Feb. 6, 2009 - Day One - The Dance

So many choices - it's Geno's birthday (Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie, my favorite zydeco band) and he is playing at Grant St. You'll have to google all these references yourself!!

But, my choice is Blue Moon Saloon where Lost Bayou Ramblers, my all time favorite band, will be cuttin' loose. Plus, free rice & gumbo --- off I go.

The first act is Zydepunks (http://www.zydepunks.com/ --- OK, I'll give you that one!). The website description doesn't do them justice. What an amazing group of talents. The lead was a young man with many tatoos wearing a newsboy cap playing accordion & some fiddle. He sang in at least 3 languages that I could recognize - French, Spanish and Israeli - but there may have been German, Russian, Romanian, definitely gypsy sounding, with a bit of the ol' Irish in the stew! The guitar player was a tall, bearded, barefoot man wearing a swing hat. The fiddle player was an extraordinarily talented young woman and the drummer had huge earlobe piercings. That's just so you'll recognize them if you ever get a chance to see them. The bad news is - despite their talent - the songs began sounding the same after about the third one :(

Lost Bayou Ramblin'
But I gotta stick it out, because Louis is here, and Chris, and Andre and Cavin Carruth and Alan, the fabulous bass player - he didn't stand on the bass & play while I was there :( - and wherever my boyz, there be me!!

And the film crew --- what's that all about?? Surprise (this is what will be the most fun about my adventures)!! Special guests tonight only - Joe from Hawaii playing lap steel and Matthew Doucet, son of Michael Doucet of Beausoleil.

LBR was HOT --- which was good, because the evening got a little chilly. The floor was packed with young people, and me. The photographer was everywhere, so when I find out what was being filmed, I'll let you know if I'm famous!! Downside was the "bumper dancing." Couldn't move without being knocked around by other dancers who didn't have a clue about dance space. I kept my elbows out & made the best of it until midnight. And it's a good thing I did - since they played a Beausoleil song about 11:30. If you have the Cajunization Blues CD, it's the third track - Happy One Step - I would have been happy to take half a step :):)