Last Sunday, we went to the Gulf Aid benefit concert with some dear friends. It was an enchanting, oh-so-New-Orleans kind of event: walking through Mardi Gras World, where hundreds of floats and float adornments are created and stored; sampling soundly delicious seafood creations by some of the city's best restaurants and caterers; watching the tugboats and barges troll along the Mississippi; listening to heartfelt, intensely dedicated performers like Tab Benoit call us to attention, lest we forget whom we need to help; chanting "Who Dat?!" spontaneously, like a family, because we are a family.
Singing "You Are My Sunshine"--our state song--a capella, at the tops of our voices. You hardly ever hear the final Louisiana-specific verses, and we didn't sing them either, but here they are, in all their sweetness:
Louisiana, my Louisiana
the place where I was born.
White fields of cotton.
Green fields of clover.
The best fishing
and long tall corn.
Crawfish gumbo and jambalaya,
the biggest shrimp and sugar cane.
The finest oysters
and sweet strawberries
from Toledo Bend
to New Orleans.
I think you hear people sing more about food than about love here, but that's probably because food IS love here, and music is the way we keep our feet as happy as our mouths. And as you can tell from these lyrics, seafood and fishing are woven tightly into that net.
Welcome to Mardi Gras World!
Ya-Ka-Mein and the story behind it.
Allen Toussaint
Crab and shrimp dressing.
Chef Tenney Flynn of G.W. Fin's and his delicious fish tacos.
Dr. John with the Voice of the Wetlands
Alligator sausage sliders from Phil's Grill
Tab Benoit and Cyril Neville with Voice of the Wetlands
Ani DiFranco; and below, singing with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Cupcakes from Kupcake Factory
Shrimp & grits and John Folse's crawfish bisque
Bourbon House's blackened catfish with creamy maque choux, and Lenny Kravitz
Posts
