“Jazzfest Week 2”
Rain was forecast for the second Thursday of Jazzfest. We donned our ponchos and prepared to make the best of it.
We set up under the big tree (maybe some rain protection?) by the Fais Do Do stage in hopes of seeing Alejandro Escovedo closing out that stage.
After setting up, we wandered over to the main Festival stage to see some of the jam band, Lettuce. Alicia and I saw them at the Granada theater in Dallas years ago – Diana was not interested. I pressured her into it this time. I do enjoy this band.
Our wonderful mail carrier, Rhonda, sent this picture with her Mom at the Congo Square stage.
The heavy rain caused the day to be cut very short – no Alejandro and there were lots of other disappointed bands and fans.
We did catch a little bit of Lake Street Dive on the way out.
The weather forecast for Friday (day 6) was better, maybe rain later in the day.
We set up at the main Festival stage and enjoyed some of Amanda Shaw’s early set. Then we walked over to Congo Square to see Tony Hall’s James Brown tribute. He always does such a good job. I enjoyed watching one of the janitors dancing to the music and waving his grabber tool to the beat. There were other dancers too:
Back at the Festival stage, we had been looking forward to Rickie Lee Jones. She was cancelled as the organizers tried to rearrange the schedule to get the headliners on before some forecasted rain.
Mason had joined us as he wanted to see the Black Keys close out the Gentilly stage.
He enjoyed the young country artist, John Foster, with us:
That was followed by one of our favourites, Mac Broussard:
Next up was the headliner, Lainey Wilson, and Diana was looking forward to it. The heavens fully opened before she could take the stage. I was not amused:
Things became very soggy very quickly.
Lainey Wilson was a complete trooper when she took the stage and was immediately completely soaked. In for a penny, she came down off the stage and greeted the crowd on the grass.
That was not a fun end to the day at all!
Saturday (day 7) at the Festival stage was a much more pleasant weather day.
Three Kirsch girls joined us for the ride – Kara, Nina, and Debra.
The Festival stage started out with the Honey Island Swamp band – we missed most of that taking advantage of Debra’s free passes to one of the fancy drink tents.
Anders Osborne performed one of the best sets that I’ve heard from him – plenty of quiet versions of his old classics:
Now it was time for the highlight, The Eagles.
For the first time in the long history of Jazzfest they declared a sell out and did not let any more folks in as the Eagles prepared to take the stage. It was a wee bit busy:
Keith Spera had written an article that made me chuckle as I thought about Denny and his opinion of The Eagles:
Clearly a lot of folks agree with Mr. Spera.
The Eagles set was the usual precise and beautifully presented set of classics with amazing harmonies and musicianship. Here are several clips of their biggest hit:
Some classic Joe Walsh:
And finally, one of my favourites:
Sunday – we made it to all 8 days! The sun was forecast to shine all day.
We set up at the Gentilly stage and enjoyed early sets from Jon Cleary and the Radiators. Then came the Tedeschi Trucks band. I had been looking forward to this all week. As soon as they started to play you realized that they were just a much better band than almost all the others you had heard over the two weeks. Here’s an excellent Sly Stone cover:
Then some evidence of why Susan Tedeschi is the best female singer and guitar player out there, and she’s wearing a New Orleans appropriate headdress:
The classic protest song:
Then Warren Haynes and several other Allman Brothers alumni joined the stage for a massive jam on “Dreams” and “Whipping Post:”
What an absolute musical treat!
Just a tiny bit more about music, I promise. Here’s something that Jon Cleary wrote about the new Taj Mahal album:
“At last, today, as the sun beats down outside, Taj Mahal’s new record is released, available for all to hear. I say new, but the first session took place sixteen years ago in LA, it’s just taken that long to come out. The single. ‘Time’, is a tune that was mostly recorded by me here at my studio, Funk Headquarters, in New Orleans. I was sent a Bill Withers demo, something he’d written and made a rough recording of but that was unfinished. They asked if I could come up with a completed idea for Taj so I set about putting together an arrangement, playing and recording acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass, drums, percussion, piano, keyboards and background vocals. I ran off a rough mix sent it back to my compadres in the Phantom Blues band in Los Angeles who then added some stuff, replaced some stuff and mixed it with Taj’s new vocal. It was so long ago now that I’d forgotten all about it. It’s a nice testament both to Taj and to Bill Withers too, who passed away soon after from Covid.
Also on the record, is a favourite of mine, a song written by a cat called Johnny ‘Snakehips’ Johnson who happens to be my Uncle. ‘Snakehips’ (a moniker given him by fellow schoolmates for his dextrous footwork and skillful maneuvering on the football field in the 50’s) is my Mum’s brother and is the dude that hipped me to New Orleans in the first place, his storys of the place inspiring me as a kid to move halfway around the world and start a new life.”