The festival focused on music in New Orleans’ bars has felt a little meta, but this year’s incarnation delivers a week with multiple reasons to see music in the clubs.

NOLAxNOLA started when Jazz Fest misfired. When the festival planned to run in October 2021, many clubs booked Jazz Fest-worthy lineups, then realized they had a problem on their hands when a late summer COVID spike prompted Jazz Fest to cancel, meaning that musical tourists they had planned on wouldn’t be here. NOLAxNOLA began in part as an effort to draw attention to the venues and those shows, but this year’s incarnation shows signs of the marketing strategy growing into a genuine event. The Stanton Moore Trio, for instance, will play The Columns on September 30 with the trio including James Singleton and David Torkanowski.

The theory—rightly—has been that New Orleans’ live music venues are the places where the city’s stars honed their craft, and they’re the places where magic happens. The biggest names may go to the Smoothie King Center or the Superdome, but everybody’s had the experience of seeing and hearing something in a club that felt profound, like a moment when music and community came together in a way no one expected.

The last two years of NOLAxNOLA were growing seasons. For fans, they looked like years when the festival did little more than throw a frame around a week or two on WWOZ’s Live Wire and called it NOLAxNOLA. That wasn’t all that happened, though. The lineups could seem erratic, but organizers spent the time making partnerships, developing credibility, and honing their vision. They found things that worked like NOLAxNo Cover, a day without cover charges on Frenchmen Street, and they’ll revisit it Sunday, September 29 this year starting at noon.

They also started to work on ramping up the booking so that the shows themselves seem special. This year’s lineup is far more event-oriented, whether it’s songwriting legend Dan Penn at Chickie Wah Wah, the Black Americana Festival at The Broadside, The Monsters of Early ‘Oughts Rock show with Suplecs and Supagroup, or Tipitina’s all-star tribute to Stevie Wonder.

This year, NOLAxNOLA also partners with Relix for NOLAxNOLA Talks, two days of panel discussions on the intersection of music, business and culture. One $25 ticket buys admission to talks at the Double Dealer under The Orpheum on the afternoons of October 3 and 4.

The topics are genuinely interesting and range from Jazz Fest’s role in the growth of America’s festival season, the appreciation and preservation of historic venues, to the impact of early start times in bars, to why touring musicians fall in love with New Orleans’ bars. I’ll moderate that panel on Friday, October 4 at 4 p.m. with guests Doug Trager from The Maple Leaf Bar, Brian "Tank" Greenberg from Tipitina’s, Managing Director of Preservation Hall Mike Martinovich, and The Rolling Stones’ tour manager Giovanni Vargas.

Here’s a rundown of NOLAxNOLA highlights from “Condensed Milk,” My Spilt Milk’s weekly newsletter that focuses on the past week on the site and the next week in New Orleans.

The NOLAxNOLA website has full listings for the venues as well as a number of special events. Some highlights include the free Black Americana Fest starting Sunday afternoon at The Broadside. Talent includes Joy Clark, Lilli Lewis, Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, Dusky Waters, and more. Also on Sunday, NOLAxNo Cover will feature the Frenchmen Street bars with their doors open at noon for a full day and night of music with no cover charges.

There are too many highlights to name this week, and what you’re looking for determines what you think is special. R&B songwriting legend Dan Penn (“The Dark End of the Street,” “I’m Your Puppet,” “Cry Like a Baby”) will play Chickie Wah Wah on Saturday night.

Also that night, Seven Lions brings together elements of dubstep, trance and electro in a very spacey version of EDM at the Metropolitan, and Atlanta hardcore band Whores headlines at Siberia.

In the early 2000s, Suplecs and Supagroup were two of the best heavy rock bands in the city, and Sunday afternoon after the Saints game, Supagroup will play its first show in a long time when the bands perform together at Santos Bar. That night, indie rock band Future Islands will play The Joy Theater and Americana mainstays The Old 97’s will play Tipitina’s.

One of the most exciting shows of NOLA x NOLA is Etran de L’Aïr from Niger. Unlike many Tuareg bands that show western influences, Etran de L’Aïr draw from more African sounds including Northern Malian blues, Hausa bar bands, and Congolese Soukous. They’ll play Santos Bar on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Fete du Cajun Psychedelia at The Joy Theater will feature The Lost Bayou Ramblers, Honey Island Swamp Band and more. That night, Tipitina’s will present an All-Star Tribute to Stevie Wonder with very special guests Irma Thomas, Cyril Neville, Kermit Ruffins, Deacon John, Jon Cleary, Nigel Hall, Big Sam Williams, and more.

New this year is NOLA x NOLA Talks, a series of conversations on culture music and business that will take place on Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4 in the Double Dealer at the Orpheum. The series is sponsored by Relix

Thursday’s lineup features sessions on the topics “Is New Orleans Ready to be a Year Round Live Entertainment & Music Hub?” (at 1:30 p.m.), “How New Orleans Helped Give Birth to the Modern Music Festival” (at 2:45), “Curating, Loving and Caring for Historic Musical Spaces in New Orleans” (at 4), and “Sustainability in Music in New Orleans: How Music Gets Green in a Red State” (at 5:15).

On Friday, the topics will be “The Friendzone: How Trust & Friendship Lead to Successful Business Partnership” (at 1:30 p.m.), “Is 8 pm the New Midnight? The Evolving Draw of Late Night Shows Being Earlier” (at 2:45), and I’ll moderate a panel on “Why National Touring Musicians Love New Orleans’ Old, Intimate Venues” (at 4 pm).

Details, guests and tickets are on the NOLA x NOLA Talks page. One $25 ticket gets you in to both days.