Portals and KM

Louisiana Vs. Texas BBQ

We recently drove to a family event in Dallas and then stopped at Austin for two nights of the music scene on the way back. Going there we stopped at Eddie's BBQ at a truck stop near Alexandria LA. We got pork ribs and chicken with two sides (see below) It had the traditional Southern sides: overcooked green beans :), mac and cheese, along with a LA addition, dirty rice and local option, potato casserole (like a twice cooked potato with cheese and bacon- really good).  Being that the crawfish were fresh in season we also got a pound of them. 

           

When in Austin we read about the Texas BBQ Trail and made a selection part of our return to New Orleans - Meyers' Smokehouse in Elgin Texas.  We got pork ribs, brisket, sausage (their speciality) with cole slaw and cream corn. See last two pictures. It has been around since the 1930s when Rudolph Meyer started making his sausages in the German style.

     

Both were really good. Despite all the hype, Eddie's was actually better except the ribs at Meyer's were slightly better than Eddie's. In LA there is the boudin trail but the state is left off the Southern BBQ trail for some unknown reason as the BBQ here is as good as anywhere. I guess I need to complain. You might like the site as it has the history of BBQ in every southern state except LA.  This needs to be fixed. 

 

New Orleans Second Lines 1995

I recently wrote about New Orleans Second Lines.  See also, New Orleans Second Lines Continue and New Orleans Second Lines: The Original Big 7 Returns.

I just came across an article in Gambit, Sept 5, 1995, Attacking a Tradition, by Geraldine Wyckoff, which wrote about a shooting that had just occured at a Second Line by The Original Popular Ladies. It ironically occured near the site of the recent shooting by N. Villere St. A policeman charged with escorting the parade said: the shootings, "have nothing to do with the parade. It's just idiots bring their fights to the parades." This 1995 shooting was a ways behind the front of the parade. The police advised to stay near the front where the police are located. There was one patrol car and five motorcycle officers at this one.

The article noted that Kermit Ruffins was there with his family, selling drinks from the back of his pickup and also cooking BBQ. This is a tradition that is still carried on now but by others. I did see Kermit at the CTC Second Line this year. Rebirth was the brass band. The author of the article said she planned to continue to attend seocnd lines and would not let the shootings stop her from experiencing this important part of New Orleans culture. We plan to do the same. 

Blues in New Orleans: Ed Wills at BMC

Last night we saw Ed Wills play some great blues at BMC.  We have seen him many times and I feel he is the best blues man in New Orleans. There was a good crowd and Ed did a particularly high-energy set. He always plays from 8 to 10:30 without a break.  Last night the crowd especially got into it and there was a lot of dancing by the end, including us. Ed plays at BMC every Wednesday. I highly recommend it when you are in New Orleans. We are not alone in this appreciation, as the crowds are getting bigger every time we go.  Ed also plays elsewhere and we have seen him at Vaso.

Ed did some of the original material from his CD that I have, as well as his own take on Ray Charles, B. B. King, Bill Withers, and others. I highly recommend the CD and look forward to another CD. My favorites are The Rooster, his own version of a good blues theme about a barn yarn bad boy, and the title cut, Blues4Sale, as well as what I think is the best post-Katrina song, I’m Coming Home, about many of the wonderful things in New Orleans including his Mama’s home cooking. He said New Orleans is back where he belongs. I would agree. It is a theme song for me as I came back home to live here last Fall after being away too long. 

You can see scenes from the evening below. You can click on any image to make it larger. Then you have to go back in your browser to return to the post. Early in the evening, Ed invited a young friend up to play some guitar and the guy was really good. Half way through he had the sax guy from the following group, The Business, join him for a very long and intense Stormy Monday.  The last photo in the group below was taken at an earlier show. It inspired me to do the painting seen below.

         

After I finished the painting a few months ago, I shared a picture of it with Ed on my phone at one of his shows. He liked it and I sent a larger image through email. Ed was kind enough to post it on his Facebook page. In addition to being a great blues player, Ed is a really nice guy with a warm smile. Because he appreciated it so much I gave it to him last night. Here is his comment on his Facebook page with some more photos. I will always cherish his response and appreciation. We look forward to our next time at BMC.

 

New Orleans Second Lines Continue

I did a post last week on New Orleans Second Lines. In that post I commented on the recent Mother’s Day tragedy so I will not repeat those thoughts except to say that I am glad the Second Lines continue. On many Sunday afternoons there is a Social Aid and Pleasure Club Second Line parade. There was one scheduled the next weekend by the Divine Ladies Social Aid and Pleasure Club and the Unbreakable Men Social Aid and Pleasure Club. The parade route flyer said, “Sitting on Top of the World Overlooking All Our Haters” which is a good place to be. As WWL TV noted, “For the first time since the Mother's Day shooting, hundreds gathered in New Orleans for a second line on Sunday as a sign of New Orleans' resilience in a time of tragedy... it was dedicated to the 20 victims of the shooting at a second line on May 12.” Here are some photos of the event. You can click on any image to enlarge it. 

New Orleans is a city where parades are often a participatory event. Second lines are the prime example. The Unbreakable Men went first. Below you see them getting into position coming down Jackson Ave. and reaching the corner of St. Charles Ave. Then they started down St. Charles on the way to a long route ending at Joe’s House of Blues on Dryades. They were supported by many of the same brass band members as the Pigeon Town Steppers. 

                      

The Divine Ladies Social Aid and Pleasure Club came down St. Charles on an open top bus and several limos to meet the Unbreakable Men at the corner of Jackson and St. Charles. Here they are in 2009 on Youtube. As seen below, this year they followed the Unbreakable Men down St. Charles. 

                     







 

Painting of Shrimp Poboy at Felix's - New Orleans

Here is a 20" x 24" acrylic painting of a shrimp poboy dressed at Felix's in New Orleans. I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Since I arrived back in my hometown, I have been painting a variety of themes related to the city. 

Painting of Jon Cleary at Chicki Wah Wah New Orleans

Here is a 20" x 20" acrylic painting of Jon Cleary performing at Chicki Wah Wah in New Orleans. I now an artist with the Arts Council of New Orleans and particpate in their monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. Saturday May 25 is the next market and I will have a booth and offer paintings for sale. Since I arrived back in my hometown, I have been painting a variety of themes related to the city including my favorite musicians such as Jon. I am enjoying many of these musicians at Jazz Fest this weekend with many more photos and some paintings to follow. 

Painting of Cajun Dancers - Work in Progress

Based on some photos I took at the French Quarter Festival I am doing a series of dancers moving to Les Freres Michot. These are three 16" x 20" canvases that I will attach together so the total will be 20" x 48". I will line up the backgrounds. The first step is the drawing. Then I fill in the basic background colors. This is the top image. More color variation will be added to the background but it will stay solid colors.

The next step is filling in the basic colors on the figures. The result is a painting in the Alex Katz school as seen below. This will change a great deal before the paintings are done. I will add shadows, texture in the fabric, highlghts, etc. The man's shirt will be white but with texture and shadows. You will see their shadows on the grass which will ground them on the surface. 

I plan to have them ready for the next the Arts Council of New Orleans monthy art market. These markets occur generally on the last Saturday at Palmer Park in New Orleans, at the corner of S. Carrolton and S. Claiborne. The next one is May 30. 

Some of the Many Faces on the New Orleans Music Scene

The music scene in New Orleans is very diverse, covering a wide raneg of muscial styles, many of which orginated in the city and others in the nearby country sides of South Louisana and Northern Mississippi. Here are some examples from the past two months. There are too many to mention. I justed wanted to show the diversity with this post. Here is a summary from thwo events during the same time period and I did not linclude images from those below: Highlights of 2012 Oak Street Poboy Festival - New Orleans and the Highlights of Magazine Street Blues Festival. Here also are Some Explorations in New Orleans Music May 2012. It is wonderful to live here full time to take in all this music. 

                                                              
      
                         

Two Months of New Orleans Meals

New Orleans food culture is thriving. Before the storm (aka Katrina) there were 800 real restaurants (not counting fast food) and now there are over 1300.  Over 20 are in walking distance from my home. We are slowing working our way through them. Here are a sampling of dishes from the past two months.

They include such tasty items (in no special order) as: gumbo, crawfish tempura, steamed buns: pork belly and fried oysters, pan fried mussels, and soy-mirin glazed steak with fingerling potatoes and tasso, blueberry tempura with ice cream, BBQ duck with cole slaw, ribs with cheese grits and corn macheaux, eggs over easy with grits and debris, crawfish etouffee omelet, shrimp, fish, and pork tacos, eggplant and meat, shrimp with alfresco sauce on fettucine, garlic shrimp, calamari in garlic sauce, lamp chops with figs sauce, zuchinni fritters, duck confit, and flan, tempura calamari salad with radish and green vinaigrette, sashimi special served in a crispy fish, funnel cake, onion mum, bananas foster egg roll with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce, mozzerlla and salad crepe, softshell crab poboy, and fried chicken.

For a sampling of prior meals see Highlights of 2012 Oak Street Poboy Festival - New Orleans, New Orleans Restaurant and Lodging Update 2012, Fifteen Great Gumbos, and New Orleans Restaurants December 2011. 

                                                                                  

Chiba: Great Japanese Food with a New Orleans Twist

The New Orleans food scene is stronger than ever with over 1300 places to eat, up from 800 pre-Katrina. I have long enjoyed the food of my hometown. Since I returned to live here full time at the end of October, I have been conducting further explorations into what New Orleans offers.

In my own neighborhood, there are easily twenty good restaurants worth repeating within walking distance. One of these is Chiba, offering high quality Japanese food on Oak Street.  Chiba is run by my neighbor Keith Dusko. It has provided the two best meals I have had since I moved here on Halloween.  And their innovation crosses over to wonderful cocktails like a blackberry mojita and a very large sake selection.

You know you are in New Orleans with items like Crawfish Tempura and Bananas Foster Egg Rolls.  And they manage to pull it off with great skill doing homage to both food traditions.  Their sushi and sashimi are wonderful and likely the highest quality in the city. However, their cooked dishes also show great innovation and execution, with examples like the two above and pan-roasted mussels with ginger, garlic and green onions and short rib tempura served on fresh lettuce with sesame soy jus. I think it ranks with any place across the city for culinary innovation and execution.

Here is our first meal: crawfish tempura, pork belly steamed bun, fried oyster steam bun, pan-roasted mussels with ginger, garlic and green onions, soy mirin-glazed NY steak with marbled potatoes, Tasso ham, Thai basil and chili aioli, and we finished with blueberry beignets and ice cream.

       

The tempura was light with plenty of crawfish and we ate it before I got the camera out, The mussels were flavorful, the steamed buns were very light with intense flavors inside, the steak was thin sliced and combined well with the potatoes and Tasso, and the desert blew us away.

Here is our second meal; tempura calamari salad with Dikon radish and green vinaigrette, sashimi special served in a crispy fish that was also very eatable, short rib tempura (partially eaten as we got carried away before I took the picture), crispy skin salmon with spinach and a peanut sauce, and closing with bananas foster egg roll with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

   
 

Each dish was innovative, fresh and well prepared. There were lots of calamari, the sashimi was subtle and the presentation in a whole crispy fish was a pleasant surprise, the short rib reminded me of a high end version of chicken fried steak and I say this with great homage to a dish I grew up on, the salmon had a nice combination of crispy outside and juicy inside. Once again the desert blew us away.  We will be back many times as there are many other innovative choices left on the menu to sample.

