Alex Rawls - Jazz Fest Notebook Dump, Day 7

I took a lot of notes during the Lost Bayou Ramblers' set, which knocked me out. They may bridge South Louisiana's roots music past with the present better than anyone else, and you could see the past and present mingling in the band's stage presentation. To the right were bassist Alan LeFleur (with a rockabilly haircut and an armful of tattoos) and guitarist Cavan Carruth in an indie rock winter undershirt, a full, bushy beard and a worker's cap). In the middle of the stage, Chris Courville didn't share their genre-related wardrobe sense, but his stand-up kick-drum, snare and cymbal rig reflect the modern dancer's love of a drum beat, and at the far left was Louis Michot, wearing a Beau Chene 4-H baseball undershirt - a wardrobe choice reflecting more ironic times. All of this stood out in contrast to Andre Michot, who sat down to play the accordion and lap steel. He didn't jump around like Carruth and LeFleur. He didn't stomp the stage floor like Courville or climb LeFleur's upright bass like his brother Louis. Instead, he patiently sat there in a clean white shirt and played the music as so many of his forerunners. Later he explained that he sits down because he plays better that way, but he was surrounded by the modern world as he evoked another day.

Jazz Fest - Last Word for Now

We’re doing more Jazz Fest wrap-up in the June issue of OffBeat, so I'll leave it here and move on. The best things I saw? In no particular order, done without the benefit of notes or a schedule (so these are shows that actually stuck in my memory):

Robert Plant/Alison Krauss
Rob Wagner, Hamid Drake and Nobu Ozaki
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Barbara Lynn
the Roy Head segment of the Ponderosa Stomp Revue
Big Jay McNeely when he played the saxophone
Big Blue Marble
Richard Thompson
the New Orleans Bingo! Show
Alejandro Escovedo
Rotary Downs
the Lost Bayou Ramblers