There were a lot of great releases by New Orleans artists in 2025. The year saw new albums by Alexis & The Sanity, Sarah Quintana, Jon Cleary, Bo Dollis Jr. & The Wild Magnolias, Cha Wa, Sabine McCalla, Kr3wcial, The Convenience, Alfred Banks and Pell, Cristina Kaminis and more.<\/p>\n
In fact, the 2026 Grammy category for Best Regional Roots Music Album is almost entirely made up<\/a> of New Orleans artists: Kyle Roussel and his \u201cChurch of New Orleans\u201d; Corey Henry & The Treme Funktet for their \u201cLive at Vaughan\u2019s\u201d record; Preservation Brass and Preservation Hall Jazz Band with \u201cFor Fat Man\u201d<\/a>; and Troy \u201cTrombone Shorty\u201d Andrews and the New Breed Brass Band for \u201cSecond Line Sunday.\u201d The one outlier in the category is the Louisiana-focused \u201cA Tribute to the King of Zydeco,\u201d a tribute album<\/a> to zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier featuring The Rolling Stones, Lucinda Williams and many others.<\/p>\n It’s impossible to pick subjective \u201cbests\u201d out of a strong year for New Orleans music. Instead, here are five of my favorites (out of many) I kept coming back to all year.<\/p>\n New Orleans vocalist and songwriter Boyfriend has often used her bassy alt-pop and \u201crap cabaret\u201d to critique and skewer sexism and culture\u2019s expectations of women. With her latest album<\/a>, \u201cIn the Garden,\u201d Boyfriend, the performance name for Suzannah Powell, dug into patriarchy\u2019s cornerstone myth: The story of Eve and the Garden of Eden.<\/p>\nBoyfriend \u2014 \u201cIn the Garden\u201d<\/h3>\n