Rob the Fiddler

Heather and I took an excellent road trip to New Orleans last weekend.  I can tell I have not posted much because the last trip seems to be just a few posts back. Meh…just the good stuff eh?

So, the last time I was in New Orleans was roughly the same time as this year in 2008.  February, just before Mardi Gras.  The weather was stellar and the crowds pretty tame in both cases. Luckily,  we timed it perfect this year for the parade.

The Krewe De Vieux parade is apparently the local favorite. Or at least most of the locals seem to like it.  The themes are extremely political focusing on local figures and issues. This time around were many BP related floats as would be expected as well as extremely unflattering effigies of local figures completely foreign to me.  I saw “most” because we talked to a few folks that mentioned how adult this parade is.  One lady (the greeter for the Catholic Church in the 9th ward) felt that it was no place for a senior citizen. They apparently have been known to cross a few lines.

The style is a bit more traditional as well with its mule driven carts, French Quarter route and tons of bands.  The streets in the quarter are pretty small so its a very up in your face experience.  Pretty much like a Mardi Gras lite.  Dont get me wrong, we saw some epic drunks staggering about…but within 10 minutes of the parade finish, we were sitting at a table having gumbo just a block away.

After the parade (and gumbo) we went to One Eyed Jacks for the official after party.  We still had drinks in hand when we got to the door which points out one of the obvious differences between Dallas and New Orleans.

Dallas Doorman: “No outside drinks allowed…in fact, what are you doing with an open container on the street. I should call the cops myself.”

New Orleans Doorman: “Dump your drink??? I’d hate to see you waste a perfectly good beverage….come right in!”

The afterparty was excellent.  We were originally under the impression that there was to be a burlesque show.  In fact, when a GIANT yellow feather clamshell was brought through the front door…it seemed obvious.  Turns out it was a headpiece for War Chief Juan Pardo. They were there with 101 Runners playing some kinda funk/Mardi Gras music that had an infectious groove you could bug out to.

Finally, we patted our back for taking a taxi down to the quarter.

We stayed at the St Vincents guesthouse in the Garden District.  Its not exactly 5 star accommodations by any stretch.  The building used to be a halfway house for unwed teens and dates WAY back so the rooms are pretty small.  The building however is very unique and the staff is amazing.  They have hostel rooms as well and it appears that much of the work is done by the local homeless.  The prices are very cheap and I assure you that every penny is going to the hyper-local economy.  Free parking too!!!

A large focus of this trip was FOOD!  Dang!  We left on Friday night so we could take our time on Saturday getting down there.  The beef jerky at Robertsons in Willis Point was a good start, but paled in comparison to the jerky at Krotz Springs.  Louisiana is a hunters paradise and just about anything with an even number of legs could be found found in jerked, sausage or bouidin form at Kartchners.  On the way back I picked up about 30 bucks worth of boudin, alligator sausage and tasso.  The damage was not that bad as they had sold out of the jerky.  (note…they do deliver…its not specified on the website, but they do).

Check out the  ponce.  Yes…thats a pig stomach filled with pig goodness.

It would be a long feat to detail all of the meals we had, so here is an overview.

Gumbo and Louisana sampler at the Old Coffeepot was excellent. A little salty, but still amazing. Super friendly staff.

Forget Cafe Du Monde. Its like Disneyland. Get your beignet fix at Cafe Beignet.

Daisy Dukes sounds like it would be a hooters rip off. Its not. Its awesome. Cops eat there. Check out this alligator Po boy.  Oh and the nice touches on the red beans and rice.

We had some sort of Alligator Sausage Hash and Gumbo at Marigny Brasserie on Frenchmen Street.

An excellent lump crab cake (and gumbo) at the Grand Isle by Harrahs.

To top off the food experience, we visited the Southern Food Museum.  This is a must. All the history behind the food of the area. Learn why chicory was added to coffee. Gumbo File or Okra (why did they need either at all!!).  Absinthe.  You get a discount if you tell them your there for a convention.  (Make one up).

