This year, Carlos and I were planning on going to Jazz Fest only one day, the "second Friday" as people in New Orleans call it - Friday, April 30. Then I found out that Jonny Lang was playing the "first Sunday" in the Blues Tent. He's been one of my favorite artists since his first album in 1995. (My blog is named after one of his songs.)
I last saw him in a small bar in Biloxi in 1996 and I have wanted to see him again ever since.
He put on a great show! I'm hoping it's one of the shows that will be available at Jazz Fest Live soon. (He has also released a live CD earlier this year.)
Jonny Lang (right) didn't play until 5:40 pm. Since Carlos and I got to Jazz Fest around 11 am, we had plenty of time to walk around and see all the other things.
On Debbie's recommendation, we first saw Miss Sophie Lee. Her boyfriend Bart plays piano with the band. (He also plays guitar, accordion, and probably many other instruments.)
We spent the next hour or so eating our way through the food booths. I started with a Crawfish Pie and a huge tea, and finished with a Cuban Sandwich.
Our friend Julie works at the company that produces the Jazz Fest posters so she was manning the poster booth. We visited with her for awhile (and got some much needed shade). Because of her job, she was also able to get us free tickets to the Fest! (For next Friday's Fest, I bought $25 tickets from my employee Pat's friend. The tickets are usually $45 to $60 plus fees.)
Carlos wanted to see one of the cooking demonstrations. (Read: Sit in the shade, drink iced tea and wait for the free taste servings of the demonstration food.) We saw the 1:30 show of [something I can't remember now] and the 3:00 show of Jambalaya.
After walking through the craft booths (in the hot sun!), Carlos had a brilliant idea: see the band playing in the (indoor, air conditioned) grandstands. It turned out to be the Imagination Movers so the audience was full of parents and kids under 5.
Carlos then wanted to make a full circle around the outside of the track, to sample all the other music playing. We heard a small part of The Levon Helm Band, Juan Luis Guerra (where we ran into our new mayor Mitch Landrieu and the new President of Honduras, smiling for photographers and surrounded by body guards), The Radiators and the Blind Boys of Alabama. We had to ask someone who the guy with Mitch Landrieu was. I told Carlos, who moved from Honduras at age 8, that I thought he should know who he was. He disagreed.
Now refreshed, we wandered over to Jonny Lang. Then, sunburned and pooped, we made our way home.
Overall, a great day.
3 comments:
Well, in defense of Carlos, there have been times when I wouldn't have known who the president of my homecountry was either.
Sometimes I black those things out. :)
The 1:30 demo was the chef from the Bourbon House. It was pork sirloin with a BBQ sauce made of bourbon and brown sugar and some other ingredient. It came with some corn bread and collard greens. Deelicious!
Is that what Jonny Lang looked like? hmm.
Yes, that is a pretty current picture of him.
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