Chiba is located at 8312 Oak Street,
New Orleans, LA 70118 (504) 826-9119. They do take out but we enjoy sitting at the bar watching all the new drinks being prepared. If you are comig to the city, add it to you list of places to eat.

Images from 2012 Onset Blues Festival

This is the sixth year in a row I have gone to the Onset Blues Festival. Bands included: Willie J. Laws, Tons of Blues, Sean Chambers, Diane Blue with Toni Lynn Washington, Ricky King Russell and the Cadillac Horns with Jeff Portnoy.

                                                 

Some Explorations in New Orleans Music 2012

This year I came to New Orleans right after Jazzfest when the hotel rates dropped but there was plenty of music. I have already covered the concerts at Armstrong Park, the Art Mart, and the Bayou Boogaloo Festival in Mid-City on Bayou St. John. So here is the rest of the story from May. I am back for a few days over the Labor Day weekend so will be looking for more music.

I saw Emily and the Velvet Ropes at Mimi’s in the Marigny twice because she was so good, as were the Spanish tapas. I walked there on my first night and then came back on my last Tuesday as she said she was coming back. I do not have any pictures but she did a lot of traditional jazz and R&B. (2601 Royal Street (504) 872-9868).

The next night was Eric Gordan and the Lazy Boys – a good brass band at Vaso. (500 Frenchmen St (504) 272-0929).  Then I saw Walter Wolfman Washington do his regular Wednesday night gig at d.b.a. (618 Frenchman Street 504-942-3731)

     

Thursday after seeing Donald Harrison at Louis Armstrong Park whihc I cover in another post, I went Zydeco night at Rock N Bowl, a regular tradtion for m. I saw Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers and the watched Celtics win their series over Hawks. The Mid-City Lanes Rock & Bowl is at 3000 S. Carrollton Avenue (504-861-1700)

Friday I saw Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers doing their new gig at the  Blue Nile which started at 7PM. He did two wonderful sets with his regular band and some younger additions. He started each set by inviting all the ladies in the audience to join him on stage while he sang the Black Eyed Peas, It’s going to be a good night.” I saw him again the following Ftriday and here are pictures from both sets. On the second Friday he turned the second set over to two young musicians with his band, an 18 year old trumpet player and 17 year old singer who had been with him the previous Friday. Blue Nile is located at 532 Frenhmen Street. (504-948-2583).

                       
Saturday I went to a Benefit Concert featuring Gypsy Elise De Sade, John Lisi & Delta Funk, Blues 4 Sale, and Band of Brothers  at BMC at 3PM 1331 Decatur St (504) 599-7770

                  

Later I saw the Iguanas (last slide onthe right above) at the Irvin Mayfield Club in the JW Marriott (614 Canal Street) 504-527-6712

Sunday I went to the Cajun Fais Do Do Featuring Bruce Daigrepont at Tipitina’s. This is another tradition for me and he has been doing it for over twenty years with many regulars in the audience that also come to Zydeco night at Rock N Bowl. (501 Napoleon St. 504-895-TIPS)

Tuesday I went to Bacchanlal for dinner and music outdoors and saw the Mark Welky Trio, a nice jazz group.  – 600 Poland Avenue in Bywater.

Thursday is was back to Rock N Bowl for another Zydeco night and saw Curley Taylor & The Zydeco Trouble

    

On Saturday I saw John Boutte do his regular 8 PM set at d.b.a. It was magical. He asks the audience to be quiet while he sangs and it is worth it to really hear him. 

      

Afterwards Joe Krown and Walter Wolfman Washington and Russell Batitse did 10 PM show. I like Walter better when he is on his own.

      

On Sunday I went to Bayou Boogaloo Festival in Mid-City on Bayou St. John that I cover in a separate post.

On Monday I hear David Doucet and another member of Beausoleil at the Columns. He did a great set. I have been watching the DVD of Beausoleil at Jazzfest and it was wonderful to see him live. - 3811 St Charles Ave (504) 899-9308

 

 

 

New Orleans Restaurant and Lodging Update 2012

I spent three weeks in New Orleans in May and stayed at the B&W Courtyards 2425 Chartres Street in the Marigny (504-324-3396 or 800-585-5731). (see below) The hosts, Rob and Kevin were great. I had a one bedroom apartment in the back with full kitchen so I did a lot of cooking in my place to save costs and also enjoy local food. The place was full of nice antiques and art. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the city. It also only a few blocks form Frenchmen Street and beyond that the French Quarter. 

For food I tried a few new places those I experienced before. Here are some of my experiences. The Bayou Boogaloo Festival in Mid-City on Bayou St. John had great food vendors. It is an annual event and covered is a separate post last weekend as is the food vendors at the Art Mart that is a monthly event and was also covered last weekend. 

The New Olreans Cake Cafe and Bakery is across the street from B & W Courtyards. I had anumber of meals there. Below you can see their shrimp and grtis. crab salad, and eggs and grits with boudin suasage. 

   

Mimi’s a Marigny - I went here twice because of the great food and music. They have great Spanish tapas.  The first time I had shrimp with creole sauce, calamari with saffron cream sauce, mushroom manchego cheese tart.  The second time I had shrimp with creole sauce, calamari with saffron cream sauce, and more. It is located at 2601 Royal Street (504) 872-9868

Luizza’s – Great Italian and Creole food. As their site says, “A Mid-City landmark since 1947, is only minutes from the French Quarter and Central Business District.The aroma is unmistakable as you walk in the door of the neighborhood bar and restaurant. This family operated restaurant is treasured by locals for its recipes of down-home Louisiana, Cajun, authentic Italian and seafood dishes. This is a place where locals of all descriptions, taxi drivers, businessmen on their lunch hour to tourists and conventioners, all come to try some real New Orleans/Italian hospitality.” I had fifed green tomatoes with shrimp roumelaide. It is located at 3636 Bienville Street  (504) 482-9120

 

MiLa for dinner is a very high end place and pricy but good. I had smoked redfish salad, crab salad at the bar.  MILa stand for Mississippi Louisiana. MiLa is the culmination of both the marriage of chefs Slade Rushing and Allison Vines-Rushing and their respective home states cuisines-Mississippi and Louisiana. This was my first time there. It is located at 817 Common Street, New Orleans, LA 70112.

Upperline is place I have been several times and is still good. Their duck three ways is great an dno longer on the menu but they did it fo rme anyway. It is located at 1413 Upperline Street. (504) 891-9822.

Bacchanlal is a wine shop where you buy your wine and they have a food vendor providing greta food along with music. I saw the Mark Welky Trio. It is located at 600 Poland Avenue 504-948-9111

Patois - is the best place to eat in the mid to high end.  It is located at 6078 Laurel St, on the corner of Laurel and Webster 504 895 9441

Dante’s Kitchen - I had spoon bread, escargot, gulf fish, sweet potatoes, coffee custard. It was all good. The name comes from the street it is located - 736 Dante Street, New Orleans, 70118 at the corner of Dante and River Road, (504) 861-3121

Stanley’s – I had walked by the place many times but because it was on Jackson Square I had assumed it was a tourist place. The food was actually excellent. I had a variation on Eggs Benedict with two poached eggs sitting on top of some boudin sausage from Charlie T’s in the Lafayette area, hollandaise sauce and French bread. It is now on my list of places to trust in the Quarter. We also had fried oysters and onion strings.

 

Then there was Dong Phuongthe great Vietnamese bakery and restaurant as you can see below. NOLA.com writes: “It's also one of New Orleans' finest purveyors of Vietnamese cuisine. The bakery is crowded at midday with customers snatching up fresh-baked banh mi, the Vietnamese-style French bread; banh mi thit, the sandwiches known locally as Vietnamese po-boys; and an array of exotic sweets -- mung bean bars that taste like Fig Newtons, gummy candies made from steamed yucca -- that will make you squint with wonder. The adjacent restaurant excels at steamy noodle soups.” We had some of each. It is located at 14207 Chef Menteur Highway, 504.254.0296.

               

 

 

 

Images of Food and Music from May New Orleans Art Mart

This is a monthly event with multiple art vendors and food vendors, along with some good music. I plan to some day have a booth there. Here are images from this May’s event. 

                                

 

 

San Francisco Restaurants: 2012 Update

I was in San Francisco recently and want to report on some new places I tried as well as some recommendations I received. As always I am interested in your thoughts on this topic.

Farmer Brown describes itself as farm fresh soul food and I would agree. We had some great fried chicken with greens and mac and cheese, shrimp and grits, and gumbo seen below. It is located at 25 Mason at Market. 415-409-farm.

   

Moss Room is located inside the California Academy of Sciences, and open for both lunch and dinner service. We had a great dinner. I had shrimp and polenta repeating my shrimp and grits from Farmer Brown but it was different and great with speck. There is actually moss on a living wall with lots of carp and other fish swimming underneath. It is located at 55 Music Concourse Drive,
Golden Gate Park, 
San Francisco CA 415 876 6121.

Gallery Cafe - I had a very fresh breakfast sandwich here. It is located at 1200 Mason Street, San Francisco, CA (415) 296-9932

   

Greens is one of the original gourmet vegetarian restaurants. I have had their first cookbook for some time and they now have several. Fresh local produce is the starting point. Even non-vegetarians like myself will like it. It is on the waterfront at Building A, Fort Mason Center Restaurant: 415-771-6222 Greens to Go: 415-771-6330

   

Cowgirl Creamery makes a small collection of cheese -- four, soft aged and three fresh cheeses. They get their milk from Marin County and have an outlet at the Ferry Terminal Building in San Francisco. I had a selection of their cheeses and a wonderful tomato soup. It is located at 1 Ferry Building # 17 San Francisco, (415) 362-9354

   

R and G Lounge – I had a wonderful two pound hard shell crab that had been battered and deep fried. You had to pick apart like eating a lobster. There was a nice combination of the greasy fried exterior and the light clean crab meat interior.  “For years, every Christmas evening, the SF food mafia converge for a special in-kitchen banquet @ R&G”.- John Maloney. It is located at 631 Kearny Street  San Francisco, (415) 982-7877

 

Others recommended by another dinner at R and G who seemed quite knowledgeable.

Thanh Long – Great for Vietnamese style garlic crab. It is located a4101 Judah Street on the corner of 46th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 415.665.1146

Zushi Puzzle – great sushi and sashimi – good for the exotics. It is located at 1910 Lombard Street  San Francisco (415) 931-9319

Dumpling House – It is known for its Shanghai dumplings. It is located at 3641 Balboa St.(between 37th Ave & 38th Ave)  San Francisco (415) 831-9288

Tony’s Pizza. Excellent old style pizza. It is located at 1570 Stockton St.  San Francisco (415) 835-9888

Trattoria Contadina is located at the corner of Powell and Mason. Traditional family style Italian cuisine. 1800 Mason Street San Francisco (415) 982-5728

Java Beach – 60s style coffee house near Thanh Long - It is located at 2650 Sloat Boulevard  San Francisco. (415) 731-2965

 

 

Remembering Ray Charles

Yesterday, I wrote about Elvis so I need to give equal time to Ray today. It has been almost eight years since he passed. Ray was a major music figure during my high school years in the early 60s. We used to sing Ray Charles songs, like “Georgia of My Mind,” on the bus and his dance music, like “What’d I Say,” got top play at parties.

Later, in 1968, I saw him perform on a Sunday afternoon as the headliner of the day at the Newport Jazz Festival. I still have the program and the pictures I took that mellow sunny afternoon, recovering from the intense performance by Rahsaan Roland Kirk the night before.

