louisiana

Jo-el Sonnier was born the son of French-speaking sharecroppers near Rayne, Louisiana. Sonnier began playing his older brother's accordion at age three and first performed on the radio when he was six. Influenced by the great Iry LeJeune, he began playing Cajun music in local clubs, making his recording debut at age 13. When Jo-el finished school, he moved to Lake Charles and joined Robert Bertrand's Louisiana Ramblers.

Huddie Ledbetter (23 January 1888-6 December 1949) was a leading American blues singer and guitarist. His songbook contained a large number of standard folk tunes, most adapted from previous sources. Though many of his posthumous releases list him as "Leadbelly," he himself spelled it "Lead Belly." This is also the usage on most of his original records, tombstone, as well as of the Lead Belly Foundation.

Lafayette, Louisiana, United States What do Givers give? It is an often overlooked, yet all too important question concerning these starry-eyed melodi-mystic rebels. They take hearts, this much is known. They certainly take away any restraint one may have had concerning revealing dance moves. They take time, they take care, they take naps, they STEAL attention... but what do they GIVE?! I stare intently between songs, through lasers, feathers, sweat, confetti, paint...

Corey Harris (born February 21, 1969, Denver, Colorado) is a guitarist based in New Orleans on the Alligator label. He spent some time in western Africa studying, and rhythms from this area are very prevalent in his music, most conspicuously in "Mississippi to Mali." He performs a wide variety of music, from poppy selections (Santoro, eg) to raw, traditional guitar and piano blues (Honeysuckle, eg). He is one of the few contemporary blues artists that is able to avoid being either a staunch traditionalist or totally separated from its roots.

Read more about Corey Harris on Last.fm.