Featured Articles

THE MOMENT IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Honey Island Swamp Band is extremely excited to announce our partnership with PledgeMusic to release our long-awaited 4th studio album, Cane Sugar.  Through PledgeMusic we will be offering all kinds of unique opportunities for y’all to connect with us and support us as we try to make this record a success.  As an added bonus for our pledgers, we will be providing new and unique multimedia content not available anywhere else.

Additionally, through this pledge campaign we have chosen to support the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, which is a non-profit organization critical to sustaining New Orleans music and those who make it.

To see our new album and all the other cool stuff, please click below and support as you see fit.  Only through Pledge Music, our album will be released on April 26th.   And look for a special CD Release Party happening sometime (maybe during JazzFest?? Stay tuned…) in May where the CD will also be available specially for those who attend our celebratory event.   As for the album’s availability elsewhere, we will be doing a national release of Cane Sugar with our friends at Louisiana Red Hot Records in June 2013.

CLICK HERE to go to the Honey Island Swamp Band PledgeMusic campaign — please watch the introductory video, so you can get an idea of what it’s all about, and then feel free to peruse the campaign pages to read all about the various opportunities and special items that will be available to those who participate.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO FOR US!!!

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/honeyislandswampband

HISB performs Live at Tipitina’s as part of the introductory video for the PledgeMusic campaign announcing the new album, Cane Sugar

Thank you Big Easy Music Awards!  We are thrilled to be nominated for Best Roots Rock artist by the folks at Gambit Magazine and BestofNewOrleans.com, who each year put on the most prestigious arts & entertainment honors in New Orleans.  This is the 4th year in a row that HISB has been nominated as Best Roots Rock, and we have been fortunate enough to actually WIN this award the last two years, in 2011 & 2012.   This year we are included along with such outstanding musicians as Alex McMurray and Creole String Beans in the category of Best Roots Rock, so we would certainly be humbled to win again while in such fine company!

Also, extra special congratulations to our bass player and world-class high jumper Sam Price and his band OTRA for their nomination as Best Latin Band. Yeah you rite!

You can see the entire list of 2013 Big Easy Awards nominations at:
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/big-easy-music-awards-nominations/Content?oid=2166277

Honey Island Swamp Band, winners of Best Roots Rock at the 2012 Big Easy Awards: Sam Price, Garland Paul, Chris Mulé, Aaron Wilkinson, Trevor Brooks.

Hope y’all were able to catch our performance on WWOZ the other day, as we performed a stripped down set to help drum up support at this year’s WWOZ Membership Drive.  WWOZ is a vital part of our music community here in New Orleans, and they do so much to keep the music alive by broadcasting not only 24 hours a day on our local frequency 90.7 FM, but also galaxy-wide on the Interwebs at www.WWOZ.org.

Sam Price (stand-up bass, vocals), Garland Paul (drums, vocals), and Aaron Wilkinson (vocals, guitar) from HISB perform live on-air from the WWOZ Studios on March 8,2013, in support of WWOZ’s spring 2013 Membership Drive

However, what keeps this radio station running is YOU – the listeners.  WWOZ depends heavily on donations from its listeners to keep the station operating, so in order to keep this unique slice of radio alive, we need y’all to please donate whatever you can during this Pledge Drive.   This spring 2013 Membership Drive runs thru March 15, so to donate, please click HERE to get to

http://www.wwoz.org/donate.php

HISB is also featured on the brand new compilation from WWOZ, #38 in the series of SOUNDS OF NEW ORLEANS, available only to WWOZ members.   By donating to the station, you can have an opportunity to get a copy of this limited release compilation, featuring not only the exclusive live track of “Cast the First Stone” (performed live at WWOZ Studios back in March of 2011, supporting that spring’s Pledge Drive!), but great songs from our friends Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Muscle Theory, Corey Henry & Treme Funktet, The Dana Abbott Band, and so many more….all live tracks from past WWOZ performances that you can ONLY get on this CD *if*you become a member of the WWOZ supporter family!

As we continue our mystical journey through the social media universe, we’d like to take a moment to thank all of our fantastic Facebook friends that put up with our occasional ramblings, silly pictures and self-promoting what-not. Your attention and appreciation is what keeps our wheels turning and our music playing! Thank you. Please keep spreading the good word and we love to read your notes and comments. If you like what you see on Facebook, please check us out on Twitter, too. We post some different stuff, on the fly, to Twitter. You can follow us at:

http://twitter.com/HISBNOLA

And don’t forget to come check out our exclusive performance during MARDI GRAS, this Friday Feb 8 at the Blue Nile on Frenchmen Street…Laissez Le Bon Temps Roule!