Since this was close to Harrah’s, I figured I could take advantage of their parking lot.  Normally, this costs $30 a day!!! It is free, however, with 30 minutes of casino play on your members card. I left $40 in the hole. I guess Ill show them next time.

Finished the trip with breakfast at the Trolley Stop Cafe and coffee with King Cake at Community Coffee

One of the creepiest attractions was the St Roch Cemetery. This is certainly an unusual cemetery with quite a history.   Pics are here. So, all the literature will tell you that the cemeteries are a bit sketchy…and they are.  This is not in the best part of town….but I doubt that your gonna get shived over anything so bring a cheap camera and you should be fine.  This particular cemetery is extra weird as it as an actual shrine for the folk that have been healed.  It has many braces, false legs and just creepy medical devices from folks that have been healed or wish to be. I took a lot of pics.

Check out the “thanks” on the bricks and the statue of St Lucia holding a plate of eyeballs.

Lightning round of cool stuff:

Saw my first Banksy

Finally saw Frenchmen Street

I had a blast in New Orleans, even if it was a short trip. Thats ok because Ill be back before the weather gets too hot. I missed out on the Garden District, as well as the arts district and probably several other things that I will research.

Over the course of my 40 hours in the town, I had 4 different gumbos. The best by far was at a place called the Magazine Po Boy shop.

Magazine is a fun street to drive down from the French quarter to the end of Garden District. It felt like Austin. I was having fun just going into the markets and seeing what people buy. This place just yelled out from blocks away…”eat here”.

I guess what that is on the left is a muffaletta po-boy?? The Gumbo was perfect.

After eating, I got a large Chickory Coffee and headed home so I could get my tooth looked at. Good news is thats its ok. Dunno why it was bugging, but its better now and the dentist felt that there was nothing needed to be done immediately except keep an eye (tooth) on it.

So after all of this not working, I figured I needed another vacation. Actually, I have been working pretty hard getting certifications, applying for jobs and preparing for interviews. Its been kinda frustrating, but the economy is still a little shaky.

I thought a road trip to New Orleans would be nice before it gets all crowded for Mardi Gras. Unfortunatly, as Im writing this, my tooth is kinda acting up and the lymph node under it, in my jaw is visibly swollen. Since the severance benefits stop on Friday, I had to set up an appointment with the dentist and cut this show short. Still, I covered a lot for a day I think. I’m still hoping to see stuff tomorrow before my trip back.

The drive from Dallas is pretty much 8 hours. Lots of cops. The radio station situation is not all that bad if your into Classic Rock. Its Skynyrd Country. Don’t speed.

You don’t really seem to pass a lot of little towns or gas stations. Its not like I-35 from Dallas to Austin. I know just about every rest stop, jerky retailer and roadside oddity like the back of my hand. There are plenty of opportunities to buy cracklins however if your into that kind of thing.

My hotel was just one block north of Bourbon street. Pretty sweet deal at 54 bucks a night, but you have to have to take parking into account. Its not free, and they wanted 25 bucks a night. Its much cheaper outside the quarter, off of Rampart. Deals can be found on CheapTickets.com as well as the visitors center. I got a huge room (well…biggest one on the floor at least).

One of the first things I wanted to do was locate a bottle of Peychaud. Its a locally made bitters that I suppose you can only really buy in New Orleans (or online Im sure). It was easy to find at the stores in the French Quarter. Pretty good stuff. I actually dig bitters and 7 Up. Its supposed to be the key ingredient to Sazerac.

Cari suggested I check out the Acme Oyster Company. The Oyster Po boy was very good.

Mostly spent the rest of the night watching drunks walking up and down Bourbon street.

The last time I was on Bourbon Street, I went with my friends Dan and Alicia. We started at a bar that offered 3 for 1 drinks. That pretty much put an end to the evening quickly. I didn’t want to make that mistake twice. I did try a hurricane…but…eh I cant say it was all that good. I think next time I’ll just stick to the Garden District and visiting the French Quarter during the day. The only thing worse than a street full of drunks are a street full of amateur drunks. The bars were not all that stellar and wanted to spend my calories eating!

