by Pico It was a tough call to make: do I pimp Papa Mali’s entire 1999 release Thunder Chicken or just quickly gush over just one of the tracks? There’s certainly enough tasty bits in Chicken to justify the full unpaid advertisement (and come to think of it, I alreadyRead More

When certain major events…tragic events..take place, we often look to see how certain mucisians express their feelings about it and if it coincides with our own feelings or informs them, then that artist has delivered something special beyond mere entertainment. Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising was so heavily anticipated because heRead More

by Nick DeRiso John Lennon was a bundle of contradictions, both peacenik provocateur and tender tough guy. He lived a life that was simultaneously brash and vulnerable, easy going and hard eyed. A flower child who was viciously murdered, Lennon’s story — and, indeed, his art — took twists andRead More

by Pico When the phrase “jazz musician from Louisiana” is thrown out, thoughts of New Orleans immediately spring to mind. And while it’s true that NOLA is the state’s, natch, the region’s jazz hub, you can find a few from Up North over in Nick’s neck of the woods whoRead More

It’s hard to put a label on Aaron Neville’s music. Even, as we saw in this interview, for Aaron Neville himself.

by Nick DeRiso While the performances on “Johnny Shines and Robert Lockwood,” from Shreveport, Louisiana’s Paula Records, are first-rate, unfortunately the sound quality early on is spotty. Some of the source material was slightly damaged on the Shines sides, resulting in a couple of gurgly spots where the sound fallsRead More

Branford Marsalis’ sibling producer Delfeayo said ‘Bloomington’ was the “most important concert recorded in our generation.” Thing is, he could be right.

The late Louisiana blues legend Gatemouth Brown could be a grouchy man. How grouchy? Let’s find out.

By Nick DeRiso It you’re interested in Delta piano stylings, as seen through the sieve of Chicago’s mean streets, here’s a great place to begin your journey. Issued by Stan Lewis’s hip-shaking local indie label, “Chicago Piano, 1951-58” features Sunnyland Slim, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Slim and others. You MayRead More

by Nick DeRiso It’s been more than 50 years since Stan Lewis opened Stan’s Record Shop in downtown Shreveport. From his vantage point at the the top of Texas Avenue (I used to sneak down there after class), he would go on to create a once-lucrative business, then see theRead More