Photo from the Verve Music Group by Nick DeRiso With a voice that’s axiomatically compared with winged messengers from God, Aaron Neville‘s gospel records ought to form the cornerstone of his resume, right? Instead, the New Orleans singing legend’s two previous attempts felt too forced, like being dragged into church. Not this one.

Photo from my poster collection by Nick DeRiso Dr. John further defines an ass-shaking new synthesis on Desitively Bonnaroo. Even today, there’s really no roadmap for the crazy-eyed co-mingling of R&B, jazz, island beats, blues, boogie funk and hoodoo whackadoo splashed across this LP, recorded alongside fellow New Orleans legends Allen Toussaint and the Meters more than 35 years ago. [...]

Photograph by Andy Goetz By Nick DeRiso Big Sam’s Funky Nation, all brass and sass, opens its latest CD with a floor-rattling invitation to shake every thing you’ve got. For all of its musical prowess, that remains the one and only goal of this fun-loving, funky-butt recording by New Orleans-based trombone-playing bandleader Sammie Williams, formerly of the Dirty Dozen Brass [...]

Photograph by Spencer Tweedy by Nick DeRiso Over the course of a remarkable career, both with her family band the Staple Singers and as a solo artist, gospel-soul icon Mavis Staples has bravely explored the frustrations, sorrows and then joys of the African-American freedom fight. But, lest we forget, she can still rock it. “Last Train,” from Staples’ most recent [...]

by Nick DeRiso Big Apple Blues came by this vintage sound honestly. They put down tracks for Brooklyn Blues in an old hometown studio, Excello Recording, playing live before analog equipment on throwback instruments. Then they picked out a series of cuts by giants of the genre. Included on this Stone Tone release are covers of songs by Chess Records [...]

By Nick DeRiso For all of her wandering, Allen Toussaint remains this touchstone for New Orleans-born vocalist Christina Gaudet. But Gaudet doesn’t let her lasting affinity for a hometown soul legend pigeonhole her wider ambitions on Solid, though it’s subtitled “Featuring new songs by Allen Toussaint.” She’s particularly adept at engrossing Cocteau Twins-inspired dream pop, an ethereal landscape that couldn’t [...]

This site’s ties to Louisiana have provided a rich vein of musical delights over the years, but also a moment of staggering loss when Hurricane Katrina swept ashore near New Orleans five years ago today. A legacy of recovery for the city, and the wider Gulf Coast, subsequently found voice in songs from across the spectrum, and helped many sort [...]

By Matt Reynolds With the landmark announcement on Wednesday that Simon and Garfunkel will be taking the stage at this years’ New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, it finalizes what may be one of the best lineups in the event’s history. Also manning the two weekend jubilee in the Crescent City are stellar acts such as Allman Brothers Band, Dr. [...]

by Nick DeRiso Nothing drove old Levon Helm down. Not the messy dissolution of his group, The Band; the perhaps inevitable subsequent financial ruin; a terrifying bout with throat cancer; a pair of shatteringly tragic deaths within his inner circle; or a yawning quarter century span between solo records that made him all but obscure in modern musical circles. This [...]

The Meters started out as the largely unknown rhythm section behind some of New Orleans’ most important R&B records, and eventually became, well … a largely unknown recording and touring act. Just why, after listening again to 1974′s “Rejuvenation,” continues to daze and confuse. On-the-one R&B combines with a frisky sense of adventure — the Meters, and Svengali producer Allen [...]