The Radiators are calling it quits this year, with final performances set June 9-11 at New Orleans' famed music club Tipitinas...

..."I love their energy and songwriting and their relationship with their fans," said Stacey Erdmann, of San Francisco. "I raised my daughter on this music."

[Bassist Reggie Scanlon] said that kind of fan loyalty is what he will miss most.

"I think that's our legacy," he said in an interview before the show. "We've been a catalyst for this amazing community of fans, who have formed around the country. These people have formed friendships that will last beyond us. These communities that have formed as a result of our music really shows that music can bring people together for more than just a gig." [ABC News]

The Radiators, formed in 1978, played a very expensive benefit (I think it was $250 a ticket) show at Brooklyn Bowl last night (6/1). According to one attendant, "The Rads played to a small group gathered to support the Headcount.org cause for voter registration." They play a much cheaper show at the same venue tonight (tickets) and then their final NYC show at Best Buy Theatre Friday (6/3), with an after party at Sullivan Hall as they near their previously announced breakup. Tickets for both Friday (6/3) shows are available too.

As mentioned above, the Radiators play three hometown shows, starting with an acoustic show on June 9 and culminating in their last show ever on June 11. The rest of their dates leading up to the final show, and some videos from last night, below...

Continue reading "New Orleans legends the Radiators playing their final shows"

DOWNLOAD: Big Freedia - "Azz Everywhere" (12" mix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Big Freedia - "Look at Her" (MP3)

Big Freedia @ BV-CMJ 2010 (more by Chris La Putt)

Big Freedia, who is currently on tour, recently appeared on HBO's Treme with fellow New Orleans bouncers Katey Red and Sissy Nobby. Treme takes place in New Orleans where the bounce music Big Freedia has become recognized for originated. She appeared on the Tim Robbin-directed episode two of the second season, "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky," named after the Allen Toussaint composition of the same name. In the episode, Treme characters Davis and Aunt Mimi watch Big Freedia perform "Gin in My System" at the West Bank Club. Mimi then meets Katey Red in the club during the performance and walks off with her. Watch a clip below. And if you need a refresher on Bounce, read what Treme music consultant Alison Fensterstock has to say about it.

As previously mentioned, Big Freedia is stopping by NYC this week to shake some ass on Thursday (5/26) at Mercury Lounge with her tour-mate Javelin who is not playing the show Saturday (5/28) at Brooklyn Bowl where the billing is "BIG FREEDIA AND THE DIVAS with DJ RUSTY LAZER." Tickets for Mercury Lounge and Brooklyn Bowl are still on sale.

The Saturday night show at Brooklyn Bowl is a late one. The Deli's NYC B.E.A.F. show with Delicate Steve, Headless Horseman and Arpline happens earlier in the evening. The Saturday show is also one night before Freedia appears at B.O.M.B. Fest.

In June Freedia hits Chaos in Tejas in Austin. In July she was supposed to play some dates with Quintron, but Quintron's entire tour is now cancelled. All Big Freedia tour dates and videos below...

Continue reading "Big Freedia on tour w/ Javelin, appeared on 'Treme' (video)"

most photos by Alysse Gafkjen, Gulf Restoration Network photos courtesy of Gulf Restoration Network

The Gulf Restoration Network celebrates four years as the official non-profit partner of the Voodoo Experience, one of New Orleans best music festivals. We constructed demonstration barrier islands, marshes and cypress swamps to educate music worshippers about the importance of our natural storm defenses, the threat of the BP drilling disaster, and the need for a national commitment to the recovery and restoration of the Gulf. We also held a press conference with featured musicians speaking out for the Gulf, and welcomed the Acting Outlaws to NOLA. The Acting Outlaws are Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff, actresses who share a line on their resumes (lead roles in Battlestar Galactica), a love of motorcycles, and a belief that everyone can do something to make the world better. The two rode BMW motorcycles cross country for Gulf awareness, supporting the Gulf Future campaign, and the work of GRN and the Gulf Coast Fund.

Pictures of the Gulf Restoration Network's site at the festival, and the rest of our pictures from the New Orleans music fest (the rest here are HERE, HERE and HERE), below...

Continue reading "the rest of the Voodoo Experience pictures "

photos by Alysse Gafkjen

MGMT / My Morning Jacket

"It's more than an average sweat-your-brains-out, suffer-in-the-mud music festival. It's the Voodoo Experience, and it went down at City Park this weekend in New Orleans.

