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This week we remember the late Raul Malo, who passed away on December 8, 2025. Raul Malo was born in Miami to Cuban parents. In 1989, he started The Mavericks. Named for going against the grain, the Mavericks began in the punk and alternative scene and eventually found great success in country music, incorporating Latin, rockabilly, and pop sounds. By 2000, the group parted ways and Raul Malo pursued a solo career in LA. He joined Los Super Seven with Joe Ely, Freddy Fender, members of Los Lobos, Max Baca, Doug Sahm, and others. In 2012, Malo reunited with the Mavericks, releasing several albums and touring widely. In 2020, they released En Español, an album entirely in Spanish. Making a record like this took Raul many years of listening within and outside his family.

Each year, Mardi Gras Indians greet the day on the city streets to sing and strut. This has been going on since the late 19th century. The call and response sounds of the Indians often carry the Congo beat, fundamental in New Orleans' musical fabric. The beloved Indian Chief Monk Boudreaux has been masking Indian for more than 70 years. We visited him at home, where he quietly sewed his new suit.

This story was reported by Della Hasselle of The Lens, and produced by Janaya Williams.The Algiers Ferry was hit with a reduction in hours last week.…

Jerry Lee Lewis was the first interview I ever did, back in college radio, 1969. I’ve talked to him a couple of times in the nearly fifty years since. It’s always memorable. In 1999, American Routes went to his Nesbitt, MS ranch near Memphis for the Killer’s 64th birthday celebration. The next afternoon, a just-awakened Jerry Lee kindly came to the back kitchen screen door in his robe and glasses, barefoot with Chihuahuas nipping at his heel.

Dr. Michael White is the beloved New Orleans clarinetist leading the Original Liberty Jazz Band. He's also a composer, musicologist, jazz historian, and professor at Xavier University. He's a leading authority and culture bearer of traditional jazz. He's performed globally, is heard on over 50 recordings, received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship. Although Michael has ancestors in traditional jazz, he started in classical music. He later joined the famed St. Augustine High School Marching 100, but it wasn't until his late teens that Michael first heard New Orleans jazz played live at the Jazz and Heritage Festival. He went on to play with Ernest “Doc” Paulin’s brass band, 1975, at a church parade, and in social club parades and jazz funerals. Then, with Danny Barker's Fairview Baptist Church marching band. He later worked with the Young Tuxedo Brass to Wynton Marsalis's band, among many. We'll hear some of that music and more from Dr. Michael White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band.

The Black Masking Indians of New Orleans Carnival—some say Mardi Gras Indians—are neighborhood groups with roots in the late 19th century that include a Chief, a Queen, and roles like Flag Boy, Spy Boy, and Wildman. The Indians are on foot dressed in large, complex, beaded suits depicting Black and Native American histories as warriors with a crown of feathers. They sing, backed by a handmade rhythm section. I walked with Big Chief Tyrone Casby, an educator in everyday life, among his tribe, the Mohawk Hunters, their families and friends in Algiers, on the West Bank of New Orleans.

There have been several ribbon-cutting ceremonies lately on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, and more are on the way. The community-based revitalization…

This weekend New Orleans voters decide whether to extend and redirect a property tax to fund school maintenance. The measure seems simple: set aside money…

Okay Louisiana: what’s the Cajun band that’s also psychedelic rock, or maybe even a little punk? Hint: they’re from Lafayette, they were started by two…

Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers co-founder Chris Hillman is a musician, singer, songwriter, and author. A third-generation Californian, Hillman grew up hearing Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, all on his parents’ hi-fi. He discovered bluegrass and picked up mandolin by way of Bill Monroe and the New Lost City Ramblers. At seventeen Hillman joined his first band, the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers, a bluegrass group that included Eagles’ guitarist Bernie Leadon. He later played with the Golden State Boys, the resident bluegrass band for Los Angeles television’s Cal’s Corral, which became the Hillmen. I spoke to Chris Hillman over Zoom, where he told me how he was recruited to play bass for the Byrds at a studio rehearsal in L.A.