Music Schedule

The Tremé-Lafitte Brass Band takes New Orleans’ traditional brass band style and adds on funk. Iconic bandleader Vernon Severin has performed since he was in middle school, melding the music from the New Orleans streets he grew up on with the sounds he heard traveling the world. The band will be joined by the N’AWLINS D’AWLINS Baby Dolls led by the legendary Carol ‘Kit’ Harris and the Original Wild Tchoupitoulas Indians. In true River Fest tradition, together they will kick off the the festivities in Jackson Square.

Veterans of the New Orleans Funk scene, Jason and the First Lady of Funk Lirette Neville are joined by the Jazz Museum Director Greg Lambousy for a special one-time performance as Da Funky Friends! Jason, Lirette and Greg like to funk things up. They’re from New Orleans, so it’s hard not to do that. Their style is funky. Their food is funky. Everything they do is funky.

Ed Wills, a self-taught "bluesman" was born in 1958 and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has lived in the "Uptown" area for many years. His love for music started at the young age of eight years old as he watched his Aunt Cora from Tchula, Mississippi play her slide guitar. Other early influences and comparisons include Leo Nocentelli originator of The Meters, Guitar Slim, Jr., Lawrence Taylor, the greats Wes Montgomery, Albert Collins and B.B. King as well as the late legendary New Orleans guitarist Darryl Johnson. Ed formed Blues 4 $ale in 2002 and they’ve since appeared at The Bay Harbor Fest in Bay St. Louis, The Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival in New Orleans, The Voice of the Wetlands, Bogalusa Blues and Heritage Festival. Ed Wills and Blues 4 $ale appear regularly in premiere New Orleans venues Vaso, Bamboulas, 21st Amendment and 30/90 and have toured Across the U.S., Europe, Canada and South America.

Born in McComb, Mississippi in 1940, Fread E. Martin grew up playing alongside his blues guitar-picking father (Jessie James Martin), then rode the rails to New Orleans during the early fifties where he crossed paths with itinerant South Louisiana blues man such as "Poka- Dot" Slim and "Boogie" Bill Webb whose unique country-cum-urban styles would influence his own. Honing his guitar chops at notorious joints like the Bucket of Blood (which he later immoralized in song), he jammed and gigged with Bo Diddley and John Lee Hooker, and also played bass for Freddy King during one of the guitarist's stints in New Orleans. People began comparing the two musicians' styles, hence Martin's nome-de-plume. While well-vested in a variety of styles, nowadays Little Freddie sounds a lot more like his cousin Lightin' Hopkins - albeit after a three day corn liquor bender! Nevertheless, the King sobriquet if fitting, as Freddie is undeniably the monarch of the Crescent City blues scene.