Voodoo Fest, one of the world's largest Halloween parties, housed thousands of attendees who, for three days of musical bliss, watched some of the world's most notorious names -- including Muse, Ozzy Osbourne, MGMT and My Morning Jacket -- and donned costumes ranging from zombies to superheroes, fictional characters to condiments and anything and everything in-between." [The Daily Reveille]

MGMT probably had the most talked about costumes of the weekend. The band dressed up as the cartoon cast of Scooby Doo. More pictures and a bunch of videos from this past weekend's Halloween-themed New Orleans fest (not necessarily in order - a big mix of all three days), and MMJ's setlist (they covered Black Sabbath again), below...

Continue reading "Voodoo Experience 2010 in pics & video - part 1 (MGMT as Scooby Doo, My Morning Jacket, Jonsi, Muse, Metric & more) "

words & photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

The Relatives

The Ponderosa Stomp is now in its 9th year and has grown steadily since its origins as a backyard wedding party for festival founder Ira 'Dr. Ike' Padnos. The 2-day, New Orleans-based festival (that took place on Sept 24 and 25th this year) brings to the stage an amazing line-up of 'unsung heroes' and originators in the intermingled genres of country, blues, garage, rock n' roll, soul, swamp pop, rhythm & blues, and funk. Attendees experienced artists who actively recorded in the 1940's through the 1970's and 1980's delivering profoundly moving and authentic performances, providing a vivid glimpse into a world of music that might seem long-gone.

The Stomp is musically successful because it encourages artists to perform their original music and brings in talented and dedicated bands to support them. This year included many of the usual suspects (check out the review and pictures from 2009): New Orleans soul-blues veterans Lil Buck and the Top Cats, Western Music masters Deke Dickerson and the Eccophonics, Michael Hurtt and the Haunted Hearts, The A-Bones, and Eve and the Exiles. Jenny Dee and the Deelinquents debuted with La La Brooks of the Crystals who will be in NYC on October 20th when she plays a CMJ show at BB King Blues Club & Grill with Paula Valstein. Tickets are on sale if you don't have a CMJ badge.

The Stomp attracts a core audience of baby boomer soul and blues fanatics, rock-a-billies, Zoot-suiters, music writers, radio hosts, DJ's, record collectors, historians, WFMU-types, and a sprinkling of open-minded music lovers of varied backgrounds and ages. During the day, there are panel discussions between artists and respected historians, screenings of rare music documentaries and a record show. Even for the most die-hard, the sum total is a bit overwhelming. But Dr. Ike, an anesthesiologist by trade, seems to revel in the dazed and delirious look on people's faces at the end of 2 non-stop days. If you can keep your bloodshot eyes open, you'll see him floating from stage to stage with his airbrushed T-shirt that reads "Dr. Ike Stomped My Ass".

Pictures from both nights of the 2010 festval continue below...

Continue reading "the 2010 New Orleans Ponderosa Stomp (in pics)"

Elvis Perkins @ MHOW in December (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Two of the three currently scheduled Elvis Perkins in Dearland shows are at Brooklyn's Bell House. Those will happen on April 23rd and 24th. The first night will be opened by Dawn Landes (who recently played Mercury Lounge and will be at Joe's Pub on Valentine's Day); opener for the second is TBA. Tickets for Apr 23rd and Apr. 24th are both on sale.

Elvis Perkins's other show is at the massive two-weekend party that is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (April 23rd-May 2nd). The lineup for that is sprawling and includes (to name just a few) Aretha Franklin, Pearl Jam, The Dead Weather, My Morning Jacket, Allen Toussaint, Jeff Beck, Band of Horses, Van Morrison, B.B. King, Wayne Shorter Quartet, Lionel Richie, Simon & Garfunkel, The Levon Helm Band, Elvis Costello and The Sugarcanes (who are coming to New York in April), etc. etc. Tickets are on sale.

The full lineup and poster for NOLA Jazz Fest and Elvis Perkins tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Elvis Perkins playing 2 Brooklyn shows (1 w/ Dawn Landes) & New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (full lineup)"

David Johansen w/ NY Dolls @ MHOW in June (more by Tim Griffin)

The New York Dolls will be playing an eight show UK tour in December, but before that, Dolls frontman David Johansen will bring the David Johansen Band to NYC's Highline Ballroom for a show on Saturday, November 28th. Tickets are on sale.

