Culture

Café Bard Plays Among Antiques

Kayla Reed — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Garrett McCutchan is a multi-instrumentalist and world traveler. His material is contained in a binder of yellowed, coffee-stained pages. And it's the music in the background at one of Baton Rouge's hidden lunch spots.

http://vimeo.com/32424249

LL Cool J On 'Accidental Racist' And Authenticity

editor — Sat, 11 May 2013 20:54:00 +0000

LL Cool J has been making music for more than 25 years. Through it all, he says, he's tried his best to remain authentic.

"The last thing that I want to do is be a hack," says the rapper and actor, born James Todd Smith. "Someone who is adapting to whatever the current trend is, and manipulating the public into being on board with me even though, from an artistic standpoint, I'm not doing anything."

Authentic is the name of LL Cool J's new album.

Ala. Juke Joint Shuttered After More Than 50 Years

editor — Sat, 11 May 2013 09:21:00 +0000

Longtime blues joint Gip's Place, in Bessemer, Ala., has been forced to close its doors. Weekend Edition profiled the place two years ago. Host Scott Simon takes note of the closing.

'Show Boat' Steams On, Eternally American

Nina Totenberg — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:37:00 +0000

It's been more than eight decades since Show Boat -- the seminal masterpiece of the American musical theater — premiered on a stage in Washington, D.C. Now the sprawling classic is back, in a lush production put on by the Washington National Opera.

Based on Edna Ferber's epic best-selling novel, Show Boat was nothing like the frothy musicals and scantily clad Broadway revues of its time.

Natalie Maines On Motherhood, Eddie Vedder And Leaving Country Music

editor — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:46:00 +0000

Natalie Maines is a small woman with a really big voice. Flanked by Emily Robison on banjo and Martie McGuire on fiddle, Maines powered the Dixie Chicks to some 30 million records sold. And then came the collapse — after what the band calls "the incident."

It was 2003, just before the Iraq War, and on stage in London, Natalie Maines said that she and her bandmates were ashamed to be from the same state as then-President George W. Bush. In a flash, country radio turned on the Dixie Chicks.

On 'Hicksploitation' And Other White Stereotypes Seen On TV

editor — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:03:00 +0000

On cable TV, there's a whole truckload of reality shows that make fun of working-class, white Southern culture. They are some of the most popular and talked about new shows, too, such as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty.

MTV tried cashing in on the redneck TV trend with its own hyped-up platform for young Southern kids behaving badly, Buckwild.

'Wait, Wait' Host Talks of Bombs and Laughter

Amy Jeffries — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:56:30 +0000

As the host of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!, Peter Sagal, makes jokes about the news every week.

Game show hosts are typically not supposed to be part of the news.

But Peter Sagal ran the Boston Marathon as a guide for a blind runner, and a strange thing happened on the way past the finish line...

A Grieving Brother Finds Solace In His Sister's 'Small Town'

Debbie Elliott — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:28:00 +0000

When he was a teenager, journalist Rod Dreher couldn't wait to escape Louisiana. Now he has found his way home again in grief — after his sister's death from lung cancer. It was "in light" of that tragedy, Dreher says, that he discovered the value of community. It's the subject of his new book, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life.

Dreher's new home is on a historic block in St. Francisville, La., population 1,700. The houses have welcoming, wide front porches.

New Artists, New Sound, Still Authentically Louisiana

Ashley Westerman — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 06:00:00 +0000

Festival season is upon us and there are plenty of opportunities to boogie down to Louisiana music - both old and new. Some new artists bringing a different sound to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this year are Luke Winslow-King, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Alexis and the Samurai.

Alex Rawls, a New Orleans-based writer and editor who runs the music and culture website MySpiltMilk.com, was the guest editor of The Oxford American magazine’s 2012 Southern Music Issue, which was entirely dedicated to all things Louisiana music. He also helped put together its accompanying album.

And Rawls tells WRKF’s Ashley Westerman that even though this new music comes from a younger generation and may sound a little different - it is still authentically Louisiana.

Postcard from Baton Rouge Blues Fest

Claire Ohlsen — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:36:25 +0000

The Memphis Blues, the Chicago Blues, the Mississippi Delta Blues have all had their fair share of the spotlight. But what about the Baton Rouge Blues? -- the Swamp Blues?

This weekend the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation hosted its annual festival downtown to celebrate the music of our city.