Start your weekend like I do with the Hot Club of New Orleans. They play the early set at D.B.A. starting at 6 PM and then you can spend the rest of the evening exploring Frenchmen Street. The weather is perfect.
Mia Borders is a great songwriter with a great band. She plays upstairs at the Blue Nile. The great Brazilian woodwind master Carlos Malta closes out his New Orleans residency down the block at Snug Harbor.
Tipitina’s is hosting a tribute to the late, great influential West Coast rapper Nate Dogg. Derrick Freeman is hosting the event that has been dubbed “Smoke Dogg.” Special guests include Johnny Sketch and Corey Henry.
On Saturday, celebrate Record Store Day 2011 by heading to the TVD Readers’ Poll winner, the Louisiana Music Factory. They have three bands playing all day beginning with Kelcie Mae at 2 PM. This is also our free show of the week!
Saturday night, choices abound. Bonerama plays at the Maple Leaf Bar. At the French Quarter Festival they had one of my favorite keyboardists in town, Brian Coogan on the bandstand. He adds a lot to the funky rock of this trombone-led band.
Chickie Wah Wah presents the guitarist Mem Shannon. His first album featured hilarious snippets of passengers talking to him in the cab that he was driving at the time. He makes music full time now.
Tipitina’s is hosting a benefit Saturday for a new organization that is headed by the trombonist and flamboyant front man, Glen David Andrews. The group is called Trumpets Not Guns and the show features Cyril Neville, Irvin Mayfield, Jon Cleary, Kermit Ruffins and more.
Finally, if you’ve read this far you’re going to get an inside tip. West Fest, the least known of the Mardi Gras Indian Spring events, is scheduled for this Sunday at 1 PM. The Mohawk Hunters, the only tribe on the West Bank, are the hosts and it starts at 10 PM. Leave a comment to find out where.