The NY Dolls went on a North American tour earlier this year to promote their Todd Rundgren-produced album Cause I Sez So. Recently, Johansen contributed harmonica to the new record from Steve Conte, NY Dolls' guitarist since their 2004 reunion. That album Steve Conte and the Crazy Truth (produced by Steve Lillywhite) came out out October 20th on the Varese Sarabande label.

Johnny Thunders died 18 years ago in New Orleans. The hotel room he shot up in before ODing is now a tourist attraction.

In other old-guy rock news, Iggy & the Stooges will be playing Raw Power in full at ATP NY in 2010.

Some choice videos (including David Johansen taking on music critics and the idea of old New York & CBGBs...) and all Dolls tour dates are below...

Continue reading "David Johansen Band playing a NYC show, Steve Conte released solo album, NY Dolls touring the UK "

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

"Arrangers don't get noticed much. Like cinematographers, they usually fill in the structures and concepts of others: songwriters and producers, who call on arrangers to deploy horns, strings or other sounds that might unobtrusively improve a song. But people who read album credits recognize that Wardell Quezergue, a working musician since 1953, is the rare exception: an arranger whose long career reveals him as a consistent catalyst of New Orleans R&B, and not just because he shares the songwriting credit on a ubiquitous New Orleans song, "It Ain't My Fault."

At Alice Tully Hall on Sunday night [7/19], the Lincoln Center Festival allied itself with the Ponderosa Stomp Foundation -- the New Orleans record collectors-turned-promoters who find the musicians behind the obscure singles -- to present a tribute to Mr. Quezergue. His wryly understated arrangements for horn sections in particular, drawing on local parade traditions and big-band jazz, often prod, tease or talk back to a singer and a song, with a chortling layer of syncopation that has helped define New Orleans rock... [NY Times]

To quote the official linuep, the show featured "R&B icons The Dixie Cups and Robert Parker; soul greats Jean Knight, Dorothy Moore, Tammy Lynn, and Tony Owens; legendary New Orleans drummer Zigaboo Modeliste; New Orleans musician, producer, and session man Mac Rebennack (Dr. John); garage-music pioneer Michael Hurtt; plus Wardell Quezergue's Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, an all-star ten-piece band led by Quezergue himself in a rare New York appearance." More pictures from the event, below...

Continue reading "Ponderosa Stomp's tribute to Wardell Quezergue @ Alice Tully Hall, NYC - pics (Dr. John, the Dixie Cups & more) "

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

Condo Fucks (aka Yo La Tengo) in NOLA

The above and below photos are from a show the Condo Fucks played with the A-Bones at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans on April 27th.

At that gig, the A-Bones were joined by Roy Loney of the Flamin' Groovies. The next night, at the Ponderosa Stomp Festival, the A-Bones played as the backing band for Loney and Cyril Jordan (also of The Flamin' Groovies). That reunited combo comes to Maxwell's in Hoboken on July 23rd and Southpaw in Brooklyn on July 24th. Tickets for the Southpaw show and tickets for the Maxwell's gig are both on sale.

Coming up even sooner, A-Bones will celebrate the release of their record, Not Now! on Norton Records, with a boat cruise show around NYC on July 10th. Tickets are still available for that show.

Yo La Tengo currently have three shows booked. The band plays Primavera Sound Festival tonight (May 29th) in Barcelona. The band opens for Wilco at Brooklyn's Keyspan Park on Monday, July 13th (tickets still on sale for that) and plays Pitchfork Music Festival's "Set List by Request" night on July 17th.

More pictures from New Orleans and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "Roy Loney & Cyril Jordan (Flamin' Groovies) backed by the A-Bones (2 NYC shows) + New Orleans Condo Fucks pics"

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

Ira Kaplan, The A-Bones + Flamin' Groovies

Among the resurrected bluesmen, rockabilly cats, garage rockers and soul shouters at the eighth annual Ponderosa Stomp were various "Littles," including Little Willie Littlefield, Little Joe Washington, Lil' Buck Sinegal -- not to mention Long John Hunter and Lazy Lester. Though each of these acts that held court at the festival (held April 28 and 29 at the House of Blues in New Orleans), and several others -- including a master's class given by newly inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Wanda Jackson -- demonstrated the breadth and width of American music, one undisputed highlight was the Wednesday reunion of the two prime forces in the Flamin' Groovies, who played a set together for the first time since 1971.

