NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana folklorist Nick Spitzer and Mississippi blues musician R.L. Boyce are among nine 2023 National Heritage Fellows set to be celebrated later this month by the National Endowment for the Arts, one of the nation’s highest honors in the folk and traditional arts. He founded the Louisiana Folklife Program, produced the five-LP Louisiana Folklife Recording Series, created the Louisiana Folklife Pavilion at the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans and helped launch the Baton Rouge Blues Festival. “But see, I play the old way, and nobody today can play my style, just me.”Boyce has played northern Mississippi blues for more than half a century. He has shared stages with blues greats John Lee Hooker, a 1983 NEA National Heritage Fellow, and Howlin’ Wolf.

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Persons: Nick Spitzer, R.L, Boyce, Spitzer, Bess Lomax Hawes, ” Spitzer, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, Fats Domino, “, Hawes, ” Boyce, ”, John Lee Hooker, Howlin ’ Wolf, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Ed Eugene Carriere, Michael A, Cummings, Joe DeLeon “ Little Joe ” Hernandez, Roen, Elizabeth James, Perry, Luis Tapia, Wu Man Organizations: ORLEANS, Heritage Fellows, National Endowment, Arts, Heritage Fellowship, Library of Congress, Washington , D.C, Tulane University’s School of Liberal Arts, Tulane, Louisiana Folklife Program, Louisiana Folklife, Baton Rouge Blues, Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife, Heritage, Associated Press, NEA, Blues, Heritage Fellow Locations: Louisiana, Mississippi, Washington ,, New Orleans, Acadiana, Washington, Indianola , Washington, New York, Temple , Texas, Waimea , Hawaii, Dartmouth , Massachusetts, Santa Fe , New Mexico, Carlsbad , California