The next day I took a guided tour into the St Louis cemetery. I had heard that you don’t want to just wonder around by yourself there. Apparently, the cemetary is next to the housing projects. These are all evacuated however so the locals seemed to indicate that it was not as bad as it used to be. Still, Im glad I got the tour. I learned a lot more about the area and the way folks interacted because of it. I used this Tourgroup. The tour guides name was Lloyd Sensat. Good guide.

Those pics are here

Here is our guide at the crypt of Marie Laveau. Our tour guide also suggested that the best music, bars and food were to be found off of Frenchmens street. I wish I had more time to check that out.

I passed up the usual Cafe Du Monde and had my Biegnets at Cafe Beignet. They tasted just as good to me and I didn’t have the wait in line.

I had an afternoon snack at a place called Coops.
I had a bowl each of “Rabbit and sausage jambalaya” and Gumbo. I think I got the bottom of the pan Jamabalaya becuase it was a little burnt, but still it was very tasty. The Gumbo seemed to have both file and Okra. I thought the two were not mixed. Still, I enjoyed it.

Lots of walking.

Did I capture a Ghost?

Dinner was at the Gumbo Shop. This place was great. It has a nice patio and the food comes out fast!

Played some video poker at Harrah’s. I didn’t win….still gotta look for a job.

Finally I drove down Magazine St through the Garden District at night looking for a place called Zotz. Pretty cool little coffee house. Open 24/7. Free wifi and open computers. My kinda place. Dont listen to the haters.

All in all, a pretty good 24 hours in NOLA.

The Sues were invited to play at the 42nd 2008 International Chili festival in Terlingua this year. It was a BLAST. The pictures are all here.

There are actually two chili festivals held next to each other on the same weekend. Both claim to be the original. One is called “Behind the Store” and the other is “CASI“, the Chili Appreciation Society of America. I’m still not entirely sure of the story behind this, but the “Behind the Store” Tolbert/Fowler one is where we played at. Its smaller, but its the one with the highest musical pedigree. Any die hard fan of Texas Music would love to see the likes of Gary P Nunn, Jerry Jeff Walker, Mark David Manders (or us maybe) at this festival.

Its 600 miles from Dallas. A LONG trip. It took us 10 hours to get there (with a few stops). The landscape is beautiful. I wish I had more time to explore on my own. In the meantime, here is a good description of the area I dug up on the interwebs.

DPS was out in full force for the weekend. I was told (and let me tell you, the campground had no lack of storytellers) that 40% of the force was out on the roads. Another report was that all the rookies patrol the roads as training. In any case, they were doing a zero tolerance sweep of ANYBODY on the road. If you were as much as 1 mile over the limit you would get a ticket. We did see a lot of cops on the road. If the intent was to keep folks in the campgrounds…..it worked.

We rolled into camp at Dusk on Thursday and set up tents and Friday we took a road trip to Lajitas.

Most accounts of Lajitas up until a few years ago usually included words like “sleepy”, “hole” and were told with a stinky expression. A goo Its most notable figure after the days of Pancho Villa was the Mayor Clay Henry. Clay Henry is a goat…a beer drinking goat. For a while you could buy a 6 pack and throw down with the mayor.

Apparently things have changed because the town totally bought up in 2003 and turned into a resort. The sleepy town has been turned into what looks like a movie set.

These are actually luxury accommodations behind all of the facades.

Clay Henry was hidden away in “Rehab” as it was no longer politically correct to feed beer to goats. That and PETA threatened to sue.

We came back and mooched around the campground for samples of ribs, chicken, brisket and beans. Those were the competitions for Friday. Plenty of food was provided by the “fire in the hole” boys camping on the “hill”. The Cowboy Breakfast was stellar.

The gig with the Tejas Brothers went well. The crowd danced and yelled and had a great time. It was Halloween night too, so several folks were in costume.

Saturday was the Chili competition. Cooks were up at the crack of dawn a chopping and a cooking. Turn in was at noon.