Groovies frontman Roy Loney and guitarist Cyril Jordan, who co-founded the Bay Area rock band in 1965, tore through selections from the three critically heralded LPs released before Loney's departure, with backing by Brooklyn combo the A-Bones (which featured Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan on keyboards and guitar, and, appropriately, former Flamin' Groovies Fan Club president Miriam Linna behind the drum kit). As Loney explains, "Cyril and I rehearsed in San Francisco and the A-Bones rehearsed in New York" -- yet this bicoastal convergence showed no signs of disconnect, jelling as if they were a long-estabished unit. [Spinner]

Pictures from Day One are HERE. The rest of Day Two, below...

Continue reading "the 2009 Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans - Day 2 in pics (the A-Bones / Ira Kaplan / Flamin' Groovies reunion included)"

photos by Jacob Blickenstaff

Dr. Ike

"Before Kansas City was recorded by everyone from the Beatles to Peggy Lee, the song was first released in 1952 as K.C. Loving by an obscure Houston pianist named Little Willie Littlefield.

The single became a regional hit in the Los Angeles area, where Littlefield was recording for Federal Records, but it would be up to Wilbert Harrison, Trini Lopez, James Brown and Hank Ballard to turn Kansas City into a top 25 hit on the national pop and R&B charts. Littlefield remained a fascinating, mysterious footnote to pop-music history.

The annual Ponderosa Stomp festival in New Orleans exists to bring such footnotes to life. This showcase for the semi-legends of rockabilly, blues and R&B was founded eight years ago by Ira Padnos, a local anesthesiologist and record collector who goes by the moniker of Dr. Ike and favors thrift-shop fezzes and Indian headdresses atop his unruly bush of dark curls. His extravaganza has grown from a local bar to this year's two-night stand at the French Quarter's House of Blues, with 37 sets spread out over two stages.

And so, on Tuesday, the first day of the eighth-annual Ponderosa Stomp, there was the 77-year-old Littlefield, dressed in a dark-blue brocade blazer and grinning with delight beneath his comb-over." [Jazz News]

The Stomp is coming to Lincoln Center in July. More pictures from Day One of this year's New Orleans fest, Howard Tate (who has a NYC date of his own coming up) included, below...

Continue reading "the 2009 Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans - Day 1 in pics "

photos by Graeme Flegenheimer

"From the moment you set foot inside the main gate at the Fair Grounds Race Course, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is like a music and food lover's "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel, with nearly every option inciting pure sonic and culinary bliss. A morning beignet in the Gospel Tent with Arthur Clayton & Purposely Anointed? A lazy afternoon perked up by some Crawfish Monica and the Drive-By Truckers joined by Booker T? How about a stroll to the Gentilly Stage for the sounds of Spoon and the Dirty Dozen horns, stopping for a quick bowl of gumbo along the way? Etta James and a Soft Shell Crab Po-Boy, anyone? All signs point to yes...

...Now in its 40th year, the 2009 edition of Jazz Fest continues to ramp up post-Hurricane Katrina, expanding to its full complement of 12 stages, up from nine last year, and seven days, up from six in recent years. The event's first of two weekends boasted music from nearly 200 acts, including the likes of Dave Matthews Band, Crescent City native Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Joe Cocker, Erykah Badu, James Taylor, Earth Wind and Fire, Pete Seeger, Hugh Masekela, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Etta James and many more." [All About Jazz]

Jazz Fest ran from April 24-26 & April 30-May 3 at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, LA. More pictures from the first weekend of the festival below...

Continue reading "a set of pictures from New Orleans Jazz Fest 2009 "

Voodoo Experience Festival is happening in New Orleans's City Park on October 30th, 31st and November 1st.

The 11th annual VOODOO EXPERIENCE will once again celebrate music, as well as New Orleans' bohemian culture, arts and cuisine. More than 160 bands will perform in three distinct performance areas--Le Ritual, Le Flambeau and Le Carnival--and eight stages each highlight a unique side of the personality of New Orleans. News re: this year's line-up will be revealed in the coming months.

Three-day weekend passes ($103) and VIP tix are on sale for fest. Its organizers have announced that ticket prices will be all inclusive aka no extra fees, despite being sold through Ticketmaster.

The rapidly approaching Bonnaroo (June 11-14) has added a David Byrne curated stage to its lineup...