The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll credits Ray with virtually inventing soul music by “...bringing together the fervor of gospel, the secular lyrics and narratives of blues and country, the big band arrangements of jazz, and the rhythms and improvisational possibilities from all of them…” I think this early innovation gets lost, especially when the mainstream media eulogies seem focused on his later years with his version of “America the Beautiful” and younger people know him more for his Pepsi ads.

If you listen to the great gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, for example, her sound is like Ray Charles. The influence is actually the reverse as Ray was the first to create secular music in the gospel style, a move that generated some controversy at the time. As Aretha Franklin told the Guardian after his death, "He was a fabulous man, full of humour and wit. A giant of an artist, and of course, he introduced the world to secular soul singing."

The Guardian also reported in the same article: “In April Van Morrison paid tribute to Charles in Rolling Stone magazine: ‘His sound was stunning - it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing - it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing.’

Ray’s influences were complex and his style was inclusive. In 1947 he moved from Florida to Seattle and started as a singer in the Nat King Cole style. He recorded his first hit in LA, “Confession Blues,” in 1951. In 1953, we went to New Orleans and became the piano player for the Guitar Slim (Eddie Jones) blues band. Their song, “The Things That I Used to Do” sold a million copies. Ray signed with Atlantic Records in 1954 and his first major hit, “I’ve Got a Woman,” was number two in the R&B charts the next year. It combined gospel, blues, and big band in what became the Ray Charles sound.

According to David Ritz, the co-author of his autobiography, Brother Ray, he was one of the first male singers to have an all female backup group. Ray said he got the idea from gospel groups, liked the idea of being surrounded by women, and the contrast in voices. He asked a female group, The Cookies, to join him as the Raeletts. This idea has been copied by many since.

Ray was always looking for new material. He made one of the first “reverse cross-over” albums by producing, “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” in 1962, featuring songs by Hank Williams and other C&W artists, bringing their music to new audiences. This cross-over went both ways as his “I Can’t Stop Loving You” from the album also made the C&W charts.

Earlier, he moved himself into the pop charts, with his “Georgia on My Mind” making number one in 1960. This song became the official state song of Georgia in 1979 and it remains my favorite Ray Charles ballad. My favorite rocker is “Tell the Truth,” a high energy number featuring his gospel style and a wonderful sax solo, likely by Fathead Newman. Although each time I hear another song as I write this post, I say, that’s my favorite.

Ray recorded “Genius Loves Company” shortly before he died. Each duet gives the promise of classic. Ray writes in the notes, “I thought it was time to have some of the friends that I love and artists that I admire come into my studio and sang with me live, the way we did in the old days.” Many of his favorites are also mine. He does “Crazy Love” with Van Morrison, “Heaven Help Us All with Gladys Knight, “Sinner’s Prayer” with B. B. King, “You Don’t Know Me” with Dianna Krall, “Here We Go Again” with Norah Jones, “Do I Ever cross Your Mind” with Bonnie Raitt. There are also some unexpected duets like “Over the Rainbow” with Johnny Mathis, “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word” with Elton John, “Fever” with Natalie Cole, and “Sweet Potatoe Pie” with James Taylor. 

Remembering When I First Heard Elvis

I was thinking about Elvis the other day as I listened again to some of his early songs. He recorded his first song “That’s All Right” on July 5, 1954. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll credits him as the first rock and roll star, which is a fair statement. Elvis, himself, said that he was just part of a movement. First song was a cover and initially recorded in 1946 by Arthur Crudup who did a very rocking version eight years earlier than Elvis. Roy Brown, the New Orleans blues man, followed in 1947 with “Good Rockin’ Tonight” also covered by Elvis and many others. Elvis was not even the first white guy to do rock and roll, as Bill Haley released “Rocket 88,” a cover of a Ike Turner song, in 1951 and “Rock This Joint” in 1952. DJ Alan Freed used the term, rock and roll, in Cleveland in 1951. Of course, he may have picked it up from others.

I first remember hearing Elvis on the radio doing Heartbreak Hotel in August of 1956, riding in the back of my parents’ 51 Plymouth. We were driving from New Orleans to Florida for a summer vacation to escape the heat. This was before children’s car seats or even seat belts. I was still small enough that I had to look up at the back of my parents’ heads. Instead, I preferred to sit on my knees and lean out the window, like a dog, making up imaginary events occurring in the passing scenery. The wind on the side of my face felt good as we drove through southern Mississippi in the August heat.

The music penetrated my daydreaming and it directed my thoughts to some of the run down hotels we saw on the road to Florida. I could picture a beer sign hanging in the window, half of the white paint gone from the wooden siding, and old guys sitting on the front porch looking back at the passing cars.

My father turned toward my mother and said, “this music will never last.” Then, he began to lecture on what makes good music. My father preferred classical and Peggy Lee but he also liked to take out-of-towners to the French Quarter and nurse a beer through sets of jazz at the Paddock. He let me play local R&B artists at home and saw Elvis’ music as a parody of R&B.

Elvis finished and his music remains forever linked to driving along the Mississippi coast in the August heat looking at the crushed, chalky white shells that used to line the two lane highways and thinking of some broken down hotel.

Of course, my father’s prediction proved wrong. While I like some of Elvis, including Heartbreak Hotel, I still have more music by Fats Domino, an even bigger zydeco collection, perhaps it is my hometown New Orleans loyalty.

Personally, I also think that Elvis' contribution was more in PR, making rock mainstream, than in the music, itself. I find more rock bands are derivative of the unknown Arthur Crudup, Roy Brown, and the many blues and R&B groups that preceded Elvis. 

 

Fifteen Great Gumbos

Here are fifteen gumbos that I have enjoyed. They are mostly from Louisiana, the home of gumbo. But there are few from elsewhere such as Highland Creole Cusine, a Haitian restaurant in Somerville, MA, Summer Shack in Cambridge, MA, and Georgia Brown's in Washington DC. If want find out how to make a good gumbo yourself see: Making a Great Gumbo.  My favorite is from Luzzia's by the Track in New Orleans which is the third shown. 

   
                     

Summary Listing of All My SXSW Notes Music and Interactive

I was pleased to attend SXSW for the first time. Except for the long lines, it exceeded expectations fo both the tech part and the music part. I am grateful for Adobe Acrobat for enabling me to attend. I did go to some of the Adobe sponsored sessions. Here are are my notes on the SXSW Music.

 Here are all my session notes from SXSW Interactive. 

20x2 at SXSW 2012

SXSW Notes: The Complexity Curve: How to Design for Simplicity

SXSW Notes: Design for Social Innovation and Public Good

SXSW Notes: The Curators and the Curated

SXSW Notes: Copy Matters: Content Strategy for the Interface

SXSW Notes: Ambient Location and the Future of the Interface

SXSW Notes: Boost your Mobile Workflow with Adobe’s Newest Product

SXSW Notes: Content As a Means for Social Change

SXSW Notes: No Brochures: Digital Storytelling for Nonprofits

SXSW Notes: Positively Inspired Change Campaigns

SXSW Notes: Coding the Next Chapter of American History

SXSW Notes: The Future of Music Consumption

Here are all my notes from SXSW Music.

SXSW Notes: BAMM.tv Offers a New Way to Serve and Showcase Artists

SXSW Notes: BAMM.tv River Cruise Part One

SXSW Notes: BAMM.tv River Cruise Part Two

SXSW Notes: The Music Scene Part One: March 13

SXSW Notes: The Music Scene Part Two: March 14

 

 

SXSW Notes: The Music Scene Part Two: March 14

Here is more on SXSW music. I was pleased to attend SXSW for the first time. Except for the long lines, it exceeded expectations for both the tech part and the music part. I am grateful for Adobe Acrobat for enabling me to attend. For the first four days and nights I focused on the Interactive part, both sessions during the day and the parties at night. Then I switched to the music on the evening of March 14. I realized then that maybe I should have gone to some of the Sixth Street music bars before then. Next year I will know better. I will do a few more posts on SXSW music in the upcoming days.

The day started with the BAMM.tv music cruise that I wrote about this past weekend (see: SXSW Notes: BAMM.tv River Cruise Part One and SXSW Notes: BAMM.tv River Cruise Part Two. When it was over around 5PM I walked back from the lake and into a concert in front of Austin City Hall with a good band of unknown name.

    

I learned that Leah Siegal, who was on the first BAMM.tv music cruise and fronts for Firehorse, was also going to be in a very different music event at the French Litigation Museum across town at 7:30. It was a New York style cabernet in what turned to be a beautiful setting. So you will see below. But first I took a slow walk up Sixth Street to see the action as you can see directly below.

    

   

Here are pictures of The Citizen’s Band, performing at the French Litigation Museum. You can Leah in her new persona on the right. 

          

I then tried another of the official bands for SXSW but they were not my taste so I went back to the Blue Moon for more blues with a different band but a few of the same players from the night before. It was once again great. The leader asked for requests and I said do Stevie Ray doing Hendryx Voodoo Child and deposited a good tip. He did a great version and the guy sitting next to me bought me a drink and said I should pick the rest of the set.  And once again I had to leave at 2 to catch my shuttle bus while they were still going strong. They said that play 2 blues bands a night 365 days a year so I will be back. 

          

 

 

SXSW Notes: The Music Scene Part One: March 13

I know this is Monday but I want finish out my SXSW music notes before getting back to technology. I was pleased to attend SXSW for the first time. Except for the long lines, it exceeded expectations for both the tech part and the music part. I am grateful for Adobe Acrobat for enabling me to attend. For the first four days and nights I focused on the Interactive part, both sessions during the day and the parties at night. Then I switched to the music on the evening of March 13. I realized then That maybe I should have gone to some of the Sixth Street music bars before then. Next year I will know.

I began the evening at Headhunters 720 Red River St. They did not have food but the door guy said I go get some good cue up the street (at the place to the left) and bring it back to eat at their bar with one if their beers. I took his advice and listened to a high energy rock band that I believe are called the Audics. There were not on the program but served as a good opener to go with the cue and beer.

     

At 8 the Bipolar Gentlemen were fronted by a high-energy female lead. AS the program describes them, “Better than years of therapy. More effective than expensive prescription medication. It's the band all the critics are calling a quartet.” There were two guitars and percussionist who included objects like large metal springs and an empty (I hope) propane tank. They kicked the energy up another notch.

     

Scorpio Rising took things up another level. Described as an “electro/dance/rock band from Austin, Texas, whose recordings and intense live performances have made them one of Austin’s premiere entertainment commodities. Hailed as one of Austin’s best Goth/Industrial bands and DJ bands by the Austin Chronicle Music Poll.” I think this is accurate form what I saw. The energy they brought to the stage makes me think they could do well in some Boston dance clubs. We talked afterwards and I may make some recommendations for them.

     

I then switched over across the street to Elysium 705 Red River Street to see the StepKids from Connecticut.  These guys come out in all white with a white background and do some creative things with lights as you can see below. The music was solid rock and stood up the to the lights. They are described as a “futuristic electro soul recorded on a reel-to-reel; soaring harmonies sung by three singer/songwriters; Kandinsky-esque visuals that make for enigmatic live performances.” This is a good description. One of the guitarists, Jeff Gitelman, resigned from touring as Alicia Keys' guitarist to focus full time on the band. They all three write the songs and all three of sang.

