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Music

Paul McCartney visits New Orleans’ beloved skeleton house on St. Charles Avenue

BY DOUG MACCASH | Staff writer
Updated Nov 1, 2025

On Wednesday, legendary musician Paul McCartney played a triumphant concert at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. Sometime during this mini British invasion, the 83-year-old former Beatl…

New Orleans is designated a global 'Creative City of Music' by UNESCO. See what that means.

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 31, 2025

It’s official: New Orleans is a world-class “Creative City of Music.”

From then to now, Paul McCartney celebrated one of pop's great catalogs in New Orleans

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 30, 2025

If you are Paul McCartney on tour in 2025, how do you properly represent one of the greatest, most beloved songbooks in all of popular music while not seeming stuck in 1965?

Karl Denson, Norman Brown, Lil Wayne and more music this week in New Orleans

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 30, 2025

Music options in New Orleans this week include a homegrown rap star, various string/jam bands and a Rolling Stones sideman.

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Lil Wayne's Lil WeezyAna Fest marks its 10th anniversary Saturday. Does it still matter?

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 29, 2025

For its 10th anniversary, Lil Wayne’s Lil WeezyAna Fest finds itself at a crossroads.

Pianist Marcia Ball, a New Orleans favorite, cancels all shows after ALS diagnosis

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 29, 2025

Marcia Ball, the pianist and singer who grew up along the Louisiana/Texas border, has enjoyed a longstanding love affair with New Orleans music and musicians, and is a favorite at local festivals.

Rock legend Mark Farner to headline Ozone Songwriter Fest

BY ANDREW CANULETTE | Staff writer
Oct 27, 2025

Grand Funk Railroad co-founder Mark Farner is headed for the Ozone Songwriter Festival on Friday night. The Farmer spoke with him about his career in music and where he thinks the industry is headed.

Second line rolls through historic Tremé, keeping culture and community alive in New Orleans

BY DAVID GRUNFELD | DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Oct 26, 2025

Tremé Fall Fest stands as one of New Orleans’ most culturally authentic celebrations, held in the heart of the historic Tremé neighborhood. Dedicated to the public good, the festival and its a…

John Legend, Paul McCartney, Stanley Jordan, tributes to Led Zep, Rush: the week in music

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 23, 2025

It’s another jam-packed week for live music in New Orleans, especially in the clubs.

Fans tried to storm arena entrances for NBA Youngboy's New Orleans birthday concert

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 21, 2025

The Smoothie King Center's doors were locked during the second of his two sold out concerts.

Chris Brown's Breezy Bowl XX Tour ends with New Orleans Superdome spectacle for 45,000 fans

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 21, 2025

Forty-five minutes into his elaborate, sweaty career overview at a full Caesars Superdome, Chris Brown arrived at “Don’t Judge Me,” from his 2012 album “Fortune.”

NBA Youngboy took a Bourbon Street stroll after Sunday's concert. Police got involved.

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Updated Oct 20, 2025

Following the first of two sold-out concerts at the Smoothie King Center, Baton Rouge rapper NBA Youngboy took a late-night stroll on Canal and Bourbon streets and briefly ended up in the hand…

Going to NBA Youngboy's sold-out New Orleans concerts? Leave ALL bags, even clear, at home

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Updated Oct 19, 2025

In the hopes of fostering a safer environment and expediting security screenings, the Smoothie King Center has banned all bags and purses for the sold-out NBA Youngboy concerts on Sunday and M…

John Legend talks Vatican City gig, 'The Voice,' Kanye West ahead of New Orleans Saenger show

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 16, 2025

John Legend is a father of four, a husband, a singer, a songwriter, a pianist and an EGOT — he’s won at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. He’s also a recurring coach on the NBC sin…

Chris Brown, NBA Youngboy, Peter Frampton, NOLA Funk Fest top big music week in New Orleans

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 16, 2025

It’s a huge week for live music in New Orleans, with shows at the Caesars Superdome and Smoothie King Center, a funk festival and much more.

2025 NOLA Funk Fest's special sets include Master P with Soul Rebels, Irma with Galactic

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 15, 2025

Homegrown hip-hop mogul Percy “Master P” Miller’s “farewell” performance at the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture in the Caesars Superdome was a big production with many guest stars.

At 91, Louisiana-born bluesman Bobby Rush is still doing 'all I can while I can'

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 9, 2025

On a hot night in June, 91-year-old Louisiana-born bluesman Bobby Rush staged a PG-13 solo show at Chickie Wah Wah, the intimate Canal Street music venue.

Crescent City Blues & BBQ Fest, $uicideboy$, Yellowjackets: music in New Orleans

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 9, 2025

It’s a big week in New Orleans with a free blues festival, a hometown arena concert by an underground rap duo and two shows by a legendary jazz-fusion band.

A thousand musicians will perform together in the Superdome. It's a first for two reasons.

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 8, 2025

The “biggest” concert in New Orleans in 2026, at least in terms of participating musicians, will be Rockin’1000.

Bo Dollis Jr. marries Mardi Gras Indian funk to Memphis soul on 'Chip Off the Old Block'

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 8, 2025

As the son of legendary Wild Magnolias Big Chief Bo Dollis, Gerard “Bo Jr.” Dollis grew up steeped in Mardi Gras Indian culture.

New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market reborn with ambitious roster of national jazz artists

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 3, 2025

Bill Frisell, one of the world’s most acclaimed jazz guitarists, was puzzled.

2025 Gretna Heritage Fest cranks up country, '90s rock, Trombone Shorty this weekend

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 2, 2025

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is no longer the only local festival closed by Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

Pitchfork ranked 5 Louisiana rap albums among the greatest of all time. See who made the list.

BY MARCO CARTOLANO | Staff writer
Oct 2, 2025

New Orleans and Louisiana have left an indelible mark on rap music as the home state of some of the genre's biggest stars and most iconic record labels.

Lyle Lovett dishes on 'Naked Party,' Jimmy Buffett Jazz Fest surprise, before Metairie show

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 2, 2025

If Willie Nelson is the outlaw hippie of Texas music and George Strait is the cowboy-in-chief, Lyle Lovett is the Lone Star State’s most debonair bandleader.

Nine Inch Nails to bring innovative Peel It Back Tour to New Orleans in 2026

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Oct 1, 2025

Nine Inch Nails is slated to kick off the second North American leg of the acclaimed Peel It Back Tour at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans on Feb. 5, 2026.

Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne latest additions to busy fall 2025 New Orleans concert calendar

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Sep 29, 2025

After what was a relatively slow spring and summer for major concerts in New Orleans, the fall calendar is filling up.

Hozier was all business for his Unreal Unearth Tour's stop in New Orleans

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Sep 26, 2025

Twice in his first 15 minutes at a full Smoothie King Center, Hozier mentioned joy. It was a “joy to be back” in New Orleans. It was “a privilege and a joy” to fill such a large arena.

Vampire Weekend lit up New Orleans with smart indie rock, 'Blank Space,' 'Atlantic City'

BY KEITH SPERA | Staff writer
Sep 25, 2025

That the members of Vampire Weekend know the Arctic Monkeys’ “505” and the Cranberries’ “Dreams” — but not Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird” — is completely on brand.