300 Songs For 300 Years: Songs That Have Immortalized New Orleans Music

From “Down by the Riverside” to “Hey Pocky Way” and beyond, New Orleans has a long history of iconic songs. In its first book, OffBeat Magazine’s 300 Songs for 300 Years lists and explains why and how these songs shaped the city’s musical history and changed the face of American music. The 300 entries (and then some) stretch chronologically from “Bamboula” (Louis Moreau Gottschalk, 1848) to “Justice” (Dumpstaphunk, 2017), and include everything in early jazz and its offshoots, the advent of blues and the rock ‘n’ roll it spawned; the ‘60s heyday of New Orleans rhythm and blues; and the birth of funk later that decade. All the riches of the city’s current scene—brass bands, bounce, modern jazz, rock and funk, singer-songwriters—are represented as well. Each entry has a capsule history that sheds new light on these classic songs, including fresh interviews with the artists as well as nuggets from OffBeat’s extensive archive. Many of New Orleans’ landmark artists have also picked their personal favorite local songs. "What I expected was a history of great New Orleans songs and songwriters, but what I got was a reminder that these songs are touchstones for times in our lives."-- New Orleans songwriter Paul Sanchez