There was this chick from Belgrade who positively wailed!

Yes, I said “chick,” get over it, that’s what the girls say, it’s not a pejorative. And she was in a slinky red dress and was squeezing out the notes like a modern day Van Halen and with her horn section and backup singers she had the Blues Tent enthralled. That’s the power of live music, something too many people don’t get to experience now that clubs have gone canned and everybody overcharges.

I won’t say all the performers were fantastic, but the Gospel Tent lives up to its rep. You’re ready to convert on the spot. Irma Thomas played to more than a packed house, they were stacked outside the gate…take that Sahara Tent!

But my favorite was Jerry Douglas.

It was hard to get close to him, the stage he played upon was engulfed in mud. But he set my mind a-driftin’ and that’s what I like most about music, when it puts me in a reflective mood, contemplating the past and pondering the future as the clouds roll in over the Pontchartrain…

Clouds…

It did rain this morning.

But it was followed by extreme cold. You know, the kind you get on the Cape in September, when you want it to be summer, but no amount of willin’ will make it so.

And Maroon 5…

Made me feel old.

Not because the music was so new and fresh, but because I’ve seen it before. Headliners come and go, the journeymen play on.

In other words, ten years from now Maroon 5 won’t be at Jazz Fest, but so many on the undercard will be.

Still, the crowd was frightening. There’s gonna be a Cincinnati moment at one of these festivals one of these days. Hell, it already happened in Europe. And the promoters are gonna throw their hands in the air and say it never occurred to them, there’s nothing they can do.

But that’s B.S.

But the highlight of Jazz Fest is the food.

I had a pulled pork Po-Boy that was delish.

As was the Natchitoches Meat Pie.

Everybody in L.A. doesn’t eat. More important than your bank account is your figure. Oh, you can spend hundreds on a meal, you just won’t get much, just the privilege of being able to say you ate there.

But Louisiana food is for those with appetites. Who believe in texture and flavor. And what else are we living for if it isn’t great food and aural pleasure?

P.S. That blues act was Ana Popovic & Mo’ Better Love, read about her here:

Ana Popovic

P.P.S. Also exceptional was Grayson Capps, at the Lagniappe Stage.

P.P.P.S. Festivals are helping bring us back to the garden, they allow the hoi polloi to partake of so much at the smorgasbord. But we’ve got to find a way to get the general public in the habit of seeing these acts live in their own communities. Movies are good at home, live music is not. And live music is an irreplaceable sensation that satiates in a way no other amusement can. But somehow greed and fame have trumped the essence. Nurture the essence, good times will return.