Fest of the Best

April means music festival season in South Louisiana, and Baton Rouge leads the charge with the Blues Festival starting mid-month, along with Blues Week, Earth Day and FestForAll in advance of Lafayette’s Festival International de Louisiane and the New Orleans JazzFest. It’s a great time to check out the new North Boulevard Town Square downtown, eat some gator-on-a-stick and get reacquainted with exactly what South Louisiana sounds like.

North Boulevard Town Square
Downtown Baton Rouge, Saturday, April 14. Free.
batonrougebluesfestival.org

No longer in the shadow of JazzFest and Festival International, Blues Fest has expanded to two stages and a series of backstage talks at the Old State Capitol, where blues performers, experts and yours truly dig into what the blues is all about.

Galvez Stage:
Baton Rouge’s own blues pioneer James Johnson, originator of the “chicken scratch” and veteran of Slim Harpo’s band, kicks things off at 12:15 p.m. on the Galvez Stage. Johnson is the real deal, a stellar way to get this party started.

At 2:15 p.m., guitarist Lightnin’ Malcolm is up, taking the percussive stomp of North Mississippi blues to the festival circuit and back to the hills and honing it into a deadly weapon. His partner is drummer Cameron Kimbrough, grandson of Mississippi blues legend Junior Kimbrough, and together they bring an unstoppable hoodoo stomp.

The blues is perhaps the perfect music for a supergroup—in this case, The Royal Southern Brotherhood. Devon Allman, Mike Zito and Cyril Neville make a veteran trio that performs at 4:15 p.m., brewing a thick mix of blues, funk and soul.

There are folks who are blues amateurs and even champions, but none of those cats is Johnny Winter. Since 1969, Winter has delivered his own branch of sinewy, funky Texas blues, a perpetual anathema to musicians who merely emulate the style.

WYNK/I Heart Radio North Blvd. Stage:
Doug Gay’s Young Band Nation project teaches budding musicians how to be a band, whether they play rock, pop, or in this case, the blues. A select group of the young musicians gets the festival started at 11:30 a.m. with the freshest take possible on our city’s beloved music.

Nobody around Baton Rouge can claim to be the real deal more than Henry Gray, whose six-decade career has included playing with everybody, including Howlin’ Wolf’ and Jimmy Reed. Henry Gray is still going strong at 84, and Excello blues veteran Lil’ Buck Sinegal is set to join his 5:30 p.m. set for pounding out that swamp blues boogie woogie like nobody else.

And don’t miss the Blues Festival “After Jam” at Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s, with Elvin Killerbee April 14 and the following day Eden Brent, who performs a noon set at Sunday in the Park at Lafayette Park April 15.

Visit louisianasmusic.com/brbw for the complete schedule for this weeklong celebration of blues, including blues guitar master Tab Benoit and Marcia Ball (read more about her on page 80) at the Louisiana Earth Day Festival April 22, an all-star jam at Phil Brady’s April 24, Rockin’ Jake at Teddy’s Juke Joint April 27 and a Bicentennial Blues Concert on the State Capitol grounds on April 29 featuring Luther Kent, Chris Leblanc and many more.

In conjunction with Blues Week, the annual Slim Harpo Music Awards will be held at Manship Theatre April 23 from 6 to 10 p.m.

This reception and blues jam includes tributes and honors for blues legends and pioneers including J.D. Miller, Deacon John Moore and Keith Richards.

Downtown Lafayette, April 25-29.
Free (except for club shows).
festivalinternational.com

The world comes to Lafayette in late April, commingling with the continual evolution of Cajun culture to result in one of the best free street parties in the country. The full lineup can be found on the festival site, but here are a couple of highlights.

Omara “Bombino” Moctar coaxes a surprisingly effervescent form of psychedelic blues from his guitar, despite his origin in the Nigerian desert. The tunes on his spellbinding 2011 album Agadez speak with an Afropop lilt and a Fillmore West fluidity, transcending both to create one of the most distinctive voices in modern world blues.

Beats Antique is a multi-platform entity absorbing electronic music, bellydance, African rock, performance—anything that catches the eyes and ears of David Satori, Tommy Cappel, Zoe Jakes and world music producer Miles Copeland. Their ecstatic performances are a favorite of festivals past, a massive explosion of sonic bliss.

Guitar phenom Gary Clark, Jr. maximized his Austin connections as he came up as a teenage blues prodigy, from catching the eye of the folks at Antone’s, the club that gave Stevie Ray Vaughn his start, to playing alongside B.B. King and Eric Clapton at festivals. Not bad for a guy still in his twenties.

Joel Savoy already made his mark on the contemporary state of Louisiana roots music as a founder of the Red Stick Ramblers and Valcour Records, but the musician and producer continues to stretch the fabric of Cajun culture with his Honky-Tonk Merry Go Round, a local star-studded juggernaut of Cajun rock ‘n’ roll fury.

Beyond the street festival, be sure to check out these two club shows at the Blue Moon: Rufus Jagneaux, the original South Louisiana hippie band best known for their hit “Opelousas Sostan,” on Tuesday, April 24, and Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, reeling from the acclaim of last years’ Grande Isle album, on Wednesday, April 25. Both shows start at 9 p.m.

New Orleans Fairgrounds, April 27-May 6.
nojazzfest.com

The schedule for JazzFest is the size of a phone book. Among the big names this year are Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Eddie Vedder, the Eagles, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Foo Fighters, and the Beach Boys, with the latter including a reunion with founder and chief songwriter Brian Wilson. Indie rock fans can pick among My Morning Jacket, Florence + the Machine and Bon Iver. New Orleans music purists have Trombone Shorty, Allan Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Nicholas Payton and Dr. John to pick from, and the list goes on.

Match that with the non-stop revelations to be found in the gospel, blues and jazz tents and the world’s finest festival food—the cochon du lait po-boy and the greens from Bennachin are particularly good. JazzFest is so comprehensive, it’s almost easier to list who’s not playing.

The best advice I can give is to pick the days with four or five acts you are dying to see and then allow for that plan to fall apart when you discover someone amazing in one of the smaller tents. Keep your ears open. The entire world is at JazzFest.