Music
Beth Patterson: The Cigar Box Guitar EP (Stone Groove)
If the title of this EP makes it sound like it’s going to be a nice little acoustic session, guess again. In all her years doing folk and acoustic music, Beth Patterson has always dropped hints that she’s a rocker at heart—though her occasional Rush covers are hard hints to miss. Some of her rocker side came out on her recent Singles compilation, and she turns it fully loose on this EP. Whatever that guitar is, it makes a pretty mighty sound.
Max Bien-Kahn: Flowers (Defend Vinyl)
Based on his previous indie releases I had Max Bien-Kahn pegged as a singer/writer who makes charmingly offhand pop in the same general orbit of Jonathan Richman and NRBQ (and a million miles from his regular band, Tuba Skinny). To a large extent that’s still true on his latest album, but the real highlights here are still pop but more poignant.
Benny Turner: BT (Nola Blue Records)
When Nola Blue Records president Sallie Bengtson established her label a decade ago, then New Orleans bassman and vocalist Benny Turner, age 75, was its debut artist, and his critically acclaimed Journey was its inaugural release.
Tiago Guy: Paper Thin (Independent)
This warm breeze of an album marks the arrival of a promising songwriter to town. Tiago Guy came to New Orleans from Brazil in 2021, and the songs here include farewells to his old home and greetings to his new one.
Jovin Webb: Drifter (Blind Pig Records)
Singer, songwriter and harmonica player Jovin Webb represents the soulful style of blues that abounds in his home state of Louisiana and particularly in the Baton Rouge area.
Tab Benoit: I Hear Thunder (Whiskey Bayou Records)
The last thing you’d expect Tab Benoit to require is another guitar player, especially one with an equally high profile as a bandleader. But he teamed with Anders Osborne on his last album Medicine a full 13 years ago, and the two are reunited on this long-overdue follow-up (delayed largely so Benoit could get out of record-label limbo and launch his own Whiskey Bayou Records label).
Matt Booth: Sun Prints (Ears & Eyes Records)
Matt Booth is perhaps best known in New Orleans as a member of the exceptional ensemble simply called Extended. Leading his own group on Sun Prints, the bassist and
composer, who now resides in Durham, North Carolina, gathered like-minded musicians—pianist Oscar Rossignoli, trumpeter Steve Lands, drummer Ricardo Varnado and saxophonist Sam Taylor (now living in Chicago)—who have contributed in making this city’s jazz scene thrive.
Rainy Eyes: Lonesome Highway (Royal Potato Family)
Rainy Eyes, whose civilian name is Irena Eide, made the long trek from her native Norway to Denmark to the Bay Area to eventually land in Lafayette, Louisiana, where she has lived for the past four years. Lonesome Highway is the tale of two recordings, starting in the unincorporated coastal community of Bolinas, California, and completed by Dirk Powell at his Cypress House studio on the banks of the Bayou Teche.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band: Dirt on My Diamonds Volume 2 (Provogue Records)
There’s no denying the FAME Studios / Muscle Shoals connection in Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s pair of separately released Dirt on My Diamonds volumes, but it’s not what you would expect.
The Junior League: Our Broadcast Day (Greenleaves Sound)
There’s a select group of pop songwriters (Tommy Keene and Jeff Tweedy come to mind) who can make you feel glad to be alive without writing a single happy song Joe Adragna joins that company with the latest Junior League album (on which he again does the lion’s share of the singing and playing). Lyrically it’s full of downcast thoughts—one of its catchiest tunes is about death—but it’s also full of soaring tunes that give an uplift at every turn.
