Louisiana Festivals, and a GIVEAWAY!

Even though Louisiana’s state motto is “The Sportsman’s Paradise”, I really think they should be known as “The Festival Goers Paradise”.  Of course, that has less of a ring to it.  But seriously…it doesn’t begin and end with Mardi Gras, y’all.  Mardi Gras is just the big, flashy tip of the iceberg.  This is a state of people who love music, who love to dance, and who REALLY love to eat.  And drink.  And where BETTER to do all those things than at a festival?  I give you just a quick sampler (and their 2013 dates):

April 20-21: Angola Prison Rodeo & Arts/Crafts Fair (St. Francisville) – This is the longest running prison rodeo in the US, in operation since 1965.  The Arts & Crafts Fair portion originally started as a way for the inmates to make a few extra bucks selling items they’d handmade… now the fair portion takes up all of the morning, with the rodeo starting at 2pm.  Proceeds from the Angola Prison Rodeo cover rodeo expenses and supplement the Louisiana State Penitentiary Inmate Welfare Fund which provides for inmate educational and recreational supplies.

April 24-28:  Festival Internationale de Louisiana (Lafayette) – Since I lived in Laffy for 3 years, this is probably my favorite. Five days, eight stages, seventy-four bands, thirty-one food vendors, and thousands of people.  Fo’ free.  Well—the food & drinks aren’t free, but everything else is.  SEVENTY FOUR BANDS---from all over the world, and some from right at home, including a few of my faves like Marc Broussard, the Mike Dean Band, Feufollet, and Michael Juan Nunez.

April 26 – May 5: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (NOLA) – Easily Louisiana’s biggest music festival.  Ten days, over 130 bands.  This year’s lineup includes Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Dave Matthews, Maroon 5, The Black Keys, John Mayer, Hall & Oates, BB King, Earth Wind & Fire, Little Big Town, along with big name locals like the Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Cowboy Mouth, Better than Ezra, Tab Benoit, Marc Broussard… I could go on forever.  Single day tickets run around $50 ($65 at the gate), or you can buy weekend passes and VIP packages at their website.

May 22-25: New Orleans Food & Wine Experience (NOLA) - Over the past 20 years this festival has raised more than $1 million for local non-profit organizations, while showcasing local food and chefs, and national and international wines.   This year in an effort to fight hunger and support culinary education, the 2013 beneficiaries will share 100% of the proceeds. Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana will receive 40% and the following will share the remaining 60%: the Louisiana Restaurant Association Education Foundation's ProStart Program, Delgado Culinary Arts School, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts’ Culinary Program, the John Folse Culinary Institute and the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans.  Eat for a Cause!!!!

October 2013 (dates not yet announced) Voice of the Wetlands Festival (Houma) – Here’s another free festival that runs for three days and always features one of my favorites, Tab Benoit.  The festival centers around raising money and general awareness for the ever-diminishing wetlands along coastal Louisiana.  I’m a big fan of the work they do, and getting to see 20+ bands for free while benefitting a good cause doesn’t hurt either.

November 1-3: The VooDoo Experience (New Orleans) – This rock festival in late fall is a total blast, and 2013 marks the 15th year.  The lineup for this year hasn’t been announced yet, but past artists include Metallica, Soundgarden, Snoop Dogg, Blink 182, Black Crows, Girl Talk, Fatboy Slim, Paulo Nutini, Muse, Lenny Kravitz, etc.

 

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And so, we move on to the giveaway!  One lucky reader is going to receive the prize pack shown in the photo below!

• 2013 12-month calendar featuring photos from all across Louisiana (taken by me, so I don’t infringe on someone’s copyrights), with the dates of major festivals and holidays.
• Authentic New Orleans Mardi Gras Beads and a Doubloon from the Krewe of Caesar
• Three discount cards from my New Orleans Drink Deck for three of my favorite New Orleans spots: Cure, The Bulldog, and Superior Grill ($22+ value).  And these cards have NO EXPIRATION, so use them as inspiration for planning your next trip down south!  Or, if you have no plans to EVER visit NOLA (so sad…) keep them as a memento, or sell ‘em on Ebay. :)  Save $10 at Superior Grill, and 20% at Bulldog and Cure.  Great food and cocktails, peeps.

 

 

How do you win?

