French Quarter Fest – Day 1

French Quarter Fest is my favorite festival of the year. In it’s 34th year, the 4-day free festival features local food booths and music on 23 stages throughout the Quarter. Thursday’s weather was beautiful, 72 and sunny with a breeze coming off the river. We arrived in time to see Cha Wa, a Mardi Gras Indian band in the tradition of The Wild Magnolias. They played many favorite “Indian” songs including Let’s Go Get ‘Em, Shoo Fly and  Indian Red. During the break, we filled up on a chicken plate from Mona’s and my favorite fest food – a Cochon de Lait Po-Boy from Walker’s Southern Style BBQ (AKA Love at First Bite).

Beatles Fest 2012

For the 10th year, guitarist and Beatles enthusiast Chuck Credo IV has pulled together a number of New Orleans musicians to celebrate the music and mood of the Beatles at the New Orleans Beatles Festival. Jeff “The Dude” Dowd and Twelve Years a Slave hero (and my beau on the premiere episode of this season of HBO’s Treme), Rob Steinberg, joined us for a night of singing and swaying to familiar hits at the House of Blues. The evening started much as it had last year, with soulful Jimmy Robinson alone with his guitar playing a couple of tunes.

The Beatles, Big Easy Style

Summers in New Orleans usually bring lots of heat and few festivals but, lately, the weather has been cooler than most of the nation and we got to celebrate the 9th New Orleans Beatles Festival. Founded by guitarist Chuck Credo IV (grandson of Chuck Credo Jr.  of The Basin Street Six), the festival moved from Mid-City Lanes Rock N Bowl to the House Of Blues in 2007.

Treme Lightens Up

I’m behind on Treme blogging but not on Treme watching. As I’d hoped, HBO’s Tremehas given us a break on the gloom and doom, finally  – “It’s Carnival Time!” Surviving the near-relentless darkness of the season made it crystal clear why parades are so important. If it was hard to watch post-Katrina New Orleans once a week for an hour, it must have been nearly unbearable to survive in reality. I get to hear people’s Katrina stories here and recently met someone who’d been in the Dome. As the pieces of the puzzle come together in my head through all the stories, it becomes undeniable that the experience hit every sense and is truly a you-had-to-be-there thing. But Treme tries and I continue to enjoy it.