New Orleans. N’awlins. Nola. When you think about the music centers of the USA, you might think of Nashville, Memphis, Detroit, LA, NYC. But unless you include New Orleans you are missing maybe the best music town in our great nation.
We just returned from a week-long music cruise, the Big Easy Cruise.
Music-theme cruises are a hot ticket right now, and they come in a variety of flavors – blues, country, oldies, classic rock, disco. Watch out for the “oldies” cruises. Many of the oldies musicians have assumed room temperature, leaving maybe one member of the original band to try to maintain the brand with a bunch of mercenary hacks.
To hear serious musicians, you want people who still make their livings creating new music. That limits the choices to two: a good blues cruise (anything with Joe Bonamassa) and the Big Easy Cruise, which features the best currently performing musicians from New Orleans.
When you think of New Orleans music, what comes to mind? Brass bands marching through the French Quarter for Mardi Gras? Yes. Hot Zydeco dance music with accordians and washboards? Yes. Fats Domino? Yes. But there is so much more.
New Orleans is blues – like Tab Benoit, ripping it up with his nasty old Telecaster and “Category 5” amps. New Orleans is funky horns – like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band laying down heart-pounding rhythms that make you NEED to dance. New Orleans is guitar shredding rock – like Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton and their way-too-loud country/rock/punk friends. New Orleans is cheesy-tasty fun – like the world’s premier sousaphone/washboard/guitar trio, the Tin Men. New Orleans is edgy new rock – like Anders Osborne, everybody’s favorite Nola songwriter.
The point is, don’t overlook New Orleans when you are contemplating the music centers of the good ole USA.
NOLA rocks!