CULTURE ON A PEDESTAL
I am a native Louisianan who grew up in Baton Rouge and Hammond and I’m an avid music lover (especially any music with roots in Louisiana). After moving to Atlanta to attend college, I moved to Washington, D.C. to begin working at the U.S. Department of Labor. I recently returned home for a family wedding and an early Mother’s Day Music Extravaganza.
While I was home, my mother had the March issue of OffBeat, and I read your Mojo Mouth piece called “Culture on a Pedestal.”
Not to be overly dramatic, but while reading it, it was like you were writing to my soul. I left Louisiana with a deep love and sincere appreciation for the state, and, since moving, this love and appreciation for Louisiana, especially its history and culture, has grown. These feelings can only be matched by my concern for the future of the state and the sustained life of Louisiana culture and history. Although I am a Louisiana ex-pat like many of the young people you write about in your piece, I was never truly encouraged to leave Louisiana.
In fact, many members of my family could not (and still don’t) understand how I could ever leave. I have always known that I am taking this journey to gain knowledge and skills so that when I do return home, I can do my very best to improve the state.
—Maria Town, Washington, D.C.
CANCELLED
I am a long time fan of New Orleans and its music, so when contemplating where to celebrate my 40th birthday and fifth wedding anniversary, my wife and I made the easy decision to travel to New Orleans for a long weekend. We spent many hours in preparation, mostly deciding where to eat and who to see. Here’s how the weekend went down: we took extra time off work to fly down Thursday (April 14) to catch Kermit Ruffins at Vaughan’s. He cancelled. Friday we were excited to see the Cotton Mouth Kings at Spotted Cat since most of the guys played our wedding in their prior incarnation with the Jazz Vipers. They cancelled too. No problem—John Boutte was slated to play d.b.a. on Saturday—also cancelled. Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns later that night at Spotted Cat—also cancelled. Wow—did someone call a musicians strike for the weekend and forget to tell us? This being New Orleans, we were able to fnd solid alternate options which included seeing Steve Earle flming an episode of Treme on Frenchmen Street and having a magical conversation with Tom McDermott at Three Muses. But I’ve got to be honest—the rampant cancellations left a bitter taste. Is this a trend, or did we just hit a patch of bad luck?
—Brent Ewig, Silver Spring, MD
PARKING WOES
I’ve worked for many bands throughout the years that play the big stage at French Quarter Festival, and once you actually get past a half dozen part-time “security” people and other weekend-warrior pseudo-offcials who can only say, “No, you can’t come through here”—even when you have the right credentials—to the flood wall to unload gear, you have to make several trips carrying gear through the crowd to the stage.
Then the vehicle has to be moved away—they don’t care where; you just have to get it out of there. Have you ever tried to park in the Quarter during French Quarter Festival? Or tried doing it when you had to park to get back to the stage to set up the gear for a show? I wonder how the more elderly musicians are able to do it while carrying their own gear.
French Quarter Festival should pay for space in a nearby lot for musician parking, and have shuttle to help get band members and gear to the stage.
—M. Fisher, Slidell, LA
MORE PARKING WOES
It would be great for the city to step up and show a little goodwill towards its musicians who make their cash cows even possible in the first place. I’m not holding my breath, though. Maybe some personal supplications to our mayor would move him to make good on his promise of nourishing the cultural economy here. Unfortunately, our city attacks the cultural economy rather than nourishes it (as the recent closing of Donna’s, the shutting down of brass bands, and the shutdown of the Frenchmen art market will all tell you).
However, there are things that FQFI can do to gesture goodwill towards musicians. Their sponsorships are growing, they’re getting more vendors, etc., and I think it’s high tide to pay a debt of gratitude to the people who made it possible that I don’t think would break the bank.
As a musician in the city, I can tell you the number one gripe about French Quarter Festival is the parking. If there was a shuttle service, say, from the open lot across from the Convention Center that ran all the way down Decatur Street, it would greatly help and would show goodwill on the part of the festival organizers. As it stands now, you have musicians walking up to 20 blocks with instruments in the heat, oftentimes coming back to parking tickets or exorbitant parking rates.
—Rex Gregory, New Orleans,
LA
EVEN MORE WOES
How bands get paid for the French Quarter Festival has been a hot topic of conversation for years now, and I’ve always found it funny that virtually no one who attends the festival had any idea that the bands weren’t paid for their performances.
It seems as though there are plenty of businesses who would be willing to pony up a bit of cash to get advertising and their name attached to a local band or musician. The question really is: how do we connect with them? I think it would be an interesting idea to create some sort of online hook-up for bands seeking sponsors and people willing to sponsor, and even have someone at FQF help to foster the connections.
We had a huge headache getting the upright bass and all the CDs to our stage this year. We had to park by Sound Cafe in the Marigny! It’s one thing if you play the trumpet or guitar which you can pretty easily carry on a bike or when walking, but if you have more stuff to cart around, it can be very tricky with more and more people coming to the fest each year. Where do you park? If French Quarter Festival had a shuttle and a parking lot for musicians only, it would really make a big difference.
—Vanessa Niemann, Gal Holiday & her Honky Tonk Revue, New Orleans, LA
DRAWING THE LINE
Thank you to Andrew Hamlin for exploring the subject of abuse in his review of Louisiana Red’s Sweet Blood Call (April 2011). As he points out: drawing the line can be complex—and hey, “sticking a gun in a woman’s mouth and threatening to pull the trigger” might be one of the easier calls to make. But the stand up thing to do is to bring the discussion to the table and he did.
I have a radio show and there are times when I simply can’t play a song I love when the violence crosses some mysterious line. I struggled with Dr. John’s “How Come my Dog Don’t Bark When you Come Around.” I love this song. How does its humor and satire affect your decision when lyrics like, “I’m gon’ fire that hound, shoot that dog down. Then I’m gonna get busy mutilatin’, strangulatin’, operatin’, an’ crematin’ my ol’ lady down at the cremation station” crop up? I know it wouldn’t rattle me so much if there was less “mutilatin” going on for real. Thanks for opening up a discussion that at times seems untouchable.
—Susan Shaw, Roxbury, NY
