When I was living in New Orleans in the mid and late 90's (right after college) I went out to hear a lot of local live music. I became good acquaintances with Mark Samuels who ended up founding and running Basin Street Records. Mark has many qualities that we all should emulate: he is passionate, caring, conscientious, ambitious, and humble. Mark's wife passed away several years ago in a tragic car accident, and Mark has been steadfastly raising his three children while building Basin Street Records into (in my opinion) the pre-eminent New Orleans music label. To add to the challenges already posed to Mark's life, the failure of the levees in New Orleans brought over 5 feet of water into his home and flooded out his office on Canal street as well as his parents' home. Mark moved himself, his children, and his parents to Austin, TX. Here is a picture from Mark's first blog right after Huricaine Katrina in front of his gutted Lakeview home:
(photo courtesy of BasinStreetRecords.com)
Mark is finally back in New Orleans with his family, but I know it was a long and very challenging road to get back. You can read about many of the details in Mark's blog.
Over the years, Mark and his colleagues at Basin Street Records have slowly put together a roster of some of the best local New Orleans artists:
I have been fortunate enough to be personally introduced to all of the Basin Street Records artists, and I can tell you that they are all appreciative of working with a label so committed to their success. You can hear an interview I did with Irvin Mayfield back in 2003 when he was headlining the Atlanta Jazz Festival.
Basin Street's focus has been on New Orleans based Jazz, Blues, Funk, R&B and Rock. Basin Street artists have won a slew or awards including Billboard Music Awards, WC Handy Blues Awards, a bunch of CDs in the Top 10 radio charts, and have even received a Grammy nomination!
You can find out more about Basin Street Records at their Web site:
You can find Mark Samuels' blog at :