- Use the buttons above on the left to follow this blog via Facebook, Pinterest, Feedburner, or Google (one entry per follow)

- Leave a comment here, or on Facebook or Pinterest telling me your favorite festival food.  Whether it be funnel cake, candied apples, walking tacos, or deep fried Snickers—I want to know! (Earns another entry)

- Winner will be chosen at random!  Deadline for entries is Friday, February 22, 2013 at 8pm CST!  Winner will be announced here and on Facebook (so that would be a good way to follow if you don’t already!)

Good Luck!

Music Monday: Tab Benoit.

I first heard Tab Benoit in 2006— not live, but as one of the musicians who contributed music to the film  “Hurricane on The Bayou”.  Saw it at the New Orleans Imax (and bawled—we evacuated for Katrina, but to see the aftermath on the Imax screen, larger than life…it was pretty overwhelming); if you haven’t seen this movie, you need to rent it ASAP.  The filmmaker began filming it in early 2005.  The original theme was just centered around the erosion of the wetlands of Southern Louisiana, and was intended to sound an alarm as to what could happen if a major hurricane hit New Orleans…then Katrina & her sister Rita arrived, and there were no more hypotheticals.

Tab was one of the featured musicians, interviewed in the film, as he’s also the founder of the Voice of the Wetlands festival which has been around since 2004.

A person doesn't have to be from the region to feel empathy for people who are losing their land and their natural protection from Mother Nature. One of my first professional projects was doing a land loss study of the parishes southeast of New Orleans from the time before and after the hurricanes. I saw first hand in the data that I worked with for 6 months--tens of thousands of acres, just GONE. Islands eroded away to nothing. Valuable habitat for land creatures converted to shallow mudholes--the grass ripped from the earth like a bad bikini wax.

...sorry....that's my soapbox pirouette for the evening. :D

ANYWAY...I wish I could find a clip from the film, showing this scene, but it just stuck with me ever since that moment, and despite his laundry list of CDs and other great songs, that first song I heard is still my favorite.  Slow and passionate and slightly haunting, it’s just one of the most beautiful songs I know…possibly because there could be no more perfect song to have been played in conjunction with a film about the flooding of New Orleans and the disappearing wetlands, than “When A Cajun Man Gets The Blues”:

 

I’ve seen Tab perform a dozen times since then, either at the VOW festival, or at public concerts in Lafayette/Houma.  I could post any number of videos here, but I’ll just let you search the YooToobs yourself.  However, here’s Tab singing one of the more “well-known” Cajun songs:

Music Monday: Drew Landry

I was running through my iPod this morning, trying to decide what musician to blog about today, and Drew came on twice, so I guess that’s a sign.

I have the great privilege of knowing Drew first hand.  He lives across the street from some friends of mine (a street which happens to be on the parade route in Scott, LA, and I’m pretty sure that having property on a parade route in Louisiana increases your property value at least 20%).  A few years back, I was hanging out at said friends’ house after the Scott Mardi Gras parade, and Drew dropped by to say hey (& see what food we had leftover—because Mardi Gras always equals food).  I did a double-take, and before I had a chance to reign it in, my inner fangirl took over and I blurted out in a high pitched voice “You’re Drew Landry!”

He looked over at me, with a big piece of cake in his hand, and said, “yep”.

“I have your CD! It’s awesome.” (I know, I’m so smooth, right?)

He nodded, the piece of cake now in his mouth.  “Cool.  Thanks.” A pause. “Y’all got any beer left?”

That was my first interaction with Drew.  Pretty lame, I know.  But I’ve seen him perform multiple times since, and I have gotten slightly less lame.

When he’s not making music, Drew epitomizes the south Louisiana Cajun, working as a crawfisher when they’re in season, and has also been known to fish old cypress logs (felled and waterlogged trees only) out of the swamps for use in making furniture, boats…maybe even a guitar or two.

And up until last year, Drew was pretty well only locally famous, performing mainly at the Borque’s Social Club in Scott, LA.  Then the BP Horizon incident happened…and Drew wrote a song about it…and sang it on CSPAN.

For more information on shows or booking, here is Drew’s website: http://www.drewlandry.com/

Amazon MP3 downloads are available here, and for the iTunes folks, click here.

Sadly, my favorite CD by Drew is not available on either of these sites—it’s called “Bandryland: Sharecropper’s Wine” and was intended to be a soundtrack for a documentary entitled “Last Man Standin”, which unfortunately was never finished.  But if you’re in the Louisiana area (particularly Lafayette), check out the “Local Artists” section of their Music Department and you may luck out.

Music Monday: Mike Dean

Last week I mentioned the Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette, Louisiana--here's a guy I heard play there multiple times.



Mike Dean hails from the Lafayette area, and though he markets himself as more of a songwriter, he's a pretty well known musician around the southern Louisiana area. His style has been referred to as "Americana", "Country", "Outlaw Rock"...I just call it "good".

When I was still living in Louisiana, I worked for a survey/environmental consulting firm....and Mike worked as a survey man for one of our biggest competitors. But as someone who's been a surveyor, I have a lot of respect for a musician who earns his wages working under the Louisiana sun in 115% humidity.

(this is an entirely different Mike--one of my coworkers--but you get the idea. And it was more impressive than the one I have of ME wearing waders:)



ANYWAY...
The video below is one of my favorite songs. I first heard it in 2008 while working on a 5 month pipeline job in Mississippi; we spent a week in the field, then a week in the office while a separate team was out there, then we went back the week after that. For 5 months. Needless to say, I've seen a lot of Mississippi. And while this song was written for the oilfield workers who have to fly out to the offshore rigs (like the BP Horizon rig I'm sure you're all familiar with):



My crew & I can attest to the fact that it's just as applicable for anyone who has to be away from their family for a week at a time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.





Dean's CD's are available for mp3 download from Amazon.com for $8.99 each:

2004's Hours Later
2006's Must Have Had a Good Time
2008's Woods

Music Monday: Marc Broussard

So, since one of the "secrets" to a successful blog is probably "Post more than once a week", and I sadly don't get to cook as often as I'd like (last night's dinner was a very non-cajun dish of Asian-style Steamables veggie medley + canned baby corn + canned water chestnuts + Ramen noodles + an assortment of sauces to make what I now refer to "holy cr@p, hurry up & eat fast, the trick-or-treaters won't stop ringing the doorbell" stir fry). So I started thinking about other things we can talk about here. Because life in Louisiana is about so much more than just food (although food is a VERY important component).

I mean, I moved down there, knowing NO ONE, for grad school...and then even when the opportunity presented itself to move back home after Katrina smacked us (& then her sister Rita snuck up & kicked us while we were already down), I stayed. For 5 more years. And as much as I REALLY love food, you don't stay somewhere just for the food. You stay for the people, the weather, the culture, the festivals, the work, the music--the whole life experience.

So...Monday, Music...it's an alliteration, and we'll run with it. People in Louisiana love good, authentic, home-grown music. One of my favorite places in Louisiana was The Blue Moon Saloon, an outdoor bar built on to the back of a hostel--so it's essentially like going to a backyard house party. The stage is situated on a wooden "porch" attached to the back of the house. And with fabulous evening weather during 10 out of 12 months of the year, why WOULDN'T someone love an outdoor bar? If you're ever in Lafayette for any reason, I highly recommend you check it out. Then kick back on a bench with an Abita and enjoy.

Today's Music Monday artist, however, I never saw perform at the Blue Moon, although I did see him at several other venues, since he's originally from the Lafayette "metro" area, out around Carencro: Marc Broussard. This guy has a wicked talent & a powerful voice. I think the best example I can give to you is this scenario:

A while back, a friend of mine was feeling down in the dumps, so I made her a CD, with Marc's song "Let The Music Get Down in Your Soul" as the first track (one of my favorite songs of all time). A week after I gave her the disc, we had coffee and she told me, "you know, I really loved that first song on the CD you gave me, so I looked that guy up....um....*lowered voice* Did you know he's white?"

I guffawed...because I'd had the same thought the first time I heard him.



Here's this rather precious looking boy-next-door-looking chap...with a voice that makes you think he was somehow medically created in a lab using DNA from Wayne Brady & Luther Vandross.

I was hooked from the first song, and now celebrate his entire collection.

And I'd like to share.

You can download his CD "The Atlantic Recordings", legally and FREE OF CHARGE, from Noisetrade.com. Not just samples--the whole CD. Here's the link.

Enjoy, and happy All Saints Day!