Gwen with Charlie Gabriel and Ben Jaffe at Pres Hall.
Darlings,
On Tuesday, May 2, Music Inside Out will participate in the GiveNOLA Day campaign. This is an extraordinary online effort to raise money for organizations that make up the cultural landscape of New Orleans.
Our show needs your help.
Music Inside Out is a public radio broadcast—and soon will be a book!—featuring the standard-bearers of Louisiana music. Host Gwen Thompkins and her guests talk extensively about Louisiana’s unusually varied musical landscape and its profound effect on American culture. These in-depth interviews showcase the fire, fun and sweat of the creative process and guests often perform live.
Music Inside Out is educational programming that sounds like a rollicking good time.But we receive no direct funding from the government or local radio. We survive on the goodwill of donations made to us directly. GiveNOLA Day is an important and vital lifeline.
We’re building an archive of in-depth interviews with musicians who’ve been deeply influenced by Louisiana, including Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Aurora Nealand, Taj Mahal, Galactic, George Porter, Jr., Charles Neville, Germaine Bazzle, Helen Gillet, Ani DiFranco, Big Freedia and many others. These interviews offer listeners new ways to appreciate the individuals who’ve devoted their lives to advancing the musical traditions we hold most dear.
In addition, our radio documentaries present a 360-degree view of artists who’ve made vital contributions to New Orleans music as we know know it — Louis Armstrong, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino and NEA Jazz Master Danny Barker.
THIS year — first and foremost — we plan to complete, yes COMPLETE, the big book of Music Inside Out interviews. In addition, we’ve co-produced our first filmed interviews and there are more to come.
And lastly, we’re planning to bring you a variety of LIVE EVENTS featuring interviews from of our series called “Back By Popular Demand.” In these conversations, musicians, venue owners, and other music lovers talk about how they survived the pandemic shut down. Their stories are our stories. And, as the gospel song says, “I’m so glad trouble don’t last always.”
Your gift will help keep us on track.
Yours in Gratitude and Music,
Gwen Thompkins
Executive Producer and Host, Music Inside Out