         

Afterwards I wondered out to Sixth Street and walked into what was for me the treat of the night. Jo Hell from Montreal played some great blues standards with a group of local blues, they were mostly men but there was a female bass player as you can see. They did a lot of standards, including some Stevie Ray. I especially liked their cover of his cover of Hendryx. Voodoo Child.  They got the audience moving and often jumped down off the stage and moved with it. I only left at 2AM to not miss my shuttle bus back to the hotel. They were still going strong, as was the rest of Sixth Street.

   

   

 

SXSW Notes: BAMM.tv River Cruise Part Two

Here are my notes and photos of the second of two lake cruises with BAMM.tv during SXSW 2012. In this case the bands are Lee Kock and Hollis Brown. BAMM.tv is a service that connects emerging artists with audiences through video. I wrote about BAMM.tv in an earlier post.

Lee Kock is an excellent solo singer songwriter. Both his voice and lyrics convey an experience beyond his apparent age. He is from the San Diego area and was a recent contestant on the TV show: the Voice. He was one his way to Nashville when he got this gig and now plans to try New Orleans and a few other places. I gave him some suggestions on where his sound might appeal in NOLA on Frenchman Street.  He did all his own songs, including “Same as Blood” about supporting a close friend. The one exception was an excellent cover of Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love.” He dedicated this to his wife who was on board and is a photographer who also mangers his web Site.

           

Hollis Brown was up next. They started with the singer and added a guitar player and finally the whole band joined in as they could on the boat format so there were no drums. They played great rock and as some one said, it is “music made for the road.”  They are a popular band with over 8 gigs at SXSW 2012. The singer commented on how you can hear the lyrics more with the reduced band. However, I got a CD and also enjoyed the full sound.  They are from Queens. They did a lot of their own work with a few things like the Velvet Underground thrown in. Their next CD, Nothing & the Famous No One has a release date of April 3, 2012. I think we will hear a lot more from them. In the last group photo Lee Kock joined them for a final number. 

               

 

SXSW Notes: BAMM.tv River Cruise Part One

Here are my notes and photos of the first of two lake cruises with BAMM.tv during SXSW 2012. In this case the bands are Soft Swells and Leah Siegal who fronts for Firehorse. BAMM.tv is a service that connects emerging artists with audiences through video. I wrote about them in my last post.

Soft Swells plays rock that sounds like its name. I say this in a positive way, as there are intelligent lyrics with a focus on quality music over volume. Soft Swells is billed as a duo out of Brooklyn and Los Angeles out of Brooklyn and Los Angeles but they had a third player on this set. The cruise format led to a more acoustic sound that you find on their videos. Their self-titled ‘Soft Swells’ LP goes beyond what you could do on a boat with full range of sounds, including stuttering and snapping drums, handclaps, a ringing xylophone, and subtle electronics. I especially liked “Every Little Thing.”  They got some buzz fromTime Entertainment for their SXSW work.

          

The second artist was Leah Siegal who fronts Firehorse. She sang solo on the cruise. Leah is the singer/songwriter/instrumentalist behind the Brooklyn group. As the band site mentions, she was a classical violinist from ages six to twelve then taught herself to play guitar and sing, resulting in her first songs at fifteen. Now she has a full band that has been with her for some time. With just her you could focus on the lyrics but I hope to hear the full band at some point, as their videos are great. They have been getting a lot of good press from places like NPR, the Wall Street Journal and the Paste magazine for their work at CMJ in New York. 

      

    

Leah also sings in the Citizens Band ("a ragtag cabaret collective that features musicians from the group Beirut"). I went to their performance later that night and you see pictures of it from my upcoming post on March 14 music. 

 

 

SXSW Notes: BAMM.tv Offers a New Way to Serve and Showcase Artists

I was fortunately to participate in two lake cruises with BAMM.tv during SXSW 2012. Each one featured two different bands and I will be covering these cruises in my following two posts.  In this post I want to cover BAMM.tv itself as I think it is offering a great service to emerging bands. I spoke with Chris Hansen, their co-founder and CEO on the cruise. He is the middle below. They are trying to help bands get paid for their work as it appears online which is currently difficult for emerging bands.

     

BAMM.tv connects these emerging artists with global audiences in several ways. Through a global content distribution network, the company offers music video content from new artists to the web, mobile devices and television. BAMM.tv gives device makers and service providers a differentiated music offering without going through traditional music licensing, while giving artists free HD music video content creation, an instant global audience, and 50 percent of the net profits from the music video distribution agreements. This seems like a good deal for all sides.

Samsung, Chungwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest telco provider, and Fuugo-TV, an integrated TV and mobile platform based in Finland are among the companies partnered with BAMM.tv at their launch in 2011. Samsung features BAMM.tv’s mobile and tablet application for discovering and sharing new music videos on its Android-based devices including the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy S2 smartphones. It already reaches 150 countries, and BAMM.tv will be on other mobile devices later this year. Other services already featuring BAMM.tv content include Select-TV, an IPTV provider servicing luxury hotels throughout Asia, and India’s MunduTV, a live TV app for PCs and mobile phones that has reached over four million downloads. BAMM.tv was also showing their new iOS app on the cruise. BAMM.tv will soon be in the Mozilla Marketplace where Mozilla is deploying HTML5 web apps.

It works like this. BAMM.tv curates top emerging artists across many genres including the four bands on the cruise, and produces high-quality HD performance videos in their San Francisco sound studios and at music festivals around the world, as well as interviews and behind-the-scenes video content. In return for the cost-free production and digital video editing, BAMM.tv receives a global license to distribute and monetize the content. The artist retains all of the copyrights, publishing and composition royalties associated with the underlying work. The video content is then fed into BAMM.tv’s growing content catalog which powers a suite of owned and partner applications (for mobile and tablet devices), TV services (pay-per-view content localized in many countries), ad-supported web streaming and more options.

This seems like a win-win and, if these four bands are representative, they have a great talent scout picking the artists. These bands are emerging candidates for the BAMM.tv: Soft Swells, Leah Siegal of Firehorse, Lee Kock, and Hollis Brown. Examples of current bands are Geographer, Wallpaper and The Soft White Sixties. My next two posts will cover the bands on the cruise.

 

 

SXSW Notes: The Future of Music Consumption

Here is another in my series on SXSW events. I am pleased to be attending SXSW for the first time. I am grateful for Adobe Acrobat for enabling me to participate. I am attending some of the Adobe sponsored sessions. As I do with other events I will be posting my notes from most of the sessions I attend. This is the session on The Future of Music Consumption led by Ken Parks. Chief Content Officer, Spotify. Here is the session description.

 “Modern consumers want to discover music quickly and easily. They want instant gratification, and they don’t want to pay for things they feel they should be getting for free. Year to year digital music sales are increasing exponentially; consumers are choosing to seek, store and share online. Spotify is leading the field in subscription-based music services by providing fast, inexpensive, and easy access to one of the largest catalogues of online music. With over 15 million available songs available (a figure that is growing by the day), Spotify provides subscribers with more legal choices and at the same time is able to make sure the people who create the music prosper.”

Here is a subject dear to my heart and soul. I always have music on. I primarily use iTunes now. We were welcomed as early risers at 11AM. Ken Parks began with a Spotify overview. They have launched in Germany which is third biggest music market in world, second is Japan after the US. They have over 10 million active users. The bulk of their users are from people that were not buying music. So the money flowing back into artists is on top of what they were getting. It has been claimed that Spotify may pass iTunes. I need to check into it.

How do they know these are new users? A huge number of new members were privates. Sweden is where Spotfy began and it was was a hot bed of pirates. Now they find Spotify as better than piracy. The users are 18 – 24 graphic. These people are not buying much. So there is little cannibalism effect on other means. This is benefiting artists as they get some money from this. They are rising rapidly in US.

What is it about Spotify? Others do streaming. Ken said we all stand on the shoulders of others such as Pandora. Spotify resonated well because it is all the music in world and you can access it in seconds. It is also very social and connected with Facebook. It is also free. The Facebook Open Graph link was huge to get people into the funnel. There is a paid version of $10 a month for premium features. Facebook attracted the free users, some of whom became paid members. There is a better conversion rate from free to paid users for Facebook, three times as likely. They build playlists at a faster rate that ups their personal investment.

This business began as a way to get people off of piracy. They are trying to help artists to vindicate the value of their work. They beleive culture suffers if artists are not rewarded. They are not cannibalizing iTunes, but piracy.  It was mentioned that at SXSW Interactive the beer is free and at SXSW the beer is not free because of the different economic base.  They want to partner with artist to help then get their due.

The digital record companies like Spotify more than individual artists. Spotify pays the people who have the rights which is the record companies. They do not have control over how the record company passes the money on down to the artists. They pay 65 – 70% of their revenue back to rights holders. It is up to them to pass it on.

David, an artist, now came to the stage to join the conversation. He said that they saw the writing on the wall with Napster. But is was wrong to go after the kids who download illegally. The ISP could have added a small fee like the premium like the sports channels and this could has been passed on. This is similar to how Spotify is working now to pass money on.

MTV used to be launch pad or artists. Now there is YouTube. Artists looked to it as a way to get their music out. You can get millions of users. Artists are okay with this as way to get seen because of the visual aspect. You need to get exposure, like in the old days of radio play. Being able to drive the car before you buy it is a good thing. People like to listen to music before you buy it. I know that I do.

David said it not just a matter of money. We do need it to eat but it is much more than the money. You want to expose it to as many people as possible. This is way I show my painting through Twitter and blogs.  It is more the principle that they do not want their work stolen. I would feel the same way.

How do you overcome this/ David said make great records. David feels overall that the quality has gone down recently. This is too much pressure to produce as much as possible so the focus has been more on quantity over quality. There is pressure from the record companies for volume to up their value, possibly for investors or takeovers.

Are we in a post album era. David hopes that albums survive. Producing sound bytes is not as strong as creating a complete story. But iTunes allows you to buy one song at a time cuts into this. Privacy is especially single song oriented.  What happen to the Wall or Sargent Pepper?

It was asked about Spotify economic model with a streaming version vs the download version. With the download you pay once and you own it. With a streaming model you pay more in the end if you like the music.

It was asked how David is using Spotify to reach his audience. He has links to Spotify play lists that he creates. He gets contacts from Spotify users. Also he can promote new bands with his own play lists.

Audience questions: What about buying an album when you only like one song? David said this is a problem of trying to produce too much too fast so quality suffers. That is also not the only issue. I often go after a single song because I really like it and/or I already have some of the other songs from other albums. I use this option to fill out a collection. So the number of albums that are collections raises this issue also. This may be driven by the issue that David mentioned of the need to drive more album releases.

The idea is to allow everyone can profit at scale. Spotify starts out as a free service but you pay if you like and the money is passed on to the artists through the record companies. Artists still like YouTube even through they get no money but ii is a promotional channel. I also pick the YouTube over the audio when available, even if it is the same song. I did this when trying to see which bands to watch at SXSW. However, I like a video that is a regular concert video and not an attempt to be arty with too many visuals since the concert experience is what I will be seeing on stage live.

 

 

 

 

Painting of Cornbread from Dick and Jenny's in New Orleans

Here is a 20" x 24' acrylic painting of the wonderful cornbread in a basket that I was served at Dick and Jenny's resturant in New Orleans sitting at the bar. To go with it I had a duck confit pie and frogs legs in a Crystal Hot Sauce butter. Everything was great. The bread basket had cornbread and whole wheat bread with a ball of butter in a small white dish. 

