New Orleans Bourbon Street Day

We Decided to do One Day and Night on Bourbon Street, Even though it is The Times Square of New Orleans

 enjoying washboard.. even more when someone else plays it!

It was mid early afternoon and we had fresh oysters for lunch and decided to stroll bourbon street- we heard some great music pouring out of a dive bar (wasn't cheesy 80's covers or a jukebox). It was so good it loured us away from Big ass beers and buy one get 2 free!







We had to stop and drink when we heard this sound coming out of a bar at noon:  Waylon Thibodeaux Live! - Sweet Colinda 
 This band was rocking but to an empty room- Of course it was only noonish- but if I knew a band like this was playing I would a been there at 10AM.
The Keyboard player started working the croud up at the bar and got them down. aand would have funny stuff to say throughout. These guys rocked.

Zydeco Music: Angie's in..

Mark Duet who was on piano is also in a band Voodoo Bayou. (They are an amazing band too- I want to see them live). Mark was so nice and cool. We talked allot about music and art. Never did he talk as being a big shot or "making it" Look at those credits- he did make it. They have a different attitude down there: doing your art IS making it. I like that. The band we listened to was Waylon Thibodeaux.

We hung around for a while and hated to leave.

Here is parts of the bio taken from Marks web site: This man is amazing:

MARK DUET
(Keyboards, Vocals)

Mark is from Chackbay, LA and has been a Keyboardist for 36 years, playing many genres such as Country, Rock, Pop, Blues, Zydeco, Swamp Pop and Cajun Music.

Mark has performed over the years with local acts such as BLACKWATER, SOUTHERN PRIDE (who was 1 of 6 national finalists in the 1986 Wrangler Country Showdown), MILLER POINT, NO BOUNDARIES, JOSH GARRETT, SOULED OUT, DON RICH, ROCKIN' DOOPSIE, JR. and VIN BRUCE (Country Music Hall of Fame), and Uncle POTT FOLSE, L.J. FORET, JOHNNY FONSECA (Louisiana Music Hall of Fame).

Mark has played such notable stages and TV programs as the New Orleans HOUSE OF BLUES Main Stage, Mid-City Lanes ROCK'N'BOWL, HOWLIN' WOLF, GRAND OLE OPRY, OPRYLAND, NASHVILLE NOW with RALPH EMERY and the CROOK & CHASE Country Countown. He has performed with national artists such as JOHNNY PAYCHECK, DAVID ALLEN COE, KEITH WHITLEY, The KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS and RONNIE McDOWELL. He has also more recently performed with BLAKE SHELDON, THADDEUS RICHARD (McCartney/Wings), RODNEY ATKINS, ELLIS MARSALIS, DR. JOHN, JO-EL SONNIER; JIMMY HALL (Wet Willie), 5 time Hall of Famer TOMMY ALLSUP, AMANDA SHAW, Louisiana Blues artist TAB BENOIT and the Voice of The Wetlands All Star Band.

These guys where amazing: angie joined in on "My Flag Boy"

Mark currently performs with VOODOO BAYOU as well as with “Louisiana’s Rockin’ Fiddler” WAYLON THIBODEAUX who can be seen at many fairs, festivals and even an occasional appearance at the Tropical Isle Bayou Club on Bourbon Street (This is where we seen him)
.Thibodeaux’s “Who’s Yo Cher’ BeBe” CD which was a top 20 Grammy nomination for 2008 and currently has the European hit “Sweet Colinda”. Mark is now working on Waylon’s next CD project along with VOODOO BAYOU on an upcoming collaboration.
Mark has also been known to whip up a killer Pastalaya attracting many friends and neighbors (band mates included).


I hated To leave and exchanged info with Mark and we strolled futher down Bourbon. Angie Gave me some of the history as we went into other places and listened to music.

Angie "Rides the Roller-coaster"

 New  Orleans in the Forties and Fifties was often heralded as "The Most Interesting City in America."... Home of "The most interesting man in the world"... Bourbon Street was his address, and it became world famous for its nightclub shows featuring exotic dancers, comics, risque singers, and contortionists, backed by live house bands. The #1 question comics ask.. "Who books that run".

Along a five-block stretch, over fifty acts could be seen on any given night.  Barkers tried to get the tourists into the shows- Not much changed in NY where now allot of comics bark for stage time. It would be funny to have the strippers bark on the street for pole time. 

Looking down the old section is over looked by the "American section of town"

New  Orleans has a history of appealing Horn dogs. Storyville, America's red-light, was known for its many houses of prostitution as well as being the birthplace of jazz music until it was closed down in 1917.  I think it was because of the wide spread of syphilis in the NAVY. That is not confirmed I think I heard someone tell me that.

After vaudeville, and the success of burlesque, striptease became the Thing to see at clubs. In the Forties, strippers were in it for the money, WW2 brought servicemen to town who passed in and out with deployments looking for a good time, now just fat frat guys who want to take advantage of drunk underage girls with plastic beads.

"Stormy," one of the most popular Bourbon Street dancers at the time said in Cabaret magazine, "Anything you do--no matter what it is--if you do it well enough, can be lifted to an art." Que one of my shit jokes...

The Invention of PR and no bad publicity comes from

Had to take a pic of this.

The strippers of Bourbon Street gained star status. They had their own hairstylists, maids, assistants, agents, and managers. They mingled with visiting celebrities. Some exotic dancers were given small roles in films.. not  much changed in the entertainment industry at least these women had talent.. unlike the whore that are popular now..

Controlled publicity was a very important on Bourbon Street. Some clubs promoted their shows by putting their Photo's on drinking glasses and postcards. Some of the dancers had drinks named after them. Stay away from THE BEA AURTHUR.

Getting arrested on obscenity was always good for a headline in the newspaper- Charlie Sheen and the cast of Jersey Shore would of been just fine back in the day. 

Blaze Starr became known for her affair with Governor Earl Long. The nationwide scandal became the focus of her autobiography, which later became the basis for a major motion picture... Politicians screw us again-its time we screw back!.. That was the working title.

Pimps, prostitutes, criminals, and mob figures inhabited the French Quarter, especially Bourbon street. B-drinking (which is common now), in which strippers tempted men to buy them drinks for a cut of the profit, was rampant--and illegal. And, since everyone dressed up to attend a show, the girls often didn’t know if they were sitting next to a wealthy oil man, or an oily thug- reminds me of the grease ball tomato cans in jersey and Long Island.

Politicians courted their own doom by enjoying themselves in the clubs, and it was ultimately their undoing that brought down the final curtain on girlie burlesque. During the 1960s, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison "cleaned up" Bourbon Street. The clubs were raided, and girls were arrested for charges of B-drinking and obscenity.
The end of an era:

Not even Close To Mardi Gras Still Kickin

To cut costs, the club owners first got rid of the bands, and replaced them with records. First thing to stop live performers- Its just going to keep getting worse. The sexual revolution of the Sixties eventually brought in go-go dancers, porn films, and strippers whose acts focused on flesh more than flash.

Bourbon street is like a casino- "What time is it?"