We are very excited to announce that David Byrne has assembled a number of performers for the first artist-curated stage! On the evening of Friday, June 12 Byrne, who is performing the "Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno," will host his recent collaborators Santigold and the Dirty Projectors, singer/songwriter and founder of Righteous Babe Records Ani DiFranco, former Polyphonic Spree member and Beggar's Banquet recording artist St. Vincent and up-and-coming multi-instrumental all-female Norwegian alt/folk band Katzenjammer.

Also in the curating news -- My Bloody Valentine, who curated part of ATP's first festival in NY in 2008, is putting together the lineup for ATP UK's Nightmare Before Christmas 2009. It was mentioned previously that Sonic Youth will be there.

[Nightmare Before Christmas '09] event will take place at Butlins Holiday Resort in Minehead, England from December 4th - 6th, 2009. So far confirmed to join the legendary sonic sculptors are:

Sonic Youth
De La Soul
EPMD
Sun Ra Arkestra
The Horrors

And of course, My Bloody Valentine themselves.

Tickets for that are on sale now. If you don't have the cash upfront, there's an option to pay through the ATP "installment scheme," which, though it sounds sketchy, is actually a way to buy part of your ticket now and pay the remainder in July. The poster for the fest is above.

That's somewhat similar to the layaway plan announced by All Points West (Jul 31-Aug 2). Tickets are still on sale for APW. You can also get advance round-trip ferry tickets from Battery Park to the fest for $15. They go up "$20 the week of the show, and $25 if purchased at the ferry box office on the day of the show. Individual tickets must be purchased for each day."

My Bloody Valentine is among the artists playing All Points West this year.

Other quick festival news:

Coachella happened. My Bloody Valentine played. A guy got tased.

The lineup for Lollapalooza (August 7-9) was announced.

Mutek's lineup (May 27-31) was updated.

In NYC, the Tribeca Film Festival is happening now, through May 3rd.

The lineup for Pitchfork Fest (July 7-9) was updated. That's posted below...

Continue reading "Voodoo Fest tix, David Byrne's stage @ Bonnaroo, My Bloody Valentine's UK ATP, Pitchfork's lineup & other festival news"

by Andrew Frisicano

The A-Bones, a garage rock band that sometimes features Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan on keyboard, are releasing a new record, The A-Bones, Not Now!, on Norton Records.

The record release party for that disc will be a NYC boat cruise show hosted by Rocks Off on Friday, July 10th. Tickets are on sale.

Even sooner, the A-Bones play a show at NJ's Maxwell's on Friday, May 8th with Roddy Jackson and The Memphis Morticians. Tickets for that show are also on sale.

Tickets are on sale for other Rock Off boat shows too. Ska bands the Slackers (June 27) and the Pietasters (August 15) and UK punks the Business (May 15) are some of the bands on the schedule so far.

Down in New Orleans, the A-Bones are playing a show with the Condo Fucks (aka Yo La Tengo) on April 27th. That's followed by appearances at the Ponderosa Stomp Festival in the same town on April 28th and 29th. NYC's own mini version of that festival will happen at Lincoln Center in mid-July. The A-Bones aren't currently scheduled to be a part of that, but the full line-up won't be announced until April 22nd.

More info on the new A-Bones album, all tour dates, plus videos including one with Ira from YLT on vocals and guitar, below...

Continue reading "new A-Bones album & shows & other 2009 Rocks Off cruises"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Bo-Keys - Cracker Jack (MP3)

Wardell's Band with Robert Parker @ Ponderosa Stomp '07 in NOLA

Ponderosa Stomp is an American roots music festival that showcases the world's most authentic, vibrant rockabilly, R&B, jazz, blues, soul, funk, and swamp pop....The 8th annual Ponderosa Stomp will take place in New Orleans on April 28-29, 2009.

The Stomp is also hosting a set of dates at this year's Lincoln Center Festival 2009, which runs from July 7 through July 26, 2009 (tix on sale Friday 3/13). The Stomp @ Lincoln Center includes The Get Down: Soul/R&B evening on July 16, Best Dance in Town: Rockabilly on July 17 (both part of the Midsummer Night Swing series), and "A Tribute to Wardell Quezergue" on July 19 at the refurbished Alice Tully Hall.

