Counting down to the New Year, we revel in the live sounds of New Orleans and South Louisiana. First, turn it up for the “New Sound of New Orleans” with the Soul Rebels brass band, live in conversation and performance, joined by “stretch music” trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and preacher’s kid turned soul powerhouse Tonya Boyd-Cannon. Then, a listen back to favorite performances by the late swamp blues icon Lazy Lester, French blues supergroup Cowboy Stew, R&B hawkers James Hunter Six from England, and young rising Kansas City guitarist and singer Samantha Fish—all at the 2018 Baton Rouge Blues Festival. Finally, it’s Cajun modernists the Lost Bayou Ramblers live at Preservation Hall in New Orleans’ French Quarter featuring songs from their Grammy-winning CD “Kalenda.”

This Christmas, we’re serving up holiday platters for the many moods and sonic flavors of the season. We get down to some very merry Chicano rockabilly from Los Straitjackets; gather around the fire with French fiddlers in snowy Maine; imbibe “Sugar Rum Cherry” concocted by Duke Ellington; dream of a white Christmas a la Booker T. & the MGs, and hear the tale of Miles Davis‘ “Blue X-mas” from jazz composer Bob Dorough. Plus, cool Yuletide exotica from Esquivel, joyous free jazz from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and ring shouting for a New Year from the Georgia Sea Island Singers.