It’s been forty years since the release of New Orleans pianist James Booker’s explosive live album, Blues and Ragtime From New Orleans. Once referred to by Dr. John as “the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius that New Orleans has ever produced,” Booker’s life was beyond fascinating and like many artists wasn’t fully realized until long after his death. A New Orleans native, Booker was born in 1939 and died at the tragically young age of forty-four. Still, New Orleans remembers him well and fondly.

Nikki Glaspie has been glued to a drum kit for most of her life. With a career that’s seen her back Beyoncé, initiate the beat in Dumpstaphunk, and now heading her own band, The Nth Power, she’s seen all corners of the industry while banging away behind bands of all sizes. Nikki recently spoke with The Grateful Web’s John Schumm to discuss The Nth Power’s tour, their new album, “Abundance,” and their mission to spread love through music.

From touring on a yacht in the Virgin Islands, procuring a dingy to get to their gigs, and fighting storms with ‘Captain Dave, Coral Creek is spreading the good vibes of their new self-titled album. Coral Creek played Cervantes Other Side’s three year anniversary party of the Grass For That Ass Bluegrass Thursdays.

Bluegrass aficionado and The String Cheese Incident frontman Billy Nershi is a man of many tools. When he’s not on the road playing sold out concert halls with his band The String Cheese Incident, he’s sitting in with some of his favorite local artists in his home state of Colorado and pushing musical boundaries to new limits.

A new player has emerged in the bustling field of music festivals. The inaugural Homegrown Music Festival has been announced for July 21-23 at Byrd’s Adventure Center nestled deep in the Ozark Mountains near Ozark, Arkansas. Aside from providing world class entertainment as announced in the first 2 rounds of the lineup, the folks behind Homegrown Music Festival have another mission: to be the areas first sustainable and family friendly music festival.

In anticipation of the April 1 release of Elephant Revival’s new album, Petals, Grateful Web chatted with Bonnie Paine to learn more about the production of the album, the band’s future and Bonnie’s dreams for her own future.

Beautiful and inspiring as ever, Petals is an album you won’t want to miss. And maybe with this interview you can listen to it more deeply and with a better understanding of how it all came together.

Last week we had the honor of speaking with multi-instrumentalist, producer, nationally syndicated talk show host, and longtime Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member John McEuen. The masterful string-slinger joined forces with the band in their formational year of 1966 and has remained with them for decades. The genre-bending psychedelic folk rockers are celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Over the past 20 years, New Orleans-based funk phenomenon Galactic have established themselves as one of the absolute premier funk bands in the country. From their relentless touring both nationally and internationally, to their upcoming headlining show at Red Rocks and so much more, Galactic has blossomed into a full-force spectacle that has to be seen to believe.

Recently, Dylan Muhlberg of Grateful Web chatted with virtuosic flatpicker, singer/songwriter and bandleader Larry Keel. Two years after the heralded revival of The Larry Keel Experience, Keel and some esteemed collaborators are at it again with his new release Experienced. In a humbling conversation, Dylan and Larry dug deep into Larry’s musical past including his roots as a champion Telluride Bluegrass Award Winning Picker with his foundational band Magraw Gap, and of course all the beautiful music since.  

If you followed any of the countless jam bands that dotted the American musical landscape in 2015, it’s likely you ran into Tom Hamilton at some point last year.  As the guitarist and vocalist for four touring bands: American Babies, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Billy and the Kids, and