NOLA Crawfish Festival Kicks Off With Neville Jacobs, Honey Island Swamp Band & More
Load remaining images Neville Jacobs “Little Red Corvette”:Setlist: Neville Jacobs at NOLA Crawfish Festival, New Orleans, LA – 4/25/16Set: Wasted, I Wanna Know. Makeup Of A Fool, Good To You, The Stakes, Don’t Do It*, City Rain, Money Talks, Little Red Corvette#, I Would Die 4 U #, Dance For Me MommaEncore: Night People*The Band#PrinceA full gallery of photos by Rex Thomson, Marc Millman, and Jerry Moran can be seen below: The inaugural edition of the NOLA Crawfish Festival lived up to the hype with a perfect day of music, food and fun under the sun at the NOLA Brewing Company in New Orleans yesterday. Shaggy, the NOLA Crawfish King himself, was all smiles as he served the eager crowd heaping helpings of his world famous boil, along with other regional specialties like jambalaya, locally caught seafood, pasta and more. The NOLA Brewery had their whole line-up of specialty craft beers pouring, including their “Daze Between” brew made specially for the occasion. Naturally, the centerpiece of the day was the funky jams being thrown down by the likes of Neville Jacobs, the Honey Island Swamp Band, Mike Zito & The Wheel, Colin Lake and Johnny Sansone on the fests stages.Colin Lake kicked things off on the main stage with a rollicking, bluesy set that had folks trying desperately to dance and eat at the same time in the cavernous main stage area. Inside the brewery itself, a more intimate stage featured some impressive jamming from Johnny Sansone and Mike Zito that served as high energy guitar laden bookends for the Colin Lake set. New Orleans premiere rocking Americana act Honey Island Swamp Band had the ever growing audience singing along and enjoying tunes from their excellent new album, Demolition Day.Wrapping up the first day of the festival was a special set from the Neville Jacobs collaboration between Dumpstaphunk‘s keyboardist supreme Ivan Neville and soulful guitarist Cris Jacobs, formerly of The Bridge. Neville related the story of the new band’s formation, as he told us in an interview earlier this year, around a poker table. After recognizing Jacobs from various mutual festival appearances, the two bonded over a bad night at the tables and decided to try and at make something positive come out of their unlucky stretch, and the rest was history.Jacobs’ guitar style practically has its own southern drawl, and it fits well with Neville’s sweetness on the keys and gruff singing voice. Veteran drummer Benny Blade and Neville’s Dumpsta bandmate Tony Hall on bass round out a truly intriguing and original sounding line up.Their set was marked with a variety of remarkable covers mixed in with material from the band’s forthcoming album. An emotional tribute to the recently deceased Prince, including a emotional “Little Red Corvette” and a jubilant “I Would Die 4 U,” added to the many moving tributes that have been performed all around the city and on the stages of Jazz Fest.With the first day in the books the NOLA Crawfish Festival bolted out of the gate and set a high bar for the days to follow. Sunny skies and smiling faces were all around as the air was filled with wonderful music and the intoxicating aroma of fresh seafood. Check out some exclusive videos and photos from Day One below, and come by the NOLA Brewery today and tomorrow from 3-10 PM for hours of funky tunes and delicious food!Honey Island Swamp Band:Neville Jacobs “Wasted”:
An increase in UK long-term inflation expectations has seen defined benefit (DB) schemes suffer a decrease in funding levels despite strong equity growth over 2013.Research from Mercer showed the IAS19 accounting deficits for FTSE 350 firms increase by £25bn (€30bn), reaching £97bn by the end of December.The consultant’s monthly Pension Risk Survey showed that while funding levels worsened over the year as a whole, the end situation was an improvement on the £102bn deficit level a month previous.The research said the deficit growth, driven by inflation expectations, came despite a 19% return from UK equities and significant cash contributions from sponsoring employers. However, Mercer pointed out that, even though IAS19 deficits increased for pension funds, actuarial valuation deficits and those measured on a buyout basis both showed an improving picture.Ali Tayyebi, head of DB risk at Mercer, said the IAS19 funding level drop demonstrated the three key elements that influence deficits over the year.“Deficits increased sharply up to the end of April driven largely by increases in the market’s outlook for long-term market implied retail prices index (RPI) inflation,” he said.The rise in expectations during the first quarter came after the shock announcement from the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) that it would not amend its calculation method for RPI.This came after markets already accounted for a change in its calculation, making it more akin to the generally lower consumer prices index (CPI).“The position had recovered by mid-year as corporate bond yields increased sharply over Q2, reducing the value placed on pension scheme liabilities,” Tayyebi added.“However, a further increase in long-term market-implied inflation and a reversal in corporate bond yields increased deficits by £20bn over the second half of the year, despite the UK stock market returning 10% over that period.”Adrian Hartshorn, senior partner in Mercer’s Financial Strategy group, said that, despite the growing IAS19 deficit, improving outlooks in actuarial and buyout deficits boosted the demand for risk-reduction exercises, making 2013 a record year for insurance contracts.“There are also likely to be other transactions and exercises implemented by scheme sponsors, such as options that allow pensioners and deferred pensioners additional flexibility in the way they draw their benefits,” he said.
Last night, EC volleyball faced off with Franklin County and all three teams came out on top in straight sets. Varsity won with scores of 25-14, 25-17, and 25-21.EC VB vs Franklin County (10-6)‘It wasn’t the best game we’ve played as of late, but we saw a lot of good things. Our servers were trying to be more aggressive and more precise with their serving and our blockers got a lot of touches on the ball. Overall, I’d say it was a good night.’ Trojans Coach Cassie Laker.Varsity is now 18-11 on the season and will face off with Greensburg tomorrow night for senior night. Freshman and JV start at 5.