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Rhonda Vincent grew up in a five-generation musical family from Greentop, Missouri, a tiny town near the Iowa border. Her father led the family band, the Sally Mountain Show, as they traveled the Midwest bluegrass circuit in the 1970s. Rhonda was Missouri State Fiddle Champion. She's gone on to become a bluegrass band leader with her group, The Rage, winning a Grammy and being inducted at the Grand Ole Opry. Her daughters Sally and Tensel are also musicians. For Rhonda, it all started when her dad needed more players at a family gig.

Our guest is singer, pianist and octogenarian Tommy McClain, one of the last standing Louisiana swamp pop singers. He told us how much he enjoyed being on the road, singing for new audiences. Tommy is known in Louisiana for his hit 1966 cover of “Sweet Dreams” and his contributions to swamp pop. He’s also recorded gospel music, wrote songs for Freddy Fender and toured with the Dick Clark Road Shows in the 1960s. Tommy’s now back in the studio with Elvis Costello and producer C.C. Adcock and recorded a 2022 album I Ran Down Every Dream. Entertaining has been a constant for him since his early days in Pineville, LA singing for his family and listening to the Grand Ole Opry. But his whole path changed when he went to a concert nearby in Alexandria.

Booker T. Jones was born in Memphis in 1944, a musical prodigy on keyboards at school and in church. Booker T. is famous for instrumentals like “Green Onions,” that he wrote at age 16, and “Hip Hug-Her,” among many. Booker T. also led the M.G.'s, a great integrated studio band at Memphis’ Stax Records with Steve Cropper on guitar, Al Jackson, drums, and Duck Dunn on bass. They would emerge as a soundtrack for the 1960s and ‘70s rock and soul. The band backed artists like Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and Albert King, but for Booker T. Jones, the music goes back to the world of his youth and his parents.

When a new charter school opens, the school leaders have lots of responsibilities. Hiring the right team. Recruiting students. And, in some cases, finding…

This spring a state committee approved $477 million for coastal protection and restoration. When you throw in federal dollars, and private funding as…

In celebration of the city’s Tricentennial, NolaVie and New Orleans Historical bring you the series Who Did it Better: New Orleans Then and Now. In it, we…

The term NORD is thrown around a lot in conversations about crime and public safety. It is actually NORDC now, which stands for the New Orleans Recreation…

Trumpet player Terence Blanchard’s career has taken him from the Big Easy to the Big Screen. After studying jazz at New Orleans Center for the Creative…

This week we’re exploring the sonic hues of the blues in jazz, R & B, country, Cajun and pop. We crash a blues house party and workshop at the 2018…

New Orleans jazz clarinet queen Doreen Ketchens is beloved by locals and tourists alike. Rain or shine, Doreen’s magnetic performance draws crowds to the…