Overwhelming. Too much food. Too much music. Too much...fun!

  My first day was the first Saturday, April 29th. The first hour I just walked around the Fairgrounds, probably with my mouth open. Then I discovered Crawfish Monica. Crawfish, pasta, and this sauce...this booth became my first stop most days. I watched some 'Frogman' Henry, a little Hugh Masekela, a fistful of Herbie Hancock (with Marcus Miller) and then settled in for a full set by Leroy Jones and New Orleans Finest. I met Leroy on the Fiji/New Zeeland Festival a couple of years ago, and he's a great player. Plus he's put together a smokin' band and did a great set.

  Day two, Sunday the 30th, after a lunch of Crawfish Monica (who IS Monica?), I settled in at the Blues stage and watched Papa Gros Funk, Jim Andrews, Big Sam's Funky Nation, and The Rebirth Brass Band. Then I caught some of The Meters set (they might want to have a chat with the sound man), and saw just a pinch of Bruce Springsteen. I'm not a huge Bruce guy, but the folk stuff with his big band sounded great. Sunday night, I headed for the Quarter for Eric Lindell's record release party at One-Eyed Jack's. I played some gigs for Eric last year, and it's good to see him do so well, having signed to Alligator and getting all kinds of attention in N.O. (and the album is excellent, by the way).

  Monday, May 1st brought WWOZ's 'Piano Night' at The House of Blues. I knew this would be fun when I ended up in line behind Harry Shearer! My brain kept yelling "Derek Smalls! Derek Smalls!" But the real fun started when James Loose Reed of Mojo Madness showed up and snagged me a Backstage Pass! James was running around the south with Carol Fran, and we arranged to meet up for the evening. Here's how nuts this was; I was standing onstage watching a packed house rock along with Marcia Ball, Eddie Bo, David Torkanowsky, Joe Krown, John Gros, with Shannon Powell on drums when I notice I'm standing next to Zigaboo Modeliste! One of the real treats was seeing Cassandra Falconer play bass. I'd heard of her (Offbeat Bassist of the Year, played with Eric Lindell), but hadn't seen her till then. She's awesome. Great, great time, feel, and intuition. I'm a fan.

  The worst part of the whole experience was due to the fact that I'm a lousy spectator of music. It's not that I don't appreciate it; it's just that seeing other people play music is only a small fraction as fun as playing music myself. Thank God for Oscar and the Blues Cats Wednesday night jam at the Deckbar & Grill. Oscar got me up, and Dr. Jack was kind enough to trust me with his rig ("That's not active is it? Just don't overload my speaker and we'll be friends for life."). He was very complimentary after I played, so I guess I've got that going for me. I know a couple of other, regular bassists ended up leaving before they got to play, but I relly needed to play, so I wasn't going to volunteer to step aside. Sorry for being a 'Jam Hog'.

  Friday, and the fest is back on! Crawfish Monica (is there a Nobel Prize for Seafood? Why not?), then saw Kim Carson and the Casualties, with Cassandra filling in on bass. Killer, roadhouse honky tonk. Next up on the Acura Stage (the big one), was Doug Kershaw. I remember walking into a Tahoe casino years ago, and seeing this guy sawing away at a fiddle engulfed in a cloud of rosin dust and busted horse hair, and just rockin! Well, he's still the same, and his son Tyler on drums seemed to be the only band member that could keep up with him. I finished my Fest Day with an amazing set by Little Feat. They just hung a groove on the Fairgrounds and slammed! They were so good, that the next day I went and bought their set on CD - a nice Jazzfest feature.

Hold on! More to Come!