The only date with details so far, "A Tribute to Wardell Quezergue," honors the songwriter and arranger known as the "Creole Beethoven" with a performance of recent Quezergue (pronounced Kuu-zair) arrangements by:

New Orleans musician, producer, and session man Mac Rebennack (Dr. John); R&B icons The Dixie Cups and Robert Parker; soul greats Jean Knight, Dorothy Moore, Tammy Lynn, and Tony Owens; legendary New Orleans drummer Zigaboo Modeliste; garage-music pioneer Michael Hurtt; plus an all-star ten piece band led by Wardell Quezergue himself in a rare New York appearance.

Those at SXSW next week can get a preview of Ponderosa Stomp at its Friday, March 20th showcase at Continental Club featuring Roy Head, Barbara Lynn, Lil buck Senegal, Classie Ballou, Huelyn Duvall, Floyd Dakil, The Silver Apples, Little Joe Washington, The Bo-Keys, The Elite, The Excels. Founder Dr. Ike Padnos - a real anesthesiologist, is also presenting a SXSW panel.

Though it doesn't mention it on the schedule, Eli Paperboy Reed will be performing with Barbara Lynn at the SXSW stomp. Eli is also playing the same SXSW venue two days earlier, and a show at The Bell House in Brooklyn this Thursday night (3/12). He's also playing a lot of other places. All tour dates below.

The Lincoln Center Festival in NYC will also host the North American premiere of a work by Philip Glass, performed by Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa as part of Two by Four with the Ruhr, four-hand and two-piano works.

Full Lincoln Center Fest '09 highlights, Eli tour dates, and a Wardell Quezergue bio, below....

Continue reading "Ponderosa Stomp in Austin SXSW & NYC for 2009 Lincoln Center Festival (full lineup) + Eli 'Paperboy' Reed touring"

DOWNLOAD: Etta James talks smack about Beyonce (MP3)

Etta James @ BB King's in 2008 (more by Ryan Muir)

This is not a joke: 71-year-old Etta James actually threatened to beat the crap out of Beyoncé Knowles -- and it's caught all on tape!

The war is all over Etta's song, "At Last " -- Beyoncé sang the tune at Obama's 1st Inauguration Ball on Jan. 20th ... but last week at a concert in Seattle, James was still pissed.

While on stage, Etta told the crowd, "Your President, the one with the big ears ... he had that woman singing my song. She gone get her ass whipped."

She continued, "The great Beyoncé ... I can't stand Beyoncé," according to audio from Crown City Media.

Ironically Etta didn't kick up this sorta fuss when Beyoncé portrayed her in "Cadillac Records." [TMZ]

TMZ later pointed out that the song is not even an Etta James song. She covers it too. The Chicago Sun Times says that "both Beyonce and President and Mrs. Obama were stunned by music legend Etta James' strong verbal whiplashing." Etta James told the Daily News she was just trying to get a laugh and meant no harm. Etta is definitely known for her between song banter at her live shows. Speaking of which...

Etta James returns to B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in NYC for three shows in May. Tickets are on sale.

Etta is also one of many artists who will be Jazz Fest in New Orleans this year...

American rock superstars Bon Jovi have been added to the already star-studded music lineup of the 40th anniversary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Presented by Shell, organizers announced today. Making their first-ever Jazz Fest appearance, Bon Jovi will perform on Saturday, May 2. The 2009 Jazz Fest is scheduled for April 24-26 & April 30-May 3 at the Fair Grounds Race Course.

Bon Jovi joins Wynton Marsalis, Dave Matthews Band, James Taylor, Sugarland, Joe Cocker, Ben Harper, Tony Bennett, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kings of Leon, Neville Brothers, Wilco, Bonnie Raitt, Allen Toussaint, The O'Jays, Erykah Badu, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Dr. John, Etta James plus hundreds of others previously announced to appear at the historic edition of the Festival.

Etta James also has a show scheduled in Atlantic City. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "ETTA JAMES disses Beyonce & Obamas (MP3), offends & apologizes ++ 2009 TOUR DATES (BB Kings, Jazz Fest)"

Fats & Bloomberg @ Pink Elephant, NYC - Nov 8, 2007 (CRED)

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today presented the Key to the City to music legend Fats Domino in honor of his efforts to raise money for struggling musicians in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane, which destroyed Domino’s home in the Ninth Ward and forced his evacuation to Baton Rouge, Domino returned to New Orleans to rebuild his house and help restore the City’s morale. [PR]