Chapel Hart Show the Power of Show Biz Friday, and Saturday's Highlights at Jazz Fest

Chapel Hart

Chapel Hart’s Jazz Fest set was something New Orleanians don’t do, but it was also a very New Orleans show. 

The country trio composed of sisters Danica and Devynn Hart and their cousin Trea Swindle are as show biz they come. The first three songs all had ways to activate the crowd, whether it was singing along to “Glory Days,” doing the countdown in “4 Mississippi,” or dancing to their cover of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.” 

The show also worked to tell a story, or at least help audiences feel like they know Chapel Hart as people. Singer Danica Hart introduced “Dear Tequila” and “This Girl Likes Trucks” as if they’re both true stories. 

That kind of pure, commercial showmanship is not something New Orleans bands value, much less do well. Our showmen have been eccentric and get over by virtue of being lovably odd.  

Chapel Hart showed the power of that kind of show business because it worked. They had the crowd on their side and involved the whole show. Every song in their set was presented as part of their story, so they constantly sold themselves as much as their material. It helps that the songs are good, clear, direct commercial country songs. They’re not what’s on country radio these days, but it seems like they should be. 

All of that engagement made last 20 minutes land with emotional impact. Danica told the story of them busking on Royal Street and becoming favorites of David "DMac" McGee, the late owner of DMac’s on Norman C. Francis Parkway. She recalled him supporting them, whether it was loaning them money or feeding them when they were broke. He saw them make their breakthrough on America’s Got Talent but didn’t live to see them play Jazz Fest. 

That story had people around me tearing up while they sang along to a sing-along version of “Drift Away” in his memory. That kind of sentimentality? Very New Orleans. 

My day started with a very different kind of country. Deano & Jo played classic country and songs from that working class milieu. Joined only by a fiddler, they revisited classic country in cover versions or spirit and made the songs feel like conversations set to music. 

The scrappy, front porch feel to their performance was light years away from Chapel Hart, but while Chapel Hart was a reliable entertainment event, Deano & Jo’s set was about how people do and don’t get along. The humanity was far more immediate.

Cheap Trick showed their age and durability when they concluded the day on the Gentilly Stage. Guitarist Rick Neilsen looked like he’s dealing with osteoporosis, and everybody took a break at some point, even though the set was little more than an hour long. The band has added Robin Taylor Zander—Robin’s son—on third guitar and vocals, which suggests that they’re aware of a weakness that wasn’t there before. 

It also suggests the possibility that Cheap Trick will outlast its founding members since Neilsen’s son Daxx plays drums.

RTZ presided over a dark stretch of the show by singing the faceless, mid-tempo blues rocker “Cry Cry” that probably wasn’t as long as it felt, but it seemed like 10 minutes or more, maybe because it led to Tom Petersson taking a solo on his 12-string bass. That solo focused on the interplay between the strings, so it didn’t go anywhere. At its conclusion, Petersson sang lead on “I Know What I Want” from Dream Police, but his extreme yowl made it a further test of our patience. When this streak finally ended with “The Flame”—a second-tier Cheap Trick hit in my book—it was very welcome. 

After that, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers showed why they were there with solid, efficient pop songs that rocked. Long-time fans and young people who weren’t born when the band played Budokan sang along to everything and added some joy that it looks hard for Cheap Trick to convey these days.

Moment of the Day: Danica Hart took the crowd to self-help church before Chapel Hart got to the last song, and when her sermon on the importance of believing in your dreams reached a crescendo, they covered Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” At the first notes, young women around me levitated with tears and excitement. Watching the song provoke that kind of ecstatic reaction made the moment feel special, even if the version was just a version. A friend who saw it surrounded by less exuberant fans didn’t hear as more than a Journey cover.

Bite of the Day: the “Messy Clesi,” crawfish rice covered with etoufée sauce.

Stage of the Day: Kacey Musgraves’ Festival Stage, which made the stage look like a forest floor, in honor of her new EP, Sounds from the Heart of the Woods. The lip of the stage was covered in logs and moss and greenery. Red lights were embedded in it, and smoke rolled across it during Musgraves’ first song, “Cardinal” from last year’s Deeper Well.  Jazz Fest stage production is coming.

Saturday at Jazz Fest

The most unpredictable show of this year’s Jazz Fest is Lil Wayne and The Roots (5:30 p.m., Festival Stage). Weezy’s a mercurial performer whose looseness can be a strength and a weakness. How will teaming with The Roots affect him? If their medley on SNL50: The Anniversary Special was any indication, the combination brings out the musician in him.

I’m rarely an advocate of staying in any one place too long when at Jazz Fest, but with Big Freedia (1:55 p.m., Festival Stage) and Tank and the Bangas (3:30 p.m., Festival Stage), there are good reasons to hang around. I’ll be there to see if Big Freedia performs anything from her upcoming gospel album, Take My Hand.

There was a time when Video Age (5:35 p.m., Lagniappe Stage) told you the roots of the New Orleans indie rock band with their name. Trappings from the ‘80s remain, but their focus on clear, concise, immediate songs has allowed the band to grow organically. Last year’s digital single has the classic jangle-pop “Record Shop” as the A-side and a country duet with Esther Rose, “Out in the Country” as the flip. 

I’m also looking forward to the French trio Zar Electrik (3 p.m., Lagniappe Stage; 5 p.m., Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion), Silver Synthetic (4:30 p.m., Lagniappe Stage), and Los Güiros (12:25 p.m., Jazz & Heritage Stage).

We have more on today and every day at Jazz Fest at My Spilt Milk at Jazz Fest 2025.