AUGUST 26, 2022 | Beat Café is a weekly program that explores the music scene in New Orleans and the broader reach of Louisiana hosted by David Johnson, digital media editor for OffBeat magazine. The program is broadcast on WHIV 102.3 FM every Friday from 1 to 2 p.m. Central.

This week’s episode featured an interview with Sam Gelband of the band Mr. Sam and the People People. The band has a new album, titled People People People People!, set to be released September 23. A fitting entrance into the album, the title song “People People People People!” is a refreshingly earnest ode to life’s simplest pleasures. 

The second half hour includes an interview with Harry Mayronne, a pianist-composer and marionette artist and performer. Mayronne has recently served as musical director for several shows at the National World War II Museum. Accompanied by Anaïs St. John, he performed more seventy porch fest livestreams throughout the pandemic (2020-2022), for which the two received a proclamation from the New Orleans City Council. He also plays piano with Leslie Cooper at Buffa’s Bar and Restaurant and performs Wednesday evenings from 9 p.m. to midnight at the Bombay Club.

Listen to the show as a podcast on Spotify: