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
Photo by Mike Redaelli
Tank and the Bangas bring home-grown goodness from New Orleans to America's ears more
All photos by Lucie Monk Carter
Cajun revivalist and 2016 Small Town Chef more
Photos by Brian Pavlich
Cajun-Asian fusion from our youngest 2015 Small Town Chef more
Photo by Zack Smith
The man behind MySpiltMilk writes about music in New Orleans more
Photo by Lucie Monk
An avid record collector turns his eclectic music tastes into conversations more
Photos by Lucie Monk
Maureen Joyce is inspired by what’s growing locally. more
Photo by Alex V. Cook
Where even the alligators don’t interrupt the dancing and dining more
Photos by Julie Stewart
Hot on the trail of the next generation of tastemakers more
Photo by Alex V. Cook
Sometimes a left-hand turn leads you to one of the best Cajun restaurants around more
Photo by Alex V. Cook
There are a million poboys to be eaten; this place serves some of the best. more
Photo by Alex V. Cook
A new music venue is open for business, crossing invisible boundaries and "starting a communication" more
Photo by Alex V. Cook
One of the great roast-beef poboys in South Louisiana is possibly on the chopping block more
Alex V. Cook
This all-female quartet is a study in tight harmony and subtle instrumentation more
Alex V. Cook
A cherry on the kudzu-and-blues layer cake of North Mississippi more
Photo by Wes Kroninger
In the Zachary house where he was born, Teddy Johnson has been keeping the South’s juke joint tradition alive since 1979. more
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
Frank McMains
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
