Breakfast at Cafe Des Amis, Breaux Bridge, LA

Left to right: Bloody Mary with pickled okra and olives, one of two; coushe-coushe, traditional Louisiana dish, basically warm, crumbled up cornbread augmented with milk and syrup, much better than it sounds; House Rock N’ Special: two eggs cooked over easy, grilled boudin patty, biscuit and andouille grits.

Not pictured: the ear-splitting zydeco performance by Lil Pop Ledet, the room full pf dancers, the nice couple from Alexandria with which we were seated, the lady that told me over the din, "We don't want any of that wonky music critic bullshit in here. This place is for the dancers."

I can be all, "Yeah, but..."

Doug Kershaw - Douglas James Kershaw (listen) I'm glad to have gone down this Doug Kershaw road, so next time someone is going on and on about the active ingredients in Gram Parsons, I can be all, "Yeah, but..." with Doug kershaw, the Cosmic Cajun. It's a lame pleasure to do so, but a pleasure nonetheless.

A Song Called Jeannie - Doug K...

Dirk Powell - Time Again (listen) Ditto for cross-cultural fiddler Dirk Powell who stretches a high wire from the Appalachian hills to the corner of Christine Balfa's triangle - he learned mountain fiddle from his grandpa in Ashland, Kentucky married Christine Balfa, noted Cajun triangle player and started Balfa Tojours with her. That's all I meant by that. And this album, ancient songs interwoven with boasts and stories, is what this music (any maybe any music) is really supposed to be like.

Prettiest Little Girl In the C...

the more recent Beatles records

The Beatles - Everyday Chemistry (via this website) I'm surprised with all the reissue Beatlemania, nobody whatsoever is talking about the more recent Beatles records like Everyday Chemsitry. Granted, it not only came out long after their popular period, which ended with Let It Be/Abbey Road, and after John and George both died in this world. This album, from a parallel Earth, is more recent - release dates get a little sketchy when you are dealing with pan-continuum bodies of work. It does speak to inevitability of their songcraft, closely the resembling solo work John and Paul eventually did in this sphere. In this one of the multitude Otherworlds, the Beatles are a dinosaur still prowling football stadiums, or possibly the casino circuit; I don't have a feel for how well their popularity sustained itself over there (or is it "then?") without their ever going away.

They've adopted a Portishead trip-hop thing on some Everyday Chemistry, so maybe it's best they let go the tethers in this world, though the New Orleans bump funk of John's "Sick to Death" is pretty catchy and the Lee Hazlewood treatments on his "I'm Just Sitting Here" are pretty sweet. Anyway, this bootleg surfaced, and it saves you the pretty penny the Japanese import undoubtedly costs. My question is: did the Rolling Stones call it quits after Some Girls or Tattoo You in this other dimension? If so, there might be some cosmic overseer keeping things in check after all.

Do check out the website, it has some good background on how this other-dimensional release made it here. It's nice, because nobody ever really goes into the minutia of their records anymore (whatever "anymore" means in a post-time travel world.)

go ask the eagle why it flies or why God sometimes paints its skies with rainbows

Creole String Beans - s/t (MySpace) Y'at rock represent! Here's your wiki-splanation of "y'at" should you need it.

There is a New Orleans city accent . . . associated with downtown New Orleans, particularly with the German and Irish Third Ward, that is hard to distinguish from the accent of Hoboken, Jersey City, and Astoria, Long Island, where the Al Smith inflection, extinct in Manhattan, has taken refuge. The reason, as you might expect, is that the same stocks that brought the accent to Manhattan imposed it on New Orleans.^[2]

I don't really hear it in their singing as much as you do in some contemporary swamp pop singers, but in the wild, suffice to say it is a touch Sopranos-esque to the ear.

Doug Kershaw - Devil's Elbow (listen) I was rocking this oldie from the wild man of the Cajun fiddle on the way to an interview yesterday, and I realized I don't know much about him. Here are 5 things I learned about Doug Kershaw:

1. He appeared on the debut episode of The Johnny Cash Show, alongside Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and comedian Fannie Flagg.
   
2. In 1961, his song "Louisiana Man" was broadcast back to Earth by the Apollo 12 astronauts.
3. Doug Kershaw has a degree in mathematics.
4. He played a week-long residency at the Fillmore East in 1969.
5. His first gig was at a club called the Bucket of Blood, accompanied by his mother on guitar.

I think I kinda love Doug Kershaw. Wrap your brain around the chorus of the title track:

So, woman, don't ask me why the good Lord chose to bless me with my devil's elbow
You might as well be talkin' to the resin I rub on my fiddle bow
Go ask the eagle why it flies, or why God sometimes paints its skies with rainbows
But, woman, don't ask me why the good Lord chose to bless me with my devil's elbow

Devil's Elbow - Doug Kershaw

I can't find a video of Doug tearing it up on The Johnny Cash Show, so here is Andy Kauffman from a later episode.

emulate love on the budget of like

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (listen) Does it actually count as listening to rap when the volume is turned low so that the songs are rendered as dulled ripples against the ceiling fan's whir and Ol' Dirty's rage is unintelligible chattering off in the deep recesses, less obtrusive than the occasional phone-call snippet bleeding through the plaster from next door?

Hippa To Da Hoppa [Explicit Ve...

Mark Tucker - Batstew (via OngakuBaka) This little outsider monstrosity consists largely of a loner recording sounds from inside the hearse he owns, a couple of sweet amateur hippie Baroque numbers - my favorite micro-genre, when eager souls are compelled to emulate Love on the budget of Like - and one totally uncomfortable recorded episode with the real girl for whom this mess is named. Enjoy!

Ecstatic Sunshine - Freckle Wars (listen) I've seen these guys twice I think, watched them get down with the gizmos in a joyous new toy way which is difficult to take from the outside holistically but the radiation from said joy cooks a little of the rawness out of you.

Ramontana - Ecstatic Sunshine

Andre Williams, One-Eyed Jacks, New Orleans, LA

Andre Williams, One-Eyed Jacks, New Orleans, LA, originally uploaded by real_voodooboy.

You know that point in the season when you finally pull out the mower and brush off the dead leaves, fill it up with gas and pretend you checked the oil, and you walk a circle around the thing and yank the cord and the motherfucker starts right up, humming like it has no business still being able to hum? That's what it's like witnessing an old R&B guy with a tight band on a good night, and this was one.

R. Skully Rough 7, One-Eyed Jacks, New Orleans, LA

R. Skully and the Rough 7, One-Eyed Jacks, New Orleans, LA, originally uploaded by real_voodooboy.

Like if the neighbor kids you always wondered about a little stole your truck and used it to knock over a tree.