dance to these guys, know that the Creole String Beans… – Robert Fontenot
Jim Pharis, Sure to Offend (Independent)
Jim Pharis’ Sure to Offend is a bit like his neighbor’s answer to why he has so many guns, on the… – Nick Pittman
Miss Sophie Lee and the Parish Suites, Traverse This Universe (Independent)
Sophie Lee, transplanted native of the ’90s or not, could be turning into the Leah Chase of trad jazz; not only… – Robert Fontenot
Michael Doucet and Tom Rigney, Cajun Fandango (Parhelion Records)
Epic jam sessions between BeauSoleil’s Michael Doucet and Flambeau’s Tom Rigney eventually materialized into this fiery twin fiddle record for the… – Dan Willging
Lumière, Heart Notes on the Bayou (Independent)
If it had to fall into categorization, Lumière’s Heart Notes on the Bayou would be a scaled down and earthy Enya… – Nick Pittman
Rooftop Junkies, Rooftop Junkies (Independent)
This is the second EP now from DJ Ragas’ side project, and anybody who heard 2014’s It Starts Here will know… – Robert Fontenot
The Necessary Gentlemen Hard to Leave (Independent)
As already exhibited on last year’s excellent LP Fools to Stay, this is a sextet whose mission statement is to break… – OffBeat Intern
Sheriff Bud Torres Saltwater Cowboy (Independent)
He bills himself, jokingly, as “That Other Singing Sheriff,” a politically deft nod to fellow Louisianan, actor and vocalist Faron Young,… – Robert Fontenot
Brass Bed, In the Yellow Leaf (Modern Outsider)
Brass Bed’s In the Yellow Leaf takes its name from a line in “The Poet,” a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay where… – Nick Pittman
Branford Marsalis Quartet with special guest Kurt Elling, Upward Spiral, (Marsalis Music)
From note one, this album sounds more like a Kurt Elling album backed by the Branford Marsalis Quartet than the other… – Geraldine Wyckoff
Allen Toussaint, American Tunes (Nonesuch)
Allen Toussaint began his recording career with an album of instrumentals, The Wild Sound of New Orleans (by Tousan) and now… – Tom McDermott