Alex V. Cook has written about music, travel and food for Country Roads since 2005. He teaches journalism at LSU's Manship School of Mass Communications and his latest book is Louisiana Saturday Night: Looking for a Good Time in South Louisiana's Juke Joints, Honky Tonks and Dance Halls for LSU Press. His next one will be about hole-in-the-wall restaurants. He blogs furiously at alexvcook.com
Music travels. It rattles from strings, blows out the bell of a horn or a guitar amp, or is squeezed from an accordion bellows; but it travels across the room and across the world to let all who hear it know where that sound came from. Beca...more
Mardi Gras can be a tricky thing: resplendent in tradition and pageantry, yet always with rebellion at its core. Discovering traditions that expand our experience of the Mardi Gras tradition while maintaining this paradoxical spirit makes f...more