Finally posting this from the airport in Toronto, after writing up part of it in a motel somewhere creepy in the middle of nowhere, New York and part in a dilapidated taqueria in the outskirts of Buffalo… (The above photo is pretty much irrelevant; we didn’t take any pics this episode.) Had such a wonderful, wonderful time on the last radio show of this “season”! Pizza Mike, Patrick Cooper, Mack Guillory, and Joey Oakley were at the station playing, talking, lol-ing, sharing memories, etc, it felt like the cozy good ol’ days (before every episode was a maelstorm, in the best of ways.) We got to hear some great original tunes plus a fun group Rolling Stones sing-a-long where we barely ever swore. Gas station food, double-fisting O’Doul’s and Bud Light Lime (I am probably[/hopefully] the only person on the planet deranged enough to do this….), Pizza Mike’s detailed, riveting, and far-too-prompt answer to the question “what are you going to do on Thursdays now?” … A good time was had by all.
Playlist/Minutes:
“Honky Tonk Heroes” – Waylon Jennings. The first song I ever played on Musicians, Mentors, and Barroom Heroes! That playlist was all “bartender picks”, gathered on a daytime, by-my-lonesome pub crawl (aka ‘typical day off back when I had $ to drink alone’.) This one was picked by Levi Chancellor, a jukebox favorite of his where he works at BJs in the Bywater. (Jukeboxes that don’t suck/aren’t Touchtunes in New Orleans: BJs, the Abbey, Tiki’s [I think… is it touchtunes?]…, Bmacs, Junction, I suppose… others?)
“Don’t Call Me Stranger” – Chris Smither. My 2nd favorite Chris Smither song (at the moment), which he played at Chickie Wah Wah during Jazz Fest right before he played my first-favorite Chris Smither song (of every moment) “Time Stands Still”. What an amazing show, big thanks to Patrick Cooper for making this happen! One of the best nights of music I’ve had recently, despite being nearly delirious with no sleep. Couldn’t make the Gal Holiday Tip’s show (cuz of Smither), but got to hear them soundcheck, then Chickie Wah Wah, then (because the perilous drive home–I was not drunk, just off my rocker–woke me up enough to make silly decisions) I went to Siberia and saw Happy Talk (the members of which I ended up interviewing live on WHIV from the Marigny Recording Studios the next day for the United Bakery Records Revue, which was a kickass event), followed by Julie O’Dell (who I’d never seen play with a band before, kickass!), followed by my fave The Monocle aka Aurora Nealand’s solo-project which was also with a full band this go-round and one of the best performances I’ve seen of them (assuming I didn’t hallucinate this entire experience.)
You like run-on sentences, right?
“Galway Girl” – Steve Earle. Earle claims that although he’s “been all around, been all over this world,” he ain’t “never seen nothin’ like a Galway girl.” Will report back from The Hills of Ireland next month 🤣🤣
“Easy Way Out “ – Mack Guillory LIVE. So great to see Mack in the flesh! It’s all too rare, although we hear tell of one another all the time. Here’s hoping he will start playing more at open mics/whatever else around New Orleans, cuz he is f’ing awesome 🙂 Great voice and hilarious writing… we all know folks like the character in this song…
“Isis” – Bob Dylan The first Dylan song I got into, when I was 16. Thematic for travelling, archaeology, Cinco de Mayo, epic quests, etc.
“Captain” – Lonesome Leash. One of my favorite songwriters (and one of my very top favorite lyricists) around. I love the arrangement of this one.
“Bound” – Joey Oakley LIVE. This is just such a great song. Beautiful melody, great lyrics, heartfelt/unique take on a theme that many people completely botch (moving to New Orleans & falling in love with it.) There was a line somewhere in there that I loved but can’t remember verbatim, about getting so tired of words sometimes and just wanting to hold somebody (which very much struck me, because I’d just been packing and rediscovered one of my old poetry books by ee cummings, and one of my favorite poems, ‘since feeling is first”… I’ve always appreciated the fact that although words/lyrics are so immensely important to me, one of my all-time favorite poems warns that “life’s not a paragraph.”) Anyhoo, some of the vocals brought to mind Jeff Buckley, so we picked a Jeff tune to follow it.
“Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind” – Jeff Buckley (coverin’ Bob Dylan. Much prefer Jeff’s voice to Bob’s on this track, which isn’t unheard of re Dylan songs…)
Panel Discussion: The misuse of the word “irony”. Quiz: “A black fly in your Chardonnay…” Is this a) ironic, or b) why would somebody who makes a living writing/singing lyrics ever think this is a reasonable thing to publish, absolutely fucking ridiculous.
“Ironic” – Alanis Morrissette
Panel Discussion: Randy Newman playing apple eating song, and other things I don’t remember
“Better Version of Me” – Fiona Apple (per usual, playlists based on random word ass-ociation.)
“Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Johnny Cash feat. Fiona Apple
“Alone At Last” – Patrick Cooper LIVE. You can hear this on the Musician, Mentors, and Barroom Heroes LIVE! CD Complete with the story that goes along with it. Donate here! gofundme.com/mmbrh
Question to Pizza Mike: “What will you do on Thursday nights now that I will be out of town?”
(Prompt) Answer: “Why, chicken and steak night at Salvo’s Seafood in Belle Chasse, of course.” (Cue intriguing and convoluted tale about being phoned by an ex in Belle Chasse only to drive all the way over there to find she had some other guy over, something about drugs and general discomfort, them wanting to be dropped somewhere cumbersome, discovering and/or ending up at this biker bar with chicken and steak, or as is inclined to roll off tongue instead, Sticken and Shake” etc….
“Shake Shake Shake” – Shawn Williams DEAD For those of you who want to get lucky during Jazz Fest, call to action to come to (/at) Checkpoint Charlie’s for the after-party! (You have a 2 hour break from 9 to 11 to…)
“Centerfold” – J. Geils Band (…look at dirty magazines.)
“Sweet Virginia” – LIVE group sing-a-long! Replacing “shit” with “steak” was moderately successful.
“Hit Or Miss” – Odetta (song that unconditionally lifts ones spirits)
“Sleep On The Floor” – The Lumineers (also sort of a mood lifter, even though not as overtly optimistic. And will forever be associated for me with long roadtrips and/or obnoxious bus rides…)
“Home Was A Feeling” – Lonesome Leash (good “end of night” song)
Why are there so many pics of me doing this? Somebody should remind me that the songs won’t fall out.
Bonus track!
Meant to play this! One of the videos we watched, in one of the music electives I took in college. (Randomly took music electives in my last year cuz I needed x number of credits, and they seemed comparatively easy… then ended up moving to New Orleans, responding to a craigslist ad about an OffBeat music journalism internship, one thing led to another and ended up doing all sorts of other musicky things… Life!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txGQXXn51BQ