Blogger tells me this is Back Porch Blog entry #100. I raise my glass of early afternoon ice water in a toast! And thanks to you, especially, for coming by. Cheers to all! ;-)
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I’m currently listening to a new iTunes download from the Depression era singing troupe, The Boswell Sisters, that puts a cool finishing note on a trip Cindy Lou and I just completed to Louisiana.
We traveled south two weeks ago to have a late Christmas with Cindy’s sister’s family in New Orleans. And when in New Orleans, be ready for good music!
On Saturday night we went with brother-in-law Amasa Miller to The Three Muses nightclub on Frenchman’s Street where he looked every bit the barroom piano player for The Pfister Sisters. The Pfisters follow in the steps of the Boswell girls who started their three-part harmony careers in New Orleans back in the 1920s. The Boswells eventually got a national recording contract and moved to New York City, but quit the act by 1935. Connee Boswell went on to a successful solo career with Decca records.
Following the Boswells in American musical history, came the Andrews Sisters, best known for their three-girl harmonies on World War II hits like ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’ and ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo.’ They were really hot stuff when my dad was in the Army Air Corps during the war, I can tell you that. In any case, the Pfisters keep the memories and the great harmonies of the Boswells ringing through the French Quarter.
Then on Monday night it was off to Snug Harbor to hear Amasa play his regular gig with the Charmaine Neville Band. Truth is, he’s played keyboard and served as manager for both the Pfisters and Charmaine for close to thirty years. It’s how the dude makes a living. Good stuff, too.
While we were there, Spenser Bohren stopped by the house. He’s a life-long folky who is ‘home’ in NOLA for a short stay, but needs a piano player for a new original song he’s working on. Amasa’s the guy. After a few performances in town, Spenser’s off on a few domestic dates before embarking on a March tour in Europe.
Like that wasn’t enough wonderfully American music for one trip. On the drive home, in central Kentucky, Cindy and I stopped at a McDonald’s for lunch. Wouldn’t you know it, the guy who sat down next to us pulled out his harmonica and starting playing a riff that was truly amazing.
After a few minutes, how could I not ask him about his music? Seems he grew up in Nashville and has carried a mouth harp in his pocket since he was 5. Can’t read music. Writes a few original songs he plays at church now and then. Thought he might record something sometime. Told a story of his daddy exchanging moonshine for votes in a local judge’s election years ago. Worked, too. The judge got elected -- and there was still plenty of white lightnin’ left after all the votes were counted.
Just before we left, I asked him what name I should look for on his CD when it’s released. He said, ‘Just call me Long Distance.’ The guy must be a poet!
For more on The Pfister Sisters, see:
For The Chamaine Neville Band, see:
Amasa Miller and the Pfister’s Holley Bendsten’s released a personal anthology album summer 2010 entitled Our Songs (pictured above):
For folk singer Spencer Bohren, see:
http://www.spencerbohren.com/
Today’s elder idea:
I hear babies cry I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll every know
And I think to myself,
‘What a wonderful world!’
Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong
New Orleans’ jazz great
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