as promised, i thought i would recap my recent visit to new orleans, where i attended the 50th anniversary of what is considered to be one of the more important and comprehensive music festivals in the country. i first had the opportunity to experience the new orleans jazz and heritage festival last year, but only attended two days. being the fiftieth anniversary this year, mrs. redeyegin and i decided to return with our good friends jim and tracy and make a week of it and see the entirety of the second weekend’s offerings.

we kicked things off wednesday night with a free music event at lafayette square featuring trumpet mafia and deacon john, and then headed off to dinner in the french quarter.

the second weekend of the festival started thursday morning, and local favorite cowboy mouth opened the festival on the stage that the rolling stones were supposed to have played at later that day. but since they had to cancel due to mick’s health, we got to hear cowboy mouth do a cover of ‘you can’t always get what you want’, which seemed appropriate. i then headed over to the cajun/zydeco stage for a while, took a tour of the whole venue, then caught a bit of widespread panic’s set before closing out the day hearing mavis staples in the blues tent. she shocked me about halfway through her set when the band broke into the talking heads’ ‘slippery people’. trombone shorty joined her for a bit as well.

friday opened with a couple of local favorites – the iguanas and honey island swamp band. if you are not familiar with them, please check both of them out. once again i headed over to the cajun/zydeco stage, and then went back to the blues tent for the night. first off was sonny landreth, and then los lobos. the latter was celebrating being together for 45 years, and essentially did a 90 minute retrospective on their career. they started with a few all acoustic traditional songs (i think they did nearly everything from their ‘acoustic en vivo’ album), worked their way through their ‘hits’, and then finished with a rocking version of ‘bertha’.

saturday looked questionable for a while, as a major storm passed through the area just before lunch. we got there around two and started off with a band from the republic of congo – jupiter and okwess. they might have been the winner in the category of ‘best band i saw that i had never heard of before’. we then caught some of marcia ball’s set, before heading over to hear jerry douglas and the earls of leicester bluegrass band. once again, i finished at the blues tent with robert randolph and the family band.

sunday was maybe the best overall lineup. i started the day with george porter jr., the only act i saw that was one of the original performers at the 1970 jazz fest. jon cleary was next up, and then little feat, also celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. it was probably not the liveliest set they ever did, but it was great to see them again, and it made mrs. redeyegin very happy. the radiators got back together for the occasion, and they were in great form. i caught a quick glimpse of terrance simien back at the zydeco stage, and then finished off the day, and the festival, with the mavericks. i am glad i did, and have resolved to make myself more familiar with that band.

what a great event. i want to thank my friends kevin and sean for talking me into going last year, and ‘showing me the ropes’. i am so glad that i finally ventured down to experience something that i had yearned to do for years. there is a very good chance i will be down there again soon.

and of course, it is hard to talk about the music of new orleans without a little professor longhair (more on him very soon):

going down to this festival in mount vernon friday, mostly to see nikki lane, but there are a few other acts that look pretty interesting. first, we feature the headliner, with a new video she released today.

before them comes a bluegrass combo, whiskey bent valley boys, hailing from louisville kentucky.

preceding them is buffalo wabs and the price hill hustle, a four piece band offering americana and folk, coming up from cincinnati.

and on the side stage, minnesota native charlie parr. charlie is currently playing at the americana festival in nashville and will bring his unique songwriting up 71 to open this festival.

hope to see you all down there. more on nikki here:

nikki lane, ‘highway queen’

https://www.ohiolina.com/

after a big night, day two started out a little later than we had planned, but we were ready by the time charles bradley took the main stage. i just found out about him recently. after leading a hard luck life, and spending much of the last two decades as a james brown imitator in nyc, he was recently discovered by a small r&b label. they made a young band available to him, and recorded his first cd in his early sixties. here he is about halfway thru his set:

next up was another band from nyc, the lone bellow. i have their most recent release, and it is worth consideration. they definitely have some serious vocal chops:

then we headed over to the second stage to take in my old friend jimmy cliff working his way through a solid set of all of his greatest hits. the dude is 67 and still puts on a hell of a show. colin meloy of the decemberists was on the side stage taking in one of the masters:

a great weekend. this was the inaugural event for this festival, and look forward to seeing what they put together next year. here are a few homemade videos from brad’s camera. the rain seems to have dampened tweedy’s night, but nels cline was definitely on it. unforgettable.

we got on site at 10 am when the gates opened. the vip lounge was underadvertised, as they had an open bar and gratis carolina bbq buffett, plus a titos trailer. it was going to be a big day.

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first group was kingfish. a young blues guitarist who kicked off the day with a buddy guy style onslaught. very talented kid.

it was time to get a good bite to eat, to establish the necessary base for the day, a flank steak and pretzel bun sandwich.

next up was holly williams, daughter of hank jr., and she is worth your attention. most of the songs she played were off her ‘highway’ album.

watched first half of trampled by turtles set, then over to neko case for her set.

back to main stage for iron and wine.

went back to vip lounge for smoked chicken, ribs, low country shrimp boil, cheddar biscuits and some sweet tea (with some tito’s). caught last half of sheryl crow set, mostly just to position ourselves for the next and final act, wilco. managed to get in the front row, on the fence, just in time for the heavens to unload for 30 minutes. but it was worth it. they put on an outstanding show. nels cline was directly in front of us, and he was on fire. more on them later.