After turn in, you wander around all the campsites and sample the chili. There is also a presentation aspect to this with all kinds of wacky booths.

Here is Mark David Manders in some kinda zen/chili pose. He had actually asked for a shot of tequila, but got a bowl of red instead.

One thing I noticed was that many folks had custom painted gas stoves.

This distinctive style is painted by Wendell Rankin. I saw at least a dozen stoves across the campground that he had painted. I suppose its the chili equivalent of a rodeo belt buckle.

We were hoping to take a trip to Boquillas. Its a small border town whose economy was dependent on tourists. To get there, you paid a guy to canoe you across the Rio (a 40 ft trip) and then you got a donkey ride into town. It was a good stop for float trips too. Now its pretty much shut down due to heightened security.

Instead, I took a quick trip to the Terlingua ghost town too and checked out the cemetery. The week before, some friends had a skull decorating party. Seemed a fitting place to leave one behind as the next day was the Day of the Dead.

Sat night I played with Mark David Manders and pretty much crashed straight to sleep when we were done. It was nice to hear all the laughing, music and campground noise throughout the night.

Sunday we packed up and faced the long drive home. We had lunch at the Edelweiss Brewery in Alpine, Texas. Surprisingly, I didn’t try the beer. Had a long drive ahead so Ill have to revisit that sometime. The burgers were excellent.

The rest of the band decided to take 67 on the way home. Its a more direct way home, but is potentially slower. The most interesting parts start well past San Angelo and it would be dark by the time I got to that, so I opted to take 20. Besides, on the way down I saw some interesting things in Coyanosa that I wanted to revisit.

I suppose interesting to me is Cotton fields, Chili fields, Pumpkin patches and a fruit stand all in one “no stop light” town. I had never seen chilies growing in a field before. I love growing them, but my plants were never as productive as these. The cotton was all over the place. You know its cotton season when the roads are lined with loose cotton.

The fruit stand had the strangest gourds I have ever seen. To bad nobody was tending the stand. I would have bought one of these. I did stock up on a half dozen topo chicos next door to drink on the way home.

West Texas…looks like this for miles and miles.

I made a quick stop in Midland too. Its a strange city in the middle of nowhere. On the weekend it looks like a ghost town (kinda like Downtown dallas). Nothing was open as far as I could tell downtown. Creepy. I did stop at a drive through Paleta store that was located close to the freeway.

Dallas needs this:

Good times. The Sues plan on going next year….playing or not.

So the Boys Named Sue were hired to play a wedding in Marfa, Tx.
Marfa is a LONG ways away so it was easily the longest road trip we have taken. Its difficult enough just to get the band to play outside of 635. The trip down was pretty brutal. We were supposed to leave Dubs at 10am, but with all the delays and whatnot…we left Dallas around 1:45. Typical.
Snakebite couldn’t make the trip, so we had the help of “Party Cove Sue” to help us out.

Dirty!

Dub has a new GPS in his car so I got to mess with that. We spent the first hour debating if it was a better idea to follow the directions or just take 20 most of the way. Come Abilene, we opted to follow the computer…which was probably the fastest. For the next 300 miles of hwy 67, we probably saw 20 cars total. Go technology.

The first highlight of the trip was when we hit the Comanche springs restaurant in Fort Stockton. Its main attraction is the Big Chef Sitting Bull burger. It serves 4 to 6 people and is FREE if you eat it (with fries) in an hour.

Dub had to give it a try. Mostly because he had a cousin (Kegman) who had made an excellent run at it a year or so before. Our waitress seriously tried to talk him out of it. Dub insisted. John even got some footage of them making the burger in the kitchen. When it came out…DANG..check this out

Here is the burger against a 1/4 lb burger!!!!

Party Cove just looks ill.

He had a go at it..but didn’t finish it. Luckily the motel had a mini fridge so we could keep it around and take bites over the weekend. (Yuck)

We pulled into Marfa around 11:30pm. After unloading the truck, it was closing time for the bar, but most of the wedding party was still loitering in the Thunderbird parking lot. I retired early, while the rest of the band went with the remaining wedding party to try and see the marfa lights.

