Louisiana Jukebox, the music and culture program that showcased hundreds of New Orleans and Louisiana musicians and bands, will come back to life as New Orleans Live.
OffBeat is proud to announce that it will partner with Louisiana Jukebox and New Orleans Live to provide exclusive access to the archive of Jukebox shows that ran for 335 episodes on Cox Cable. The show began in 1996 and included performances from a broad range of musicians, including Percy Sledge, the Dixie Cups, Cowboy Mouth, Rosie Ledet & The Zydeco Playboys, Allen Toussaint, Galactic, the Bucktown Allstars, Irma Thomas, Rebirth Brass Band, and many more.
New Orleans Live will be produced in front of a live studio audience at a major downtown New Orleans venue in full HD video and high fidelity audio, and will be distributed to a worldwide audience. To help fund the program’s long-overdue return to the air, Ernest Collins, Creator and Executive Producer of both shows, has launched a crowdsourcing campaign on IndieGoGo.
The campaign launched on May 1 and will run for two months, and aims to raise $200,000, which will be matched by another $100,000 raised through sponsorship deals.
This funding will support the taping of a full 13-episode season, with each one-hour show focusing on live performances from the best and brightest Louisiana musicians.
“My production team and I have a long and successful track record of producing music shows,” Collins writes on the campaign’s homepage. “We have prepared well and are poised to execute a show that will put New Orleans music on the same level of shows like Austin City Limits.”
Collins plans to adopt two local charities, the Roots of Music and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic & Assistance Foundation, which will each receive a portion of any profits generated by New Orleans Live.
Donations to the IndieGoGo campaign for New Orleans Live range from the $15 “Contributor” level to the $10,000 “Platinum Champion” level.
Perks for donations range from a New Orleans Live t-shirt and keychain for a $40 donation to a private meet and greet with musical guests and producers, backstage passes, VIP accommodations and a special role as the show’s announcer at the $500 “Benefactor” level.
The perks build on themselves as the donation levels increase, so “Platinum Champion” donors can expect to receive a pair of Big Chief passes to Jazz Fest and a pair of three day LOA VIP passes to Voodoo Fest as well as every perk from every lower level.
Collins also encourages all individual performing artists and bands to register so that the producers can promote the musicians and possibly provide a performance slot on the new show.