 

New Orleans Restaurants December 2011

On this trip I wanted try as many new places as I could. I started off with dinner at the Maringy Brasserie, 640 Frenchmen Street near the music clubs (504) 945-4472. I had an excellent blackened red fish with crawfish cream sauce and Southern fried rice.

Next was lunch at Dooky Chase Restaurant 2301 Orleans Ave in Treme. (504) 821-0535. I had their gumbo and Shrimp Clemenceau that is shrimp with nice flavor and small fried potatoes with peas.  They also had a great looking buffet that I only resisted because I would eat too much. Frommer’s wrote, “For decades, Leah and husband Dooky Chase have served prominent African-American politicians, musicians, and businesspeople Chef Leah's classic soul food as gloriously influenced by the city's French, Sicilian, and Italian traditions. This was the place people like Ray Charles (who wrote "Early in the Morning" about it) would come to after local shows and stay up until the wee hours telling stories and eating gumbo -- one of the city's best.”

     
Dinner was at Coop’s Place 1109 Decatur St. in the Lower French Quarter. I had gone there once before and sat next to an off duty chef who had the crawfish with tasso ham cream sauce on pasta. I had to come back to try it and the dish did not disappoint.  It was the single best dish I had on the trip and was only $10.

     
Breakfast was nice creme pie at Croissant D'or Patisserie 617 Ursulines Ave in the lower French Quarter. I have been here many times and it was close to my hotel. As the name implies their croissants was excellent.

     
I went to Magazine Street for lunch at Casamento’s 4330 Magazine St. (504) 895-9761, a place I have long wanted to try. It is famous for its oysters and the oyster man was very busy at the bar. I had oyster bisque and a soft shell crab loaf. They call it a loaf because it is not on French bread like a poboy but was really good anyway.

         
Dinner was at the bar at Dick & Jenny’s, 4501 Tchoupitoulas Street, (504) 894-9880. I had two appetizers: Duck confit pie and fried frogs’ legs in a crystal hot sauce butter with cole slaw. Both were excellent. They came with a nice basket of cornbread and I did a painting of it that you can see below.  This was another place I had wanted to go. Like Cassamento’s and Coop’s Place, they do not take reservations but it is easier as one to get into these places without a wait.

     

   
When I came back to New Orleans from the Lafayette Opelousas area I started with breakfast at Stanley’s. My hotel recommended it. I had walked by the place many times but because it was on Jackson Square I had assumed it was a tourist place. The food was actually excellent. I had a variation on Eggs Benedict with two poached eggs sitting on top of some boudin sausage from Charlie T’s in the Lafayette area, hollandaise sauce and French bread. It is now on my list of places to trust in the Quarter.

     
I had lunch at Willie Mae's Scotch House (2401 St. Ann Street, 504.822.9503). It serves some of the best fried chicken I have eaten: “caramel brown, audibly crisp, juicy as meat can naturally be.” It was also the only place that was a repeat for lunch or dinner except for Coop’s Place where I had a very different dish from the first visit. Of course at Willie Mae’s I repeated the fried chicken with some very flavorful green beans and a nice rice side with subtle light sauce.

   
Dinner was at Clancy’s 6100 Annunciation Street (504) 895-1111. Prior to the 80s it had been a neighborhood bar and poboy restaurant similar in style to those found in nearly every New Orleans neighborhood at the time. Then it was transformed into a white table cloth place serving classic Creole cuisine. It was another place I have wanted to try for some time. I had two appetizers at the bar, shrimp remoulade and a rabbit sausage en coute with a nice sauce.

On my way to the airport I had lunch at Luizza’s by the Track 1518 N. Lopez 504-218-7888 near the Fairgrounds race track, site of Jazzfest. I had their award winning gumbo that was the best I had on this trip and some excellent shrimp remoulade. After lunch I walked around the area on a warm sunny day in December in the mid-70s and wondered way I was getting on a plane to go North.

     

The best value for money in alphabetical order are: Coop's Place, Luizza's by the Track and Willie Mae's. The best high end place for me remains at Patois located at Laurel Street near the zoo.  I did not eat there this time as I wanted to try new places but on a past trip I ate both lunch and dinner there. The dish you see below is a potato gnocchi with crawfish. We had it for lunch and then again at dinner. You also see their gumbo. We also had the roasted pheasant breast and confit leg and almond crusted Gulf fish, as well as a crispy duck confit salad. 6078 Laurel Street 504.895.9441.

                

 

Second Annual Fess Festival at Tipitina's New Orleans December 2011

I drove to New Orleans from seeing Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie at Whiskey Landing in Henderson and went directly to a festival of local musicians at Tipitina's. It was the second annual Fess Festival. With special guests Cosimo Effect, Tom McDermott, Joe Krown, Cha Wa Featuring Tom Worrell, Brother Tyrone & The Mind Benders, John Gros, Khris Royal, CR Gruver, Glen David Andrews, Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, David Torkanowsky, Alfred Uganda Roberts, Joshua Paxton, Jo "Cool" Davis, Rich Vogel, DJ Davis Rogan.

   
As the site said, “Pianist, composer, and singer, Professor Longhair, is one of the most important musical figures in New Orleans' rich musical legacy. Born Henry Roeland Byrd (also known as Fess) in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Ne became the embodiment of New Orleans rhythm and blues at his peak in the late '70s. Fess influenced countless musicians, such as Fats Domino, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Henry Butler, Huey "Piano" Smith, Marcia Ball, Champion Jack Dupree, Jon Cleary, the Meters, and the Neville Brothers.”

The first group was good. Then there was a buzz at the side door and people move closer to the stage. Dr. John made a surprise appearance and he brought a great band. They did a long high-energy set. I was standing 15 feet from him during this. The crowd was going wild. John Gros from Papa Grows Funk joined him for one number and John later played with some others.

 
Then Joe Krown played a solo. Dr. John was a tough act to follow as he noted. Just as the crowd had calmed down a bit after Dr. John, Allen Toussaint shows up as another surprise in a red coat and does a solo gig. He did some standards and then a few Christmas songs. He was very warm and spent a lot of time talking to people as he came and went. There was a lot of love in the room.

 

There were some other great acts including both old timers like Al Johnson (0n left below) and Jo "Cool" Davis (on right below) and new acts with younger players. 

 
Later Donald Harrison, the big chief who advises HBO Treme and who taught Clark Peters how to be a big chief, played piano with a band and did some Indian songs. Later he played sax and did jazz. 

   
Brother Tyrone & The Mind Benders did a few numbers, the Cosimo Effect played several times and John Gros came out with some good players.

   
Later Davis Rogan, who is the model for the Steve Zahn character in HBO Treme played, piano and sang. He was good. There were other bands and it was still going strong after midnight. 

   

 

New Orleans Lives Music Samples December 2011

One of the great joys of going to New Orleans is all the wonderful live music in a wide variety of music styles, most of which originated here or in the country side to the southwest of the city. I already covered the Cajun and Zydeco musicians on their home turf that I saw on this trip (see Taking in Zydeco Music in Opelousas Louisiana and More and Taking in Cajun Music in the Lafayette Louisiana Area). Here is what I found in New Orleans. I went out every night but still missed a lot.

On my first night I went to Frenchman Street for a nice dinner and some music clubs. The best one was a high energy set by Trombone Shorty's brother David Glenn Andrews at d.b.a. It got off to lively start and he played most of the numbers from his new CD that I bought. Then he mentioned some actors from the HBO series Treme were in the audience as they did a benefit together over the weekend. First, the Big Chief's friend who did the hauling business, actor David Jay, came up on stage after being in the audience for a while. He was actually a good singer. See first photo below. He is on the right doing a bounce version of a 80s R&B number. Then the actor who plays the Big Chief, himself, Clark Peters showed up and came up on stage and joined in for a number. He is the far right in the second photo.

     
On the way to d.b.a I also saw Aurora Nealand and the Royal Roses at The Masion and got one of their CDs. They play old style swing jazz.  Earlier there was good blues by Lil Red and Big Bad at the Balcony Music Club (1331 Decatur Street – 504-599-7770).

     
On several afternoons I went to the Gazebo in the French Market where they have live music in an outdoor cafe. It is relaxed venue. There is another outdoor music cafe close by but I find the Gazebo more intimate. This time I heard Ellen Smith and her group and bought their excellent CD of covers, On Time: Gazebo Afternoon.

I ended up seeing the Treme Brass Band twice. First at d.b.a, on Tuesday and then at their home club, the Candlelight Lounge in Treme on Wednesday. The Candlelight Lounge is located at 925 North Robertson Street (504) 525-4748. The high energy trumpeter Kenny Terry leads the band, co founder Benny Jones, anchors with snare drums, co founder Lionel Batiste is on the bass drum, and a there is a cast of regulars and guys who come to sit in. The core of the band was the same at both clubs but a few extras joined at the Candlelight.

The crowd at the Candlelight was much younger so they were more active than the older folks at d.b.a. and danced more and were entertaining themselves and encouraged the band. The audience made the break entertaining as they continued to be active with some good background music playing loudly. I stayed for the second set as a result.  The sets were essentially the same but I would recommend seeing them at the Candlelight as there is much more energy and it is their home club.  The first photos are from d.b.a. and the second set from the Candlelight. Here is my friend Paul Tamburello’s post on them: New Orleans: The Treme Brass Band Lights Up The Candlelight Lounge.

           
Then I went to the Lafayette and Opelousas area for Cajun and zydeco. Returning on Sunday night I went to a fess festival to honor Professor Longhair at Tipitina’s (501 Napoleon Avenue). It was amazing with serious surprise guests and deserves it own post that appears tomorrow.

On my last night I saw Papa Grows Funk at the Maple Leaf 8316 Oak Street  (504) 866-9359 in my old neighborhood. Their band leader, John Gros, had played at the Fess Festival the night before both in a number with Dr. John and with a group of his own but not Papa Grows Funk. I have several of their CDs and saw them at the French Quarter Festival. This set featured some new numbers and was very hard driving.

     
Here are my music explorations in January 2010, and New Orleans Lives Music Samples May 2011, the last two times I was there. The WWOZ music calendar provides a comprehensive list of live music in the city. 

 

Eating Great Cajun Food and BBQ in the Lafayette Opelousas Area

I have enjoyed Cajun food for a long time and even learned to cook a good bit of it myself. See for example, Making Brown (Country) Jambalaya and Making a Great Gumbo. So I was excited to be going to one of the home bases of Cajun cooking in the Lafayette Opelousas Area. Here is what I found. It did not disappoint.

On the way I went to Houma where my father used to take me fishing in the 50s. I ate lunch at A-Bear’s Café, 809 Bayou Black Dr., Houma, LA, 985-872-6306. I had a shrimp sampler with shrimp gumbo, fried shrimp, stuffed shrimp, and shrimp cakes, along with red beans and rice.

   
On my first night I went to Prejean’s, 3480 NE Evangeline Trwy, Lafayette, LA (337) 896-3247 that has live Cajun music. I had crawfish sampler – crawfish bisque with a nice thick roux, fried crawfish tails, crawfish corn bread, crawfish etouffee, and corn pie. Everything was wonderful.

     
The next day I had lunch at Soileau in Opelousas, LA on the recommendation of Herman Fuselier at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center.  I had shrimp gumbo, shrimp creole, and fried shrimp.

     
For dinner I ate at Randol's Restaurant, 2320 Kaliste Saloom Rd, Lafayette 337-981-7080. It also has live Cajun music. I heard Terry Huval & The Jambalaya Cajun Band. I enjoyed 3 lbs of boiled crawfish in a spicy boil. I almost finished them. They were really good.

