Things haven’t been easy for Ironing Board Sam over the past couple of years. After partnering with Music Maker, Sam’s career got a phenomenal rebirth and he started playing shows all over the world and releasing records again. Sadly, in late 2015 right before the release of his album Super Spirit, Sam suffered a major stroke that he has still yet to fully recover from. Sam has not played a show since his stroke, so when Sam got the news that he was booked to play the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and would be honored as part of their 50th Anniversary celebration he was thrilled.

Sam wholly represents the quirky creativeness that has come to define New Orleans. Sam was a mainstay at JazzFest when they were first starting out and even premiered his underwater blues show there in the 70s to the amazement of festival goers. A video of  TV show Real People recently surfaced that features the Sam and his underwater blues show.