We catch a cab out to the Fairgrounds with a woman from Cali, who was looking forward to catching Lucinda, too. Our cabbie is a bit on edge, swearing at the bicyclists for getting in his way, honking at everyone else. No line at the ticket booth, so we get our full, 4-day allottment at $60 per. Mark makes a preemptive strike at the port-o-lets and then shares with us a detailed description of the untidy toilet. Thanks for that.
On our way over to the Acura Stage, we pass Eagle & Hawk at Gentilly and Kirk Joseph's Backyard Groove at Congo Square. We arrive in time to get down pretty close to the stage, slightly to the right. Lu comes out, says howdy and launches into oldies Pineola and Drunken Angel, then Buttercup, the opener on her new album, Blessed, followed by the wonderful Emmylou Harris hit, Crescent City. She sounds really good, almost saying, "Fuck you, Peter, I wasn't THAT bad up in Boston," a reference to a less-than-complimentary review of her concert there. She's completely changed her band, with young stud Blake Mills on lead guitar. A cool, sparse arrangement on Fats Domino's I Lived My Life, a great bluesy Essence, she mixes up her vast catalog nicely, ending her set with Get Right With God. Great comeback, Lu, I thought we lost you a couple albums back.
Charlie Musselwhite was next at the very crowded Blues Tent, Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers followed at the Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage, Amanda Shaw & the Cute Guys at Gentilly (a great version of the Clash Should I Stay Or Should I Go), and a disappointing miss with Michelle Shocked back at the Fais Do-Do.
We then stopped at the Louisiana Marketplace to introduce ourselves to Kiki Huston of Kiki Huston Jewelry Designs, who is a family friend of brother-in-law, Peter. Picked up a very nice present for The Reet.
I fell in love with the look and feel of silver as a young child, watching my father silversmith as a hobby. I live and work in New Orleans, hand-fabricating sterling silver with the tools I inherited from him. Each piece is unique, bearing individual marks of the hammer.
Kiki's husband, Derek, was a founding member of The Iguanas, has played with James Hunter and now plays with Eric Lindell. The Eric Lindell Band plays on Friday at the Fest and Kiki tells me that Derek will also be playing in Gregg Allman's band on Saturday.
Of course, we can't pass up some great food, so, at various times, we stuff our faces with some crawfish pie (outstanding), gator, etc. My legs are tired so I help myself to the back of an unattended golf cart. Heaven. Mark joins me until we are bounced (politely) when the cart is needed for more important duties than giving us relief. The closers today are Wilco at Acura (I'm looking forward to catching at least some of that set), Cyndi Lauper at Gentilly, The Iguanas at Fais Do-Do, and Ruthie Foster at the Blues Tent. We sample Cyndi first, interested after hearing good reviews of her Memphis Blues album and thinking that Charlie Musselwhite would be in her band. He is. She says she was originally a blues singer in a Janis Joplin cover band and has always loved that genre. She sound good. Off to see Ruthie, whom we planned to see in Fairfield last month (actually bought the tickets) until the UConn Huskies/San Diego State game conflicted. And the Blues Tent has chairs! Again, heaven. Ruthie, you are, well, phenomenal! She's so good and we are so comfortable, that we ain't movin'. Wonderful show!
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| Ruthie Foster closing at the Blues Tent |
Another text says that he's at the Louisiana Music Factory where Amanda Shaw, then Marcia Ball are scheduled. We finally find Gumbo back at Ryan's, where he has already befriended (cornered?) local couple Bob & Ange. After some beers and Marcia Ball, we all make our way back to the hotel to drop off shit before getting some food. As we reach the entrance to the hotel, the sidewalk jumps up and trips the Gumbo, sending him face first into the pavement. Blood everywhere. The Gumbo looks like one of those TMZ celebrity mug shots. But we clean him up and drag him along with us for some burgers. I think the highway crew might have to hose down the pavement in the morning.