     
In the morning I sampled some great food at the Savoy Music Center Cajun Jam I reported on last week. Great food was shared. There was some hot boudin sausage, pecan pie, red velvet cake, and hogshead cheese. I probably do not want to know what is in last item but it was delicious and I had more.

     
The next day I ate lunch at The Taco Sisters 407 Johnston Street, Lafayette. I had a smoked fish taco and a smoked shrimp taco. They were amazing.

   
For dinner went to the Pont Breaux Cajun Restaurant, (formerly Mulate's), 325 West Mills Avenue, Breaux Bridge. They had live Cajun music. I had shrimp gumbo and baked duck with rice dressing. I could not get enough of it.

   
The next day I went to 2Paul's Radically Urban Barbecue, 2668 Johnston St. Suite C-4, in Lafayette. I had the sampler with ribs, brisket, sausage, pulled pork, fried potato chips. It was moist and as good Cue as I have had anywhere. They were really nice and let me stay after they closed to watch the Saints game until the Saints had the victory well in hand. 

 

 

Taking in Cajun Music in the Lafayette Louisiana Area

I have enjoyed Cajun music and food for as long as I remember. Despite growing up in New Orleans, I never made it west of Houma. So I made sure to take the time when I went to New Orleans this month. Here is what I found with the music. The food will be covered next weekend.

Saturday Jam at Savoy Music Center

The high point of the Cajun music experience was the Saturday morning jam session at the Savoy Music Center run by Marc and Ann Savoy. They have recorded a lot of CDs and I loaded up on a few at the store. Every Saturday there is a Cajun music jam from 9AM to noon. The music goes non-stop and players come and go but the number seemed to stay around twenty. Marc and Ann’s son, Wilson, has a great band, the Pine Leaf Boys, that I saw in New Orleans in 2006 at the French Quarter Festival. Wilson joined in for the last thirty minutes.

   
It is a small room and most people know each other as it is a regular community event but everyone was very welcoming to me. A lot of French was spoken. I sat next to Charles Guillory, who played the triangle and lives near by. He was generous with his time and shared a lot about the area and the players. One was in his 90s and others were in their teems or younger.

   
Great food was shared. There was some hot boudin sausage, pecan pie, and red velvet cake. Charles got up and brought back some hogshead cheese. I probably do not want to know what is in it but it was delicious and I had more.  The time flew and I will be sure to make this a must do event whenever I come back. The Savoy Music center is located at 4413 Louisiana Route 190
 just east of Eunice. Here is my friend Paul Tamburello’s post on it, Mardi Gras in Lafayette: A Cajun Jam at Marc Savoy's Music Store.

   
That afternoon I went to a Cajun music jam session Vermillionville in Lafayette, There is a session 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM every Saturday. Some of the players from the Savoy session showed up.  

Cajun Music Dinners

I had several dinners with live Cajun music. On Friday I saw Terry Huval & The Jambalaya Cajun Band at Randol's Restaurant, 2320 Kaliste Saloom Rd, Lafayette. There is a large wood dance floor but it is somewhat separated from the dining area by a clear plastic screen. I guess some people come just for dancing and others just for food. The food was excellent and Terry’s band was good.

  
On Saturday I went to Pont Breaux Cajun Restaurant, (formerly Mulate's) at 325 West Mills Avenue, Breaux Bridge and saw Jason Frey and his band. The band and dance floor were very connected to the dining area.

   

Cajun Music Hall of Fame

I also went to the Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a project of the Cajun French Music Association. The building is a one-room country store that dates from the 1930s. It contains such artifacts as a Model A electrical generator used to power microphones at country dances in the era before utility service reached the countryside. Irene Boone explained a lot to me including how this generator worked. She was very generous with her time. The museum has a display with mannequins of Joe Falcon, born near Rayne in 1900, and his first wife, Cléoma Falcon, born in Crowley in 1905, who together made the first commercial recording of Cajun music in 1928. In the center is Lionel LeLeux, who was a fiddler and fiddle-maker born in 1910 in Vermilion Parish. It is located at 240 South C.C. Duson Drive, a block east of the Liberty Theatre. Phone (337) 457-6534.

   

 

 

 

Taking in Zydeco Music in Opelousas Louisiana and More

Opelousas is the home of zydeco music so it was a great treat to visit in December. Whenever I went to New Orleans I took in the Thursday zydeco nights at the Rock N Bowl and have gone to many zydeco shows elsewhere but had never gone to where it all started.  As I drove through Opelousas I saw a mural that covered a number of the zydeco greats – see below. I was fortunate enough to see Clifton Chernier and Boozoo Chavis live before they passed. I have a number of music videos with Buckwherat Zydeco and he is coming to Cambridge soon so I plan to take him in here.  

   
Herman Fuselier has several radio shows that cover zydeco music and more In the Opelousas Lafayette area. His Zydeco Stomp program airs from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday on KRVS 88.7 FM. The show streams live on the web at www.krvs.org. The zydeco music starts at 8 a.m. on that station with John Broussard and Melvin Cesar. Herman also hosts Barbecue & Drink a Few (zydeco, blues and R&B) from 2 - 6 p.m. Sunday on KVPI 92.5 FM. Herman told me about two zydeco shows described below that I had not been able to find online. St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission publishes updates on local zydeco events.

Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band

Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band performed at Friday in the Events Center at the Evangeline Downs Racetrack & Casino in Opelousas. Admission was free. Keith was great. He did a high-energy non-stop two hour set and I bought his CD. You had to go through a 1000 slot casino and a good country and western band at the bar to find the dance hall around the corner but there was a good crowd and a lot of room for dancing allowing a few hot shots to really show off. 

Lil Nate and Leon Chavis at Slim's Y-Ki-Ki Opelousas

Lil Nate and the Zydeco Big Timers, along with Leon Chavis and the Zydeco Flames, played Saturday night at Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki, 8471 Highway 182, in Opelousas (318) 942-9980. Lil Nate and Leon, both in their 20s, are two of the hot young acts on the zydeco scene today. Nate is the son of Nathan Williams, leader of Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas. I have seen the older Nathan in Rhode Island and have several of his CDs. Leon is a cousin of the great Boozoo Chavis (see image from mural above). I saw Boozoo in Jacksonville FL in the late 90s. He passed in 2002. Slim’s is the oldest zydeco club around, owned and operated by the Gradney family since 1947.

 
Leon Chavis went first and was still going strong two hours later. He put more bounce (aka hip hop) into his songs as the set progressed and the energy increased. I love the long sets the zydeco guys seem to do. But it had been a long day and I had to drive back to Lafayette so he out lasted me and I did not hear Lil Nathan. I was curious and I went on the Web and found a great video Lil Nathan did when I got back. I look forward to his new CD that Herman mentioned on his radio show.

Geno Delafose and the French Rockin' Boogie at Whiskey Landing in Henderson

Whiskey River Landing hosts zydeco dance sessions every Sunday afternoon from 4 to 8 in Henderson. It is located on the swamp side of the levee for the Atchafalaya Basin and you can see the swamp through the windows of the dance hall behind the band. This afternoon Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie played. They place was packed. The bar has a routine that they ring a bell if you give them a good tip and throw you in the swamp if you are bad tipper. Not a bad idea and I only saw bell ringing. I have several of his Geno’s CDs. The quality shot of Geno came from his MySpace page as the lighting was not good for photos that afternoon. Whiskey River Landing is located at 1365 Henderson Levee Rd, Henderson, LA 337-228-2277. 

         

Great Louisiana Radio for Zydeco, Blues, and Cajun Available Online

Here are some excellent radio shows that are also available online. Yesterday I wrote about my experiences with Herman Fuselier and the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center. Herman also has several radio shows that cover zydeco music and more at NPS station KRVS. KRVS plays “Cajun music, Zydeco, Blues, Jazz, Swamp Pop, Swamp Rock, Louisiana singer/ songwriter music, and many other types of music created and played in Louisiana…Broadcasting from the heart of French Louisiana, KRVS is committed to artists and performances unique to the language, culture and music of south Louisiana.” It is located at Room 126, Burke Hall, Hebrard Blvd, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (1-800-892-6827).

Zydeco

Herman's Zydeco Stomp program airs from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday on KRVS 88.7 FM. The station is located in Lafayette and is part of NPR. The zydeco music actually starts at 8 a.m. on that station with John Broussard and Melvin Cesar.  

Herman’s Zydeco Stomp provided a nice mix of zydeco and old school R&B. He gave me a welcome shout out over the air as I was driving through some beautiful countryside on a sunny afternoon between Church Point and Rayne. Herman also did a nice tribute to Etta James. His Zydeco Stomp, streams live on the web at www.krvs.org. There are also podcasts of previous shows and all the locally-produced programs at the site. Herman also hosts Barbecue & Drink a Few (zydeco, blues and R&B) from 2 - 6 p.m. Sunday on KVPI 92.5 FM. Here is my Friend Paul Tamburello's post: Herman Fuselier's Zydeco Stomp: A Gumbo of Music, Culture, and Community. 

Blues

For blues Herman highly recommended The Blues Box with Raoul Breaux from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. CST Fridays on KRVS. He said that Raoul is an encyclopedia of the blues and plays some great stuff.

Cajun

Cajun music is played on KRVS every weekday morning from 5-7 a.m. CST and all day on Sundays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cheryl Castille, Herman’s co-worker at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center, hosts The Exchange from 1-2 p.m. CST Tuesdays. She interviews musicians, artists and other interesting people in the area.

Cajun music is also featured Saturday nights at the Rendez-Vous des Cajuns, a live radio and TV show similar to the Grand Ole Opry and Prairie Home Companion.  It is broadcast from the Liberty Theater at 250 West Park Ave in Eunice where the Cajun Music Hall of Fame is located. You can listen to the show online at KVRS.  

KBON 101.1 FM is also located at 109 South 2nd Street in Eunice (337) 546-0007 and has the tag line Louisiana Proud and offers about 85% of the overall music is by Louisiana recording artists. It is available online through their KBON Club. For $6.00 per month or $60.00 per year you can have unlimited access to the streaming audio of KBON. Here is my friend Paul Tamburello’s post on it - KBON "Louisiana Proud": The Voice of the Prairie. It was closed when I went by but I listened to it a good bit driving while around and there is great programming.  

   

Making Brown (Country) Jambalaya

There is red jambalaya that is Creole and city style and then there is brown jambalaya that is Cajun and country style. I am in the heart of Cajun country in Lafayette this weekend so here is a way to make the country style.

This recipe is loosely based on Emeril Lagasse’s recipe on the Food Network as he provides a good show. However, I made some important changes based on personal taste and what I remember of Cajun cooling. First, I took out the tomatoes. This is brown jambalaya which is country (Cajun) jambalaya versus city (Creole) jambalaya which includes tomatoes. Then, I took out the celery and substituted red bell peppers for the more traditional green ones just because I like this better. You can really add any type of meat or seafood and try different combinations of vegetables. You can use many types of seasoning Cajun or Creole seasoning and there are a lot of packaged versions like Emeril’s. Others are: New Orleans School of Cooking and Zatarain’s.

