New Orleans Jazzfest, day 2

As always, a great experience. The one thing I noticed differently this year was how much older the audience is. Although the place was jammed packed, the audience seemed to be older. Maybe it was the music of the first weekend, who knows. But, it was a definite older audience. The place was packed.

I consider the entire festival one big nosh. You can nosh on food, nosh on music, nosh on crafts. It’s a beautiful thing. You don’t have to commit to anything for too long. There are 10 stages of music playing all the time.

Friday, we got out to the festival by noon. We started out with Theresa Andersson at the Acurra Stage She has the rock chick thing going but is a bit all over the map in terms of style. Could be of use with a good manager and producer. Next, we saw John Clearly & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen, at the Sprint Stage. These guys clearly rock and our talented. In between we checked out Corey Harris at the Popeyes Blues Tent. He was incredible. Sometimes we just step into the blues tent or gospel tent for 10-15 minute en route to somewhere else. The beautiful thing about noshing through the festival. But, we stayed for Corey Harris. He was fantastic. We also caught a true gospel group, I felt that I was at a revival. Check out Lee Williams and the Spiritual QCs. We actually bought the CD of these guys. I love it, their cd was recorded at their gospel church in Birmingham, Alabama. We passed the way of Emmylou Harris but she did not wow us, so we left. Our last performance of the day was Bonnie Raitt. Thank god we know to work a crowd from college. We literally got up to the 3rd row from the stage. She is such a rocker. Her voice is incredible, she still moves and grooves to the music. You gotta love her. Really glad that we got to see her.

The food is another important part here. It was pretty hot and it takes awhile to get used to the heat but we managed to eat regardless. We started with a fried softshell poboy, smothered with pickles and hot sauce in a big white roll. It’s a must. We get one every year. Our next was my favorite from the Red Fish Grill booth. I actually think their booth is the best booth there. I’d definitely going to get over there for dinner outside the festival next year. They serve fried oysters, a bit of hot sauce over small pieces of spinach, red onions and blue cheese dressing. It is incredible. The other items we did this year was the artichoke/spinach casserole. Good but really heavy. We each took a few bites and then tossed it. Just too much. We also through backsome spicy popcorn shrimp. Our last, another big favorite, was the Cochon de Lait sandwich. Pulled pork with spicy sauce over large chunky sweet coleslaw in a big white hero sandwich. It is truly incredible. I want the recipe. I’d also like to double the amount of pulled pork inside the sandwich. We kept washing these all back with the homemade Strawberry Lemonade. Another festival favorite.

The crafts this year did not wow me. My 2 favorites were not there. One guy, who is pal’s with Dr. Bob, who hand makes paper mache characters. I saw him at Dr. Bob’s so I’ll probably buy something direct from him. The other woman is from South Africa and she sells hand made dolls. I usually buy one a year so I am going to have to contact her because I was really bummed not to go home with my doll this year. She might be slated for the 2nd week. That sometimes happens.

The festival was celebrating the 10th anniversary of the South Africa’s freedom from Apartheid so there was a variety of music, crafts displayed with that in mind.

That night, we went over to Restaurant August behind our hotel for drinks and appetizers. So good. I love the vibe there. We then ventured out to some music. We saw Ben Kweller and Death Cab for Cutie. Weird name but great music. It was fun to see some young alternative rockers vs. all the other types of music we saw during the day. The club was packed and the stage was small. Who would have thought that I would have left New Orleans with both those artists playing over and over again on my play list.