Network World 26 March 2012

From the 19th century African music gatherings in Congo Square to the birth of jazz and its offshoots, New Orleans is one of America's most important music cities, and with the Rough Guide to the Music of New Orleans collection, listeners get a well-rounded taste of the Crescent City's musical gumbo. The collection touches on traditional jazz torchbearers (Dr. Michael White), classic R&B (Jessie Hill, Earl King), down-home funk (the Meters), Mardi Gras-ready brass players (Kermit Ruffins, Hot 8 Brass Band), global-influenced groovers (Los Hombres Calientes), and artists on the rise (Papa Grows Funk). While it's impossible to capture the full spectrum of New Orleans music on a single disc – women artists are underrepresented, and the NOLA hip-hop scene that's emerged since the 1990s is skipped entirely – this Rough Guide is a spirited introduction, and as a bonus is accompanied by a second disc featuring emerging heavy funk purveyors Dumpstaphunk.

Living in socially complex times, what makes us feel human? With so many platforms for people to spew opinions without a filter, what is real and what is feeding a machine of dissolution, hate, and over-reaction? Do you often feel like you want to break away from it all? Become…the outsider? Well, fortunately many of us are not alone in feeling exhausted and, at times, drowning in sensory overload. No, Three Days Grace can relate and with that they bring to the table their latest album, Outsider, due out Friday, March 9, 2018, through RCA Records.