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.