1 tablespoon jambalaya seasoning, (recipe at bottom of post)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 red bell pepper

2 tablespoons chopped garlic

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon hot sauce

3/4 cup rice

3 cups chicken stock

5 ounces Andouille sausage, sliced

12 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped

4 ounces chicken, diced

In a bowl combine shrimp, chicken and seasoning, and work in seasoning well. In a large saucepan heat oil over high heat with onion, pepper and celery, 3 minutes. Add garlic, bay leaves, Worcestershire and hot sauces. Stir in rice and slowly add broth. Reduce heat to medium and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. When rice is just tender add shrimp and chicken mixture and sausage. Cook until meat is done, about 10 minutes more. The important thing is to make sure the rice and meat are cooked. You can let it simmer as long as you add more water to keep the rice from drying out. I always make a big pot and would double or triple this recipe as its better the second day after the flavors sit together over night. Be sure to play Cajun music or other New Orleans selections while you eat this.

Emeril's Essence Creole Seasoning:

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Good eating and good listening.

 

Making a Great Gumbo

I am down in Lafayette, Louisiana today enjoying some great gumbos this week. This trip will be covered in some upcoming weekend posts. In the meanwhile. Here is a recipe for gumbo based on my memory of my mother’s efforts, refreshed by looking at a few recipes. First here are images of gumbos from some New Orleans restaurants: low brow, high brow, and middle brow.

   
When I was in grade school, I came home once a week to the smell of fried chicken and gumbo. We ate fried chicken that night and I usually got to sample a drumstick right away. The gumbo was savored over several days and got better with time. Louisiana gumbo recipes always begin with a roux, an equal mixture of oil and flour that provides a base and thickener. Proportions will vary by recipe, but 2/3-cup oil and 2/3- cup flour is usually enough.

To make a roux, mix the oil and flour together in a heavy pot (a heavy pot is essential). Use vegetable oil such as canola oil. Don't use olive oil (it doesn't get hot enough and the flavor is wrong). Then cook the flour-oil mixture, stirring constantly, until it is the color of a dark brown. Most cookbooks tell you to cook the roux over a low flame. It will take about half an hour to brown that way, but you're less likely to burn it. If you use a high flame it will go much quicker but you can't leave the roux for a minute because it is easy to burn. Nothing can be done with a burned roux except to throw it out and start over.

Once the roux is dark enough, lower the flame. At this point, add the onions and garlic, to lower the temperature of the roux. Let the onion and garlic cook a bit and then add warm water so the roux won't separate. Here are the total ingredients. You can do many variations on the seafood and meat but you always need the onion, garlic and okra.

3 1/2 quarts chicken stock

1 bay leaf

1 large onion, chopped (add to roux)

1/4 cup chopped garlic (add to roux)

1 fryer chicken, cut up

1 lb. andouille sausage (you can also use linguina or kelbasa) cut in 1/2" slices

1 lb. shrimp

3/4 cup chopped green onions

1 ½ cup chopped okra

1/3 cup chopped parsley

2 Tblsp. Louisiana Hot Sauce or 1/4 tsp. Cayenne (red) Pepper

1/2 tsp. black pepper

After you make the roux, bring stock to a low boil and slowly add the roux/onion mixture a spoon at a time, stirring each spoonful until it is blended. Add roux until desired thickness is obtained. Brown the sausage and chicken and drain the fat, then add them to the pot. Cook the mixture at a slow bubble for about an hour. Add the green onions, parsley, okra, shrimp, and seasonings. Then, heat for just about 10 minutes more. Serve in bowls over a scoop of long grain rice and shake some file (dried sassafras leaves) over the gumbo.

My mother used the cookbook “First You Make a Roux” produced in support of the Lafayette Louisiana Musuem and you can still get the original version. Another classic cookbook is “Talk about Good” by the Junior League of Lafeyette. It contains a number of gumbo recipes with such ingredients as duck, wild goose, oysters, and shrimp. It is in the 23rd printing with over 700,000 copies sold.

 

Some Great Cajun and Zydeco Musicians

I am getting ready to go the New Orleans, Lafayette, Breaux Bridge and few other towns in south west Louisiana to enjoy the food and music. I will be writing about this trip a good bit on this blog on weekends. To get in the mood I have been reflecting on the music of the Louisiana countryside. Here are a few of the greats.

Clifton Chenier

I was lucky to hear Clifton Chenier in 1989 in New Orleans shortly before he died. He came to the Maple Leaf Bar that night and played with a younger zydeco group. Between sets he sat near us at the bar and the bartender told us he had recently won a Grammy. We got his tape the next day at the Tower Records. Clifton and Boozoo Chavis were the early pioneers of zydeco in the 1950s. I saw Boozoo in Jacksonville before he passed away.  I picked up “Bogalusa Boogie,” considered one of the finest recording by Clifton and his Red Hot Band. It is a driving collection and in contrast, there also is his “Clifton Chenier Sings The Blues,” much more laid back.

Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas

I first heard Nathan and his group at a Cajun festival in Rhode Island, along with a full day of other groups. They stood out. Nathan Williams, from Lafayette, Louisiana has given himself the nickname, "The Zydeco Hog.” I picked up “Let's Go!,” Nathan's seventh recording for Rounder Records. In it Nathan's mix of lyrics and rhythms are infused with contemporary arrangements. I also have, “I’m a Zydeco Hog,” recorded live at the Rock ‘n Bowl Lanes in New Orleans, a bowling alley devoted to live music. I try to get to Rock ‘n Bowl whenever I go to New Orleans. Here are some images from the new location.

   
 

Beau Jocque and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers

Beau is the leader of trend in modern zydeco which blends traditional Creole sounds with contemporary elements of rap and hip-hop. According to his site he also loves to cook in his kitchen in Kinder, Louisiana. I have. “Git It, Beau Jocque,” recorded live at Slim's Y-Ki-Ki Lounge in Opelousas and Harry's Lounge in Breaux Bridge. I hope to get to Slim's Y-Ki-Ki Lounge when I go to Opelousas

Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band

Chubby was born in Lafayette, LA raised in Church Point, LA. He is the third generation zydeco artist. As a child, he learned the music by listening to his father Roy Carrier and his grandfather Warren Carrier. His 1996 recording on Blind Pig records, “Who Stole the Hot Sauce” is in my collection. His group is a great party band that frequently plays in Southern Louisiana. I plan to see him in Lafayette as he will be playing while I am there.

Buckwheat Zydeco

Buckwheat Zydeco has achieved a lot of commercial success and recorded some very well produced CDs. They are more well known that most zydeco bands and have been the opening act for Eric Clapton (including entire North American tour and a 12-night stand at London's Royal Albert Hall), U-2, Robert Cray, Los Lobos. Buckwheat Zydeco also played at the 1996 Summer Olympics, the 1996 Democratic Convention and with the Boston Pops. I have their first live CD, “Buckwheat Zydeco: Down Home Live!" played during his annual Thanksgiving show at El Sid O's in Lafayette, La. He played a part in the great show, From the Big Apple to the Big Easy. 

Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys

Here is a great traditional French speaking Cajun group like Bruce Daigrepont, I recommended last week. I have “Bon Rêve,”, which was nominated for a Grammy in 2004. Here’s what Dr. Barry Ancelet, professor of folklore at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, has to say about Bon Rêve:

"It's the Sgt. Pepper's of Cajun music. It's so strong in so many areas: performance/musicianship, the poetry, the conception, the whole album working together as a sort of a thematic unit. It's an incredible effort. What's really remarkable is that they're sort of competing with themselves. They're competing with their own last effort, and that's got to be hard to do. And yet they keep pulling it off."

I saw Steve and his band at he Rock n Bowl. There is a chance I will catch them on this upcoming trip.

Bruce Daigrepont

Bruce is one of the best traditional French language Cajun musicians. In 1986 he begun his fais do do dance sessions at the original Tipitina's, corner of Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas streets, where it continues to this day, every Sunday evening from five till nine. We have heard him several times and try to make sure we include a Sunday on our visits to New Orleans to see Bruce. He will play for four hours straight with no break and the dancers range from teenagers to older couples. His CD, “Paradis,” recorded in 1999, captures the spirit of these Sunday sessions.

Boozoo Chavis

Boozoo was a traditional zydeco band leader. Nicknamed the "Creole Cowboy" for his signature C&W attire, he recorded zydeco's first big hit--"Paper In My Shoe" in 1955. He and Clifton Chenier were the early pioneers of zydeco. However, for the next two decades, Boozoo retired from the music business, outside of house parties, and turned his full attention to raising ponies. He made a comeback in the early 80s and toured until his death in 2002. I heard him in Jacksonville in 1998 and recommend his “Zydeco Homebrew.”

Zachary Richard

Zachary offers a contemporary French language interpretation of Cajun and zydeco. I first heard him in Montreal, on the riverfront at a Confederation Day celebration in 2002. Zachary is from Louisiana and has recorded in English and French. In 1995, he returned to French language recording with “Cap Enrage,” recorded in Pairs and our recommendation. It reestablished his presence in both Canada and France. I even thought he was from Quebec when I first heard him.

 

Thirty of My Favorite Dinners

It is now the season of eating so I am featuring a three part series of 30 of my favorite breakfast, lunches, and dinners. They wre served in three continents. 

                                                         

 

Thirty of My Favorite Lunches

It is now the season of eating so I am featuring a three part series of 30 of my favorite breakfast, lunches, and dinners. They wre served in three continents. 

                                                          

 

Thirty of My Favorite Breakfasts

It is now the season of eating so I am featuring a three part series of 30 of my favorite breakfast, lunchs, and dinners. They wre served in three continents. 

                                                         

 

Dining in Camden Maine 2011

In late August I went to Camden Maine for five nights and was impressed by the many good food options right on the harbor or within a few blocks. It is a walk to everything place. Here are some we sampled.

Camden Deli - 37 Main St. Camden, ME 04843 (207) 236-8343. We had a great lunch here with a view of the harbor (see below - lobster roll and chowder). Looking back up the waterfall the white building with the tall windows is the deli and the view out of those windows is in the right side of the first row of pcitures. We also had an excellent breakfast on the morning of Irene to have a view of the harbor during the storm.  Camden only had some heavy rain and the winds were not intense.

 

40 Paper - 40 Washington Street Camden, ME 207.230.0111 was our first dinner spot. It provides excellent modern Italian cuisine. We had a wonderful frito misto for starters and then a lobster and mushroom pasta as well as a roast guinea hen.

Paolina’s Way - Public Landing, Camden (207) 230 0555 provided our next dinner after a sunset sail. We ate outdoors near the dock. This place seems best for their pizza that looked good.

Atlantica - 9 Bayview Landing
Camden 207-236-6011 provided our next dinner. We ate outdoors and dockside and had some of the best food of the trip. The oysters were excellent as was the fish chowder with fennel, halibut and crab cakes.

Cappy’s Chowder House Main St. Camden - 207-236-2254 provided dinner the day of the storm Irene. It was our original destination for the night and turned out to be the only place open for dinner in town becasue of Irene.  We sat at the bar and had some of the best onion rings I have had anywhere. The fried fish was also good, as was the sundae.

 

Boyton Mckay Food Co. Main St. Camden 207-236-2465 provided us a fine lunch and breakfast. Good chowder and quesadillas, along with excellent donuts.

 
Peter Ott’s Steakhouse - 16 Bayview St. Camden - (207) 236-4032 provided our last dinner as a change of pace from seafood. They focus on local food and have very competent steaks, salads, and some seafood also. It is seen on the left along with the Harbor Dogs and a down home place. 

 

Dining at B&G Oysters and Music at the Beehive Boston MA

Here is what has become one of my favorite places to eat in Boston’s South End, B&G Oysters.  Growing up in New Orleans I always love a seafood place here is a great New England version. The picture is from their web site and the rest are mine. A greta place to go for music after dinner is the Beehive, just across the street as seen in the last pictures. They have good food too. 