This video comes courtesy of our new friends Josh and Sam from ABIS Productions (Always Believe In Something!). These guys are super talented and are doing amazing work in the NOLA music scene – check out their Youtube channel at youtube.com/user/abisalwaysbelieve , follow them on Twitter at @abisproductions or https://twitter.com/ABISProductions, and like them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ABISProductions to get their latest videos on New Orleans music and culture.

Next week we’ll be on our way to the 2012 South-by-Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX, where we’ll be performing several showcases for all the music industry folks, as well as for music fans from around the world who come to see this overwhelming onslaught of short live shows.  This will be HISB’s first visit to SXSW, and we’ve got a really nice lineup of events to tell y’all about, so read on….and be sure to click on the names of each event to link to all the info regarding the event.

—————————————————————————

Thursday March 16 @ 6pm — Do512 Lounge Sessions — presented by Shiner Bock

The Do512 Lounge is a retro-lounge/performance space in a funky compound in South Austin.  It has the the feel of an exclusive speakeasy, incredible sound, and the perfect ambiance to bring out the best performances of the artists, and unforgettable memories for the lucky guests.

These are private events and are not open to the public for capacity reasons.  For chances to get on the guestlist for these private tapings, follow Do512 on Twitter and Facebook.

————————————————————————–

Thursday March 16 @ 9:15pm — “FUNK-by-FUNKWEST” at the Sahara Lounge (formerly TC’s) — presented by our friends at FunkyBatz

The Sahara Lounge is an awesome intimate east side venue with ample free parking.  From downtown Austin, take 12th street east to Webberville Rd. – turn left.  Venue on right side.  HISB’s set starts at 9:15pm — also performing that evening at The Sahara will be our friends Robert Walter & Reed Mathis, Matt Hubbard Band w/Brad Houser & Robb Kidd, and a SUPER SECRET MYSTERY BAND…

Our last event in Austin will have something no other SXSW showcase event will have — an honest-to-goodness real New Orleans-style CRAWFISH BOIL!  We’ll be playing in the early part of the afternoon, but the event goes on throughout the day and night, including performances by The Revivalists, Sun Hotel, Matt Hubbard Band, and Robert Walter & Reed Mathis.  So come early for the crawfish….they start dropping on the newspaper-covered tables at high noon….and stay late for the music…

“NOLA-by-ATX”
Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar (click for website)
506 West Avenue, Austin, TX 78701 (click for map)

————————————————————————–

Any questions regarding any of the events can be directed to:  honeyislandswampband@gmail.com

See y’all in Texas!

Sure, it sounded like a crazy idea at first….cramming the band into a van to record and film impromptu live performances. But of course, we’re from New Orleans….we’re up for anything.  And we were pleasantly surprised to see how AWESOME the end results were!  Not to mention, the fellas that started and run JAM IN THE VAN are as cool as can be, and made us feel welcome in their “venue on wheels”.

Click on the following song titles for each of the videos from the performance, featuring several tunes that will be appearing on the upcoming HISB album…

“Prodigal Son”

“Cast the First Stone”

“Change My Ways”

“One Shot”

And click here to go to the JAM IN THE VAN website, to see what they’re all about, and what they’re up to next…as well as to check out all the other wonderful sessions they have done with our fellow traveling musicians!

Honey Island Swamp Band is honored to have been selected to headline the kickoff show of YLC’s Wednesday At The Square concert series, held every spring at Lafayette Square in downtown New Orleans. The date is Wednesday (of course!) March 14, and opening for HISB will be a great up’n’coming roots rock band from NOLA, The Soulabilly Swamp Boogie Band.  The event starts at 5pm, with HISB set to hit the stage for their headlining show around 6:15pm.

Click here for more info on this wonderful event – we look forward to seeing everybody out at the Square!

MunckMusic has released their 2011 Jazz Fest Live compilation — a mix of some of the best performances from this year’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — and it includes a track from the Honey Island Swamp Band set at Fais Do-Do Stage, May 1, 2011.   The HISB song “Josephine” can be found on Disc 1 of the new collection, and it is a particularly amazing live version of the song, featuring the dueling guitar fireworks of Chris Mulé and special guest Jake Eckert (Dirty Dozen Brass Band, New Orleans Suspects).

Click HERE to visit the MunckMusic JazzFest Live website and pick up a copy of the new release!