LET'S ZYDECO WITH GENO!!!

C.J. & I planned to stay an extra day in New Orleans so that we could go see Geno Delafose. I've been waiting 7 years to see this band. They don't go much farther west than Beaumont...or to festivals in California etc.

Geno greetin' his fans. I went up and said "Hi"....he thanked me for coming. Rock-n-Bowl has live music, food, a big bar and duh...BOWLING.

These guys always look sharp...starched shirts and creased jeans etc. We liked Rock-n-Bowl cos it was BIG and local and an older crowd...it's a family place too...there were a few kids there. Our taxi driver was so nice. He gave us his cell number and said just call when we are ready to go back to the hotel. It was in a neighborhood where there aren't alot of cabs.

I like the wood on the bass player's guitar. They played for 3 hrs. w/ no break and were still goin' when we left.

A few hula hoops are always fun. It was also fun to watch the dancers. You could tell alot of them had been dancing together all their lives. The bar gives dance lessons too.

There weren't many folks bowling.

Real cowboys wear pink.

I made a request to the bassist and they played 'my song'!! I was so jazzed. This song has never been released on any of his CD's. I found it on Youtube. You can hear it here...looks like you'll have to hi-lite, copy and paste it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8NDTpy8Zfw Or you can just Google Youtube Geno Delafose at SP 2008 and it should pop up. It's called: "If you don't like my peaches-don't shake my tree".

Even Geno's boots are cool. He is credited with helping to create the sound called 'nouveau zydeco' which is rooted in Creole traditional music w/ influences of Cajun and Country & Western. His Dad (John Delafose) was a famous accordian player...and Geno started playing w/ him when he was 9 yrs. old. He debuted his first CD in 1994. He lives in Duralde, LA...near Eunice where he was born and raises cattle and horses on his ranch there. Every year he hosts a huge, free picnic w/ Bar-B-Q for all his fans.

C.J. is SUCH a HOOT!! The guy who was running the sound and mixing board (or whatever it's called) started chatting us up and found out we were Texans who had never seen the band live. He rushed up w/ a washboard and said "Would you like to jam a little?" I certainly am not musical at all...but C.J. is....and she was...and it was great fun!!!!! That guy told us that all the guys in  the band are just plain nice folks.

Back by the bathrooms I found this bottlecap art!! When I took a picture a guy came up and told me that he made that...we talked about bottlecaps for a few minutes.

Alot of my pictures are dark so I pulled this one off the internet. Our other night of live music was at this tiny place called The Bullet Sports Bar to hear a trumpet guy and his jazz band. It was in a crappy neighborhood and the cab driver didn't know where it was and didn't seem to want to let us out when got there. He asked us "Are you girls SURE?" We were sure. It wasn't a slum or anything...just a teensy seedy. Totally residential (in fact the bar was an old shotgun type house w/ houses all around it) so for noise reasons the band starts at 7 and stops at 10 p.m. We got there late and sat in the back and couldn't see anything very well. But everybody was so nice and thanked us for coming. Out front there was a Bar-B-Q pit going and CD's for sale etc. The bartender lady hadda call the cab company THREE times before we FINALLY got a taxi to come get us. We loved our trip to NOLA!!! We liked getting off the beaten touristy path and seeing local stuff. We had planned to take the streetcar thru the Garden District and also tour one of the cemeteries...but alas...the heat and our age got the best of us. That's all folks...I hope I get to go to New Orleans again someday.