                          

 

 

Albert Rivera’s new CD – Inner Peace

I have been listening to Albert Rivera’s new CD – Inner Peace with great enjoyment. He was kind to send me a copy. I wrote about a prior work (see Albert Rivera’s new CD – Hope and Faith). I first leaned about Albert and his music through my blog, writing about the Litchfield Jazz Festival. Albert was the Assistant Musical Director there and he contacted me after I did a post on the event. He was kind enough to send me this new CD with no obligation to review it but since I think is a very nice set, I want to mention this work.

There is a nice variety with ballads (While You Were Gone, The First Time We Said Hello, Inner Peace) and more progressive works (Keeping A Balance, From All Angles, Excalibur, It Always Comes Back To This).  Bronx based Rivera provides a meaningful Remembrance (9/11 Tribute). It is a set that I can listen to many times and provides a nice background as I work on my blog now.

In this work the personnel include: Albert Rivera (Saxophones), Luques Curtis (Bass), Zaccai Curtis (Piano), Nick Roseboro (Trumpet), Jean Caze (Trumpet), Nathan Jolley (Drums), John Iannuzzi (Drums), Beck Burger (Hammond B3), Mark Whitfield (Guitar). I highly recommend it. You can buy it at his site, Albert Rivera. 

 

Solomon Burke - If One of Us Are Chained None Of Us Are Free

I was sad to hear of the passing of Solomon Burke on October 10 – 10/10/10. Solomon had just arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for a sold out show at Paradiso. He was a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and had so many great songs such as Cry to Me. The one that strikes me the most is None Of Us Are Free. 

 

Making Traditional Paella in Stages

My friend Eric Wilson and his cousin Arturo Manzano recently made a wonderful looking paella over a wood fire.  You can see the stages below, following by the final presentation and then the cooks. I wish I was there to enjoy it but I may do a painting based on the final version.

I have enjoyed both consuming and creating Spanish cooking since I did some work there in the early 90s. I have made paella numerous ways including grilling the non-rice contents but I always cooked the rice over a gas fire. Now I will have to think about this approach. 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Onset Blues Festival 2010

I went back to the Onset Blues Festival for the fifth straight time in August. It has become an essential part of summer for me. This year I saw the last three acts and they were all great in their own way. The appear in order below. First, there was Gil Correria, the MC, with his band, The Blue Gil Band. They are local perform very solid Chicago style blues. Catch them if they appear near you. Gil is on the left in the first photo

The next band, The Gas House Gorillas, is featured in most of the pictures below as they had a lot of fun and provided a lot of fun, mixing it up with audience. I talked with sax guy afterwards who said they enjoyed themselves. Note the gradual changes in the lead singer. 

The headliners was Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters. Ronnie is one of the legends of blues guitar and he put on a great show. It was all instrumental and bordered on jazz, which the audience, myself, included really loved. For one number, he even got into the audience.  If you click on a picture it will enlarge

                               







 
 
 
 
 

Making Raw Milk Mozzarella in Western Massachusetts

I often write about my food experiences with my friend and food writer, Don Lesser who lives in western Massachusetts. The Pioneer Valley is a center for great local produce and food and Don covers this on his blog, Russelnod.  I encourage you to explore it.

Don recently wrote about making raw milk mozzarella and I had the pleasure of tasting the output. Below is a picture of the cheese with local fresh tomatoes and basil that what we shared.

I used have raw milk as child when I visited my cousin’s diary and fruit farm in Oklahoma. She taught me how to hand milk the cows and then we would sample the results. It is good to see more raw milk cheese generally available.  You can also get raw milk from certain farms in western Massachusetts.  Check out Don’s post to discover the process he used for this great cheese.  It is much better than anything you get in a store.  

 

Our Dinner with Don – Veal Short Ribs, Polenta, Root Vegetables, Artichokes, Eggplant, and More

This was a wonderful meal by my good friend Don Lesser who covers food and restaurants for Western Massachusetts through the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton and Edible Pioneer Valley magazine.  We frequently get together and I have written about his food and his food writing a good bit on this blog as well as our food experiences (see for example:  Tale of Two NOLA Breakfasts in Ashfield MA and Making Spanish Tapas – Cooking at the Culinary Institute of America.

This meal was inspired by the French Laundry Cookbook.  The main meal included veal short ribs, polenta cakes with root vegetables, baby artichokes, and asparagus. The veal was grass-fed (non-torture) from Vermont. We started with a wonderful eggplant spread, roasted red peppers, and a salami. Don does a geat job of describing the cooking and the meal in this post, Veal Short Ribs and Asparagus – Winter into Spring Dinner, so I will defer to him from the details. Below you can see the assemblage of the main event, as well as the starters.

         
 
 
 
 
 
 

Brief Explorations in New Orleans Live Music 2010

I was recently in New Orleans for Webtrends Engage  just prior to the Super Bowl and at the start of the Mardi Gras season.  I had a chance explore a few of the many music venues and hear a few of the many great groups there.  First I went to the Cajun Fais Do Do featuring Bruce Daigrepont that happens every Sunday late afternoon into the evening at Tipitina’s (501 Napoleon Avenue). I have been there many times. There is a regular group of dancers and I saw many of the same people who were there in 2007 when I last went. Here is the exterior of Tipitina’s and an image of the frenzy in which Bruce and his group plays. Clicking on any picture will make it larger. 

   

 I made a brief stop at Maple Leaf (8316 Oak Street - Uptown) and then went to Sweet Lorraine’s to catch the Rebirth Brass band, a NOLA headliner. Sweet Lorrain’s is located at 1931 Saint Claude Avenue. I had never been before and it is a nice venue. You can see the Maple Leaf to the left.  I just to live nearby and went to the Saturday matinee as a kid just down the street. I have been there many times but got there hours before the music so moved on.

The next two nights were occupied with the excellent Webtrends Engage event but on my last night I went to Frenchman Street just outside the Quarter where there are many good clubs. I did window shopping to find good sounds and started at the Blue Nile (532 Frenchmen Street) to listen to the United Postal Project.  You can see the exterior and interior of the club below. I was not able to get a picture of the band because of the light. The group had tow guitars, a sax, and drums. They played some nice driving rock infused jazz.

    
 Next was the Café Negril (606 Frenchmen Street) to hear Shamarr Allen & the Underdawgs. Shamarr had on a tee shirt that said the next Satchmo but he played moved like Miles Davis in his fusion stage wit a little Grover Washington thrown in. I mean these as compliments as the band of two guitars, keyboards, drums, and Sharmarr on trumpet really rocked.
  

The last stop was planned, as I wanted to see Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Road Masters at d.b.a (618 Frenchman Street). I have heard him before and he plays great New Orleans style funk.  His band started as they said that Walter was out participating in the NOLA political process with the mayor’s primary on Saturday.  The band had a trumpet, sax, guitar, and drums and they played some nice driving jazzy instrumentals. Then Walter came and they band moved to wonderful funk with Walter on guitar and vocals, bringing out the dancers.  I only wish I could come more often. Le bon temps roule.

       
It is important to not forget the great street music often available in the French Quarter. Here is a group in Jackson Square and another on Royal Street on a Sunday afternoon. 

  
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
  
 

 
 

New Orleans Restaurant Update Winter 2010

I was recently in New Orleans for Webtrends Engage and prior to going made all these plans (see Going to New Orleans 2010 - You Should Go Too) but then my dog broke his leg and I had to shorten the trip. He is recovering nicely now. You can see this planning post for some good ideas but I only went to one. Here was actually happen as I discovered some great new places and went to a few known ones. You can click on any picture to enlarge it.

I got to New Orleans on Sunday and stopped by Mr. B’s for a bowl of gumbo at the bar. The full service was not open but this was all I wanted at the time anyway and was a nice welcome back to the city. Mr B’s is an old favorite that was under re-construction for a while. It is in the French Quarter at 201 Royal Street (504) 523-2078.

  
 
After going to Tipitina’s for Cajun Fais Do Do with Bruce Daigrepont (see post tomorrow for my music explorations) I went to the nearby Franky and Johnny’s. It is a neighborhood tavern that provides wonderful Cajun food. I had their gumbo, a crawfish pie, and a soft shell crab po-boy. They did not disappoint.  I noticed that there were two Red Sox pennants over the bar, along with Saints stuff. I asked the bar tender about this. He said that he did not put those up by he is a big Red Sox fan and his aspiration is to go to Fenway Park. I felt very welcomed. I also read later that a Red Sox bar sports bar in Boston has adopted the saints for the Super Bowl, as has much of the rest of the country. Franky and Johnny’s is located at 321 Arabella Street (504) 899-9146.

    
The next morning I went to Surrey’s Juice Bar.  Now it does have good juice but the rest is not low cal. I had a wonderful shrimp and grits after being tempted by the sausage gravy and biscuits.  The dish was exceptional and a great way to start the day if you are looking to put on a few pounds. It is located at 1418 Magazine Street (504) 524-3828.

  
Lunch was simpler as I had a shrimp po-boy at Domilise’s Po-Boys. It I described by many as one of the best places for po-boys and I am addicted to the shrimp ones. It is located at 5240 Annunciation St., 504-899-9126. Roadfood gives it a 95% rating and says it is a must eat place. I would agree.

    
Before a night hearing music on Frenchman Street (see post tomorrow) I had dinner at Coop’s Place in the Quarter.  Coop’s is in the quieter part of the Quarter away from the tourist traps of Bourbon Street and has the feel of a neighborhood bar, with a more punk rock crowd, that reflects the neighborhood, than Franky and Johnny’s but the concept is the same, good Cajun (country vs the city Creole food). I sat next to a chef from another restaurant who said he often come here on his night off and most of the people are local. I had a sample of gumbo, rabbit and sausage jambalaya., shrimp Creole, red bans and rice, and fried chicken for only $12.99 and I could not finish it. It was new to me but I have often had the amazing fried chicken at Firoella’s located across the street (1136 Decatur Street) and this rivals it. The visiting chef said that the two places are known as the two of the best chicken places. Coop Place is located at 1109 Decatur Street (504) 525-9053.  It is also a bar and is open late.

  
The next day was pouring rain and I made it to Croissant D’Or in the far and quieter end of the Quarter by going from the protection of one the many balconies to another. I was still very wet when I got to this wonderful bakery that I have gone to many times. I had one of their croissants and a slice of French King Cake. Unlike the NOLA King Cake that is a frosted white cake, this one is layers of pastry around almond paste and is very good.  I dried out and warmed up.  It is located at 617 Ursulines Avenue (504) 524-4663.  Unfortunately I had to leave before I could do much more.

    
At the airport I did get a shrimp po-boy from the Acme Oyster House outpost here and ate it on the plane.    I used to go to their main place in the Quarter (724 Iberville Street (504) 522-5973) but now it has long lines so I cannot vouch for the food anymore. Acme was the place to go for oysters in the 1950s but it has become very commercial. However, they do have some of the best airport food anywhere and it sure beats the free snacks on Jetblue.  

Saying Good Bye to Blues Great Norton Buffalo

There recently a great tribute blues concert in Oakland in memory of blues harmonica legend Norton Buffalo. He was part of the Steve Miller Band and played with the Dobbie Brothers, Bonnie Raitt. They were all involved in the concert.  I certainly wish I was there. I hope they do a CD, or better yet a DVD.  Thanks to John Maloney for alerting me to this. Here is a full story and a picture from the event.