Blackwater Brass has a strong following along the Gulf Coast and has received accolades including the Covey award for best Mississippi funk/jazz/blues group (2017 & 2018), Sun Herald People's Choice for favorite local band (2016, 2017, & 2018), and have even had two beers named after them at the Crooked Letter Brewing Co. The band has been heavily influenced by New Orleans style funk mainstays like The Meters, Galactic, and Dirty Dozen Brass Band, but regularly drops in hints from many genres across the spectrum from hip hop to jazz as well as a mix of fun pop covers throughout a performance, in addition to their original music.
Andrea and Mud sound like a panther screaming in the middle of the night, like a band of gypsies at a tea party, like a carefully curated hullabaloo held in a Wild West funeral home, like Doc Watson and the Cramps had a love child while watching a Tarantino movie.
The Iceman Special is a 4 piece outfit transplanted from the swamps of Louisiana to New Orleans. They create a sound that resonates with the psych rock community as well as writing songs that explore reggae, funk, melodic pop, prog, and other influences. The bands live shows are notorious for their intensity and their use of innovative and creative visual stimuli while also taking pride in song writing and the delivery of their message. Screeching yet smooth guitars, wandering yet punchy bass lines, synthesizers, driving drum beats, and powerful vocals form a one of kind soundscape.
Hailing from the Dirty South musical mecca of Atlanta, GA, Voodoo Visionary’s improvisational funk dance music balances a tight, grooving rhythm section with soulful organ, funky clavinet, singing synthesizers, masterful guitar licks, and moving vocals to create a sound the group calls psychofunk. Influenced by a wide array of artists from Parliament Funkadelic and the Meters to the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, Voodoo Visionary has a uniquely blended sound that’s guaranteed to put the ‘oogie in yo boogie.
Paul Wall is the famed rapper out of Houston, Texas. Paul Wall is known for his collaborations with Houston rappers Mike Jones, Chamillionaire, and Slim Thug, as well as the "screwed-and-chopped" style of rap, most notably on "Sittin' Sidewayz" and "Still Tippin.”
Opposite Box is an experimental rock band from Chattanooga, Tennessee known for seamlessly blending 70s-inspired progressive rock and contemporary jazz-fusion with a variety of shifting genres and psychedelic soundscapes, all while maintaining a fun, enthusiastic dedication to live performance.
Comparable artists: Frank Zappa, Parliament-Funkadelic, Aquarium Rescue Unit, the Mars Volta, Primus, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Mr. Bungle.
A Beastie Boys Multimedia Experience featuring Best Musicians From New Orleans
When you bring musicians together who love the material, you get magic. When they love the material and their bandmates, "then its sabotage". Formed from the finest young talent New Orleans has to offer, Sabotage is a true tribute to what the Beastie Boys stood for. Pure energy and a funky attitude. Anchored by some of New Orleans best musicians and led by 3 notable frontmen, Sabotage is not your average tribute band. Their energetic take on 3 decades of Beastie boys material, truly does justice to the legend of the infamous trio.
The Mighty Pines are a soul-inspired roots rock band influenced by the wide rivers and red-brick streets of St. Louis. With soaring vocals and thoughtful composition, the two principle songwriters shift the band’s sound from catchy rock ‘n’ roll to earthy instrumentals. The Riverfront Times heralds the band as “a talented young quartet engaged in the roots and rhythms of bluegrass but mixed with a more contemporary ear for harmony and production.”
Anne Freeman and The Garbage Sons are an indie-rock band based in Oxford that includes Freeman, Eric Carlton, Kell Kellum, Harrison Smith, and Ben Yarbrough. The group recently finished work on their first album which was recorded at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley.
Founded in 2010, the Jackson (MS)-based Southern Komfort Brass Band brought together 7 musicians who quickly discovered their niche - New Orleans-style street jazz with a unique Mississippi twist. Countless thousands have traveled to New Orleans to hear the likes of Dirty Dozen, Rebirth , Soul Rebels, Hot 8 and Lil' Rascals Brass Bands.
The Grateful Dead continue to have one of the most rabid and loyal followings of any band in history, and deservedly so: They wrote great songs, and they were excellent musicians and terrific improvisers who never played a tune the same way twice. The Stolen Faces deftly capture the spirit of the Dead, covering a wide variety of songs from the band’s expansive catalog and delivering them with the sort of energy and spontaneity that might have you thinking you’re standing in the Fillmore West in 1971. Led by bassist Christian Grizzard, the group features guitarist Jack Silverman, drummer Matt Martin, and a rotating cast of some of Nashville’s top session and touring musicians.
Ben Sparaco and The New Effect formed in 2017 when Florida-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist began playing with drummer Anthony Quirk and bassist Adam Discipio. Now based in the flourishing musical oasis of Nashville, TN, Ben and the band have maintained a massive touring schedule, cutting their teeth playing coast to coast in clubs, theaters, and festivals.
Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights first began to take shape when childhood friends Jonathan and Kansas began playing guitar in their teens. With shared common influences ranging from the Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin and Jimi Henrix to Bob Dylan, The Band and Muddy Waters; the two were compelled to write and play together. From the start it was JT on vocals, playing a mean, bluesy lead guitar, with Kansas on rythym adding a harder rock edge, a combo that was instantly right. Several years and incarnations later, they were joined by musical prodigy Nick Jay on bass and a hard-hitting drummer from Oklahoma named Jordan Cain. The core of the band was at last in place and the sound began to gel.
Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster
The sounds also provide a backdrop of a complicated world for Pete to approach his type of makeshift, hard-won providence. The underlying message is of hope, to others as well as himself. He states, “Here I’ve fumbled my way, as always, and of necessity, into a collection of songs that hold a light to the joys and comforts of life not given up on, those that appear over time as we are looking elsewhere, to surprise and delight us when we need them most. Sure, it’s me, so there are glimpses of and nods to the dark, but the dark is not winning anymore. I simply mean to acknowledge its presence. To me, that’s the most fundamental job of songs, of stories, of all art—to be allies, friends, companions, when we need them most and it’s my hope that these songs can do that work in a world that seems to need it.”
Halloween kickoff with Elephant Wrecking Ball. Elephant Wrecking Ball is an instrumental, electronic, trombone-led power trio that successfully weaves a variety of influences from jazz, hip hop, electro and the avant-garde. Coupling a grounded sense of discipline with exuberant musical exploration, they are dedicated to making music that is unlike any other, constantly striving for a memorable, new sound.
Comprised of Scott Flynn on the trombone, Dan Africano on Bass, and Neal “Fro!” Evans on the drums, the three musicians have an extensive list of musical credentials, having performed and recorded with the likes of John Brown’s Body, Dopapod, Turkuaz, Pretty Lights, Ghost Light, Big Daddy Kane, Odesza, Break Science, and many others.
