New Orleans’ Lilli Lewis Returns To La Grange this Weekend

The City of La Grange will be graced by not one but two very special performances this weekend by the amazing powerhouse gospel, soul, and roots music phenom Lilli Lewis.

The nationally acclaimed singer-songwriter will be at the Bugle Boy the evening of Saturday, Nov. 2, and on Sunday, Nov. 3 as part of the All Souls Day service at First Presbyterian Church. Ms. Lewis’ appearance at First Presbyterian Church is sponsored by the Linda Smalley Memorial Concert fund. The church service, which begins at 10:30 a.m., is free and the community is invited.

Lewis is a classically trained singer and pianist whose 2021 album, “Americana,” was named one of the year’s best by NPR’s “All Things Considered.” In the wake of that album’s release, she played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., five sets at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, founded the Black American Music Summit at Folk Alliance International, showcased at AmericanaFest in Nashville, and toured across the country both on her own and with her childhood heroes, the Indigo Girls.

Everyone at her 2022 debut performance at the Bugle Boy (including La Grange Mayor Jan Dockery) was so impressed, Lewis was named as the ninth recipient of the Bugle Boy Foundation’s Talent Trust award, which helped produce her 2023 album “All Is Forgiven.” The CD Release celebration was scheduled Dec. 1, 2023 at the Bugle Boy, but sadly, a life-threatening medical emergency just a few weeks prior meant she had to cancel not only that show, but all her tour dates for the better part of a year.

Happily, Lewis is doing a lot better today but she’s still on the road to recovery, and has only recently started to perform again, and very sparingly outside of New Orleans. That makes the fact that she picked La Grange as one of the only cities outside of the Big Easy she’s playing in all of 2024 a pretty big deal. Lewis’ return to the Bugle Boy stage next Saturday has been a long time coming, but sure to be one that both artist and fans will agree was worth the wait. And of course that goes for her return to First Presbyterian Church on Sunday for another All Souls Day service, too.

Tickets for Lilli Lewis at the Bugle Boy (1051 North Jefferson St., La Grange, ) on Saturday, Nov. 2, are $35 and available at www.thebugleboy. org/tickets. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. sharp. Lewis’ All Souls Day performance at First Presbyterian Church (205 S. Franklin St., La Grange) is free and open to the public, with the service starting at 10:30 a.m.