We started the next day with pizza from Pizza Foundation.

It was some EXCELLENT pizza. I highly recommend it.

I walked around town a bit after, but I cant say that Marfa did much for me. The town is kinda like a Texas version of Aspen…but without 98% of the high dollar amenities. I looked at the pictures on the real estate office…most places were 150k to start (for shacks.)
Tons of art galleries…but the restaurants were modest. ( A good thing) Food was certainly good, but homey. Lots of people walking around with cell phones and yet, no Starbucks. The only retail coffee was at the gas station. Its a unique place. Maybe the best way to describe it is a place for rich Dallasites to go, but where they seem to be happy NOT bringing all that Dallas crap with them. (Just the cell phones and laptops…gotta tell everybody where you are at right?)

The weather and view is breathtaking. I hope to go back so I can see Big Bend.

The Wedding reception was a blast. We got fed the most amazing food. Quail (deboned!), Lobster, Pork and beef tenderloin (OH GOD!!! IT WAS AMAZING) and a most stellar Gumbo. The groom’s family are in the food biz…so that was an important part of the party…and spared no expense.

I was fascinated by all the candles.

the venue was pretty nice. Apparently Sonic Youth played there a year ago. We where told this many times. Yo La Tango was going to be there in a month. Did I mention that the town was filled with hipsters?

We dreaded Sunday’s drive back to Dallas. Amazingly, we got out of town by noon. We had quick stop at Alpine for food and a picture op at Jackassic Park.

Im in Tulsa now for a quick little roadtrip. I had hoped to take a few of these while I had the break.

This weekend is the Claremore Bluegrass and Chili festival. I’ve heard of this a few times over the years. This year the headliners are Tony Rice, Russell Moore and IIIrd time out, Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver as well as Dan Tyminski (the singing voice of George Clooney in “Brother Where Art Thou”).

Unfortunately, Tony Rice…the guy I wanted to see the most, had to cancel due to Hurricane Gustav. (?? I’m not sure why…but whatever). His backup band, Mountain Heart, is usually a headliner anyway so they just played a longer set. The sound was excellent.

I didn’t find much jamming last night…but it was a Thursday. Bluegrass festivals in Texas/OK are much
different than the ones I’m used to in California. Out in California, the shows start Friday night and continue on until Sunday finishing with a gospel set and a few more winding down acts in the afternoon while folks procrastinate between packing up or having a few last beers.

Out here, the shows start on Thursday and are done Saturday night. I guess folks need to get back to church.
Bluegrass festivals are largely alcohol free as opposed to the “Texas Music” festivals like Larry Joes. Note that even the beer soaked festivals don’t have shows on Sundays. The two groups don’t seem to mix much.

Tonight should be pretty good. I hope to find a little more jamming…I’m kinda selective about thegroups I play bluegrass with. I like them to be better than me.

Tulsa is kinda neat. Its definitely an oil town. There are two refineries smack dab in the city center. Doesn’t seem to make gas any cheaper.

There are tons of neat motels on route 66 that herald a day when all you needed was a 15 foot blue whale in front of your motel to get customers to stop and stay. Thats WAAAY better than free wi-fi. Lots of neat old signs.

Downtown has a ton of older buildings. Very Art Deco.

I drove around a bit. There are plenty of independent coffee shops and art stores.

I read about one part called the Brookside district. Its supposed to be hip and trendy. Coming from Dallas that reads “New Urbanism“…blech. In reality, it looked like an older neighborhood like Lower Greenville in the 1980’s. Hope it stays like that and doesn’t end up like 2008 Lower Greenville.

There are a lot of pottery shops too. Guess with all these artists, the coffee shop I’m at got a deal on custom coffee cups.

I had hoped to drop by the Mercury Lounge too to say hello. The Sues had a gig booked there a year ago that was cancelled by the booking agent. Unfortunately, it was one of those situations where the disgruntled booking agent cancelled the acts and didnt tell the club. We are still on the website as a featured band…but have never played there.  The least I could do is step foot in it for a minute or two.