Festival Season
It's a good week for roots music in New Orleans this week with the Blues and BBQ Fest, Steve Earle, The Lumineers, John Hiatt and Patti Griffin.
The weather's starting to turn, and with it come festivals by the truckload.
Friday: Steve Earle and the Dukes, The Mastersons, 9 p.m., House of Blues: Steve Earle has moved behind the scenes on Treme, contributing songs for Annie (Lucia Micarelli) since his character was killed last season. His association with the show has given him a reason to be a recent guest in New Orleans. (tickets)
Also on Friday: Super Water Sympathy, The Happy Devil, The Quail Dogs, 10 p.m., The Howlin' Wolf (tickets) ; Coyotes, Kopecky Family, Gold & The Rush, 10 p.m., One Eyed Jacks (tickets); The Bo-Keys, 9 p.m., Chickie Wah Wah
Saturday: Cyril Neville and Tribe 13, 10 p.m., d.b.a.: When Cyril gets it just right, his sets blend the broad spectrum of New Orleans music to devastatingly kinetic results.
Also on Saturday, Loyolapalooza College Hip-Hop Festival, 9 p.m., The Big Top; Laura Marling, 9 p.m., House of Blues Parish (tickets); Scott McCreery, Brad Paisley, The Band Perry, 7:30 p.m., New Orleans Arena (tickets)
Sunday: Punch Brothers, Tom Brosseau, 8 p.m., House of Blues: "Progressive bluegrass" sounds like something the Geneva Convention outlawed, but in the case of the Punch Brothers, it means they think carefully about how to apply their substantial skills to songs worth playing. (tickets)
Also on Sunday: Mac Miller, Travis Porter, YG, 7:30 p.m., UNO Lakefront Arena (tickets)
Monday: Sleigh Bells, Sumsun, 8:30 p.m., House of Blues: The combination of metal guitar, electronic dance beats and a breathy girl singer should work really well, and it does. At The Varsity last year, Derek Miller's Marshall stacks crushed everything else in the songs; hope they've got the sound in smaller venues figured out. (tickets)
Tuesday: The Lumineers, Paper Bird, 8 p.m., House of Blues: I wasn't surprised to hear that The Lumineers are one of Marcus Mumford's favorte bands. They share a folk fearlessness and tunefulness without the overwhelming sense of purpose that swamps Babel. (tickets)
Wednesday: John Hiatt & the Combo, 8 p.m., House of Blues: John Hiatt's satisfying like meatloaf and mashed potatoes. If he surprises you, it's in little touches, but you know what you're going to get. Then again, he's so good at what he does, there's no reason to be surprising. (tickets)
Also on Wednesday: Father John Misty, La Sera, Jeffertitties Nile, 10 p.m., One Eyed Jacks (tickets)
Thursday: Patti Griffin, Max Gomez, 9 p.m., Tipitina's: After two years of traveling with Robert Plant and his Band of Joy, Patti Griffin's reconnecting to smaller places and a more human scale on this tour. A friend says don't miss opener Max Gomez, one of her highlights at this year's Americana Music Association Conference. (tickets)
Also on Thursday: Matt and Kim, Oberhofer, 8 p.m., House of Blues (tickets); Matthew Dear, 9 p.m., The Howlin' Wolf (tickets)
OTHER STUFF
Last weekend, Treme featured a pared-down Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars. This weekend, they'll close the Voice of the Wetlands Festival at Southdown Planation in Houma. The event exists first and foremost to raise awareness of wetland-related issues, but its music programming leans heavily on blues guitars. Friday night's lineup ends with the Friday Night Guitar Fights with Tab Benoit, Elvin Bishop, Mike Zito, Bill Davis and a special guest.
Last Tuesday, former T-P - now Advocate - photographer John McCusker spoke at Octavia Books about his biography of Kid Ory, Creole Trombone. Friday, he will be at New Orleans Museum of Art to sign books at 6:30 p.m. This will also be the last weekend to see the excellent Ralston Crawford exhibition at NOMA.
The New Orleans Film and Video Festival started last night, and with screenings in nine different venues, there's more there than I can recap in a blurb. Critic, author and filmmaker Nelson George will be in town for the festival, and he'll do two events while here. On Saturday, he'll be part of a talk on "Insider/Outsider Filmmaking" at the Contemporary Arts Center’s SPUN Cafe (900 Camp St.) at 2:30 p.m. The talk deals with the issues connected to telling the story of a community you're not a part of. On Sunday, his film Brooklyn Boheme - about the African-American artistic community in Brooklyn during the 1980s and '90s - will screen, and there will be a free post-screening conversation with George and special guests at Ashé Cultural Arts Center. The conversation starts at 4 and will be hosted by DJ Soul Sister.
Friday, the weekend-long New Orleans Crescent City Blues and BBQ Festival starts at Lafayette Square. The free festival has music on two stages, as well barbecue - using that term loosely, be warned - and features such artists as Clarence Carter, Keb' Mo', Latimore, The Bo-Keys with Otis Clay, Miss Lavelle White, Chris Thomas King and more.
Monday, The People Say Project collaborates with the New Orleans Film Festival to present a special People Say conversation with Meschiya Lake (subject of the documentary True Family) and The Lost Bayou Ramblers' Louis Michot, who contributed music to the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild. The event takes place at the Old Mint starting at 5:30 p.m. with a a reception and music by DJ Maxmillion. After the conversation, Meschiya Lake will perform outside the Mint and the festival will screen True Family.
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