Music

The Mother’s Day shootings, which injured 20, rattled residents of New Orleans and led some to question the security around second-line parades. For many, the prevailing tradition brought them out to yesterday’s Divine Ladies Parade, but for the professional musicians who participate in the parades it was also a matter of their livelihood.

“This is how I eat. This is how I feed my family. Without this, I have to go look for another job. I never worked a day in my life. I play music all the time,” says Chris Terro, a percussionist with the TBC Brass Band.

If you've never seen Sonny Landreth's hands glide over the fret of his slide guitar, you should. It's like watching someone touch the finest of silk.

Few piano players are as tall, glam and terrific as Marcia Ball. Born in Texas, raised in Louisiana and schooled in the dance halls and roadhouses of the Gulf South, Ball can't help but make you boogie woogie. That is, unless you wanna two-step. Or boogaloo. She does that too.

"If you can make 'em dance, money becomes a space problem."

Ball's songs are postcards of small town life in this region and the dilemmas that drive people to the choices they make.