After lengthy negotiations and an exchange of certain
gifts and promises, the Web Gator is happy to announce
randomly scheduled messages from Marcia Ball, her own self!
She sings, We listen... She writes, We read...


January 18, 2012

LUCKY, LUCKY, LUCKY

How lucky you say? As this tale unfolds you may question my interpretation of the word but here's the story. We are presently leaving Lake Charles on our trip home from Tampa, Lake Worth, Delbert's Sandy Beaches Cruise, Orlando and New Orleans. At 1 AM I was driving and had just made the decision to take the I- 210 loop through Lake Charles when there was a popping noise even louder than the music in my headphones. Weird noise, not a tire. So I exited and limped to a convenience store/gas stop and we investigated. It was pretty clear we weren't going to be home by 6 AM as planned, but what? The guys were shoulder deep in the engine and I was in the store keeping warm and out of the way when a guy walked in, bought a pack of cigarettes and said, "That your van? Sounds like you threw a spark plug". The upshot is, we followed him to his tire shop four blocks away and he tried for an hour to get a plug in, then he piled the six of us in his Denali and drove us to a hotel (this is all in the middle of the night), had our van towed this morning to his buddy's shop with all the tools, they fixed it and we are back on the road home. With any more luck, we'll still be home on Wednesday! This happens to us. You spend enough time running the roads and you're bound to break down sometime but we often get an angel to help us on our way and this time the angel's name was Stanley.

So, working backwards, the reason we were driving from New Orleans is that we were there taping an episode of the HBO series, "Treme". Huge thanks to another (Jewish) angel, Nancy Coplin, for starting a Facebook page called "We Need Marcia Ball On Treme". I'm not saying that's why we got on but that kind of positive vibe has got to have some effect. We played two of our songs and interacted with some of the real actors. Can't disclose much else but we'll be on episode 4 of the third season which starts in April. It's very exciting for me. I've loved what the series has done for our friends in the city, giving their music a wider audience, making characters out of many of them (who were already characters), supporting the recovery of New Orleans in many ways including raising funds for the New Orleans Musician's Clinic. Thanks to all of the people involved who let us be a part of the community although we live at a distance. And to ice this cake: we got in the evening before and Van and I ate at the Butcher behind Cochon and the rest of the band ate at Lola's. We're still arguing about who had the best meal. Then we went to see Jon Cleary play solo at Chickie Wah Wah and ran into many friends. What a cool club. It's like going to the Saxon or the Continental or Antone's in Austin. Everybody knows your name.

And the reason we were out there east of New Orleans was that we had just finished the Delbert Cruise and three great gigs in Florida starting with Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa on a beautiful night with a great crowd. I'm so glad we get to start our tropical vacation (oops, I mean work tour) there. Then we went across to Lake Worth for the Bamboo Room where they gave us a proper send-off for the cruise - a little sleep deprived, head-achy, happy. On the way across, we made a favorite "stop and visit" of mine with Ruby C. Williams, renowned folk artist and a very inspiring woman. I immediately broke my New Year's resolution of "no new stuff". But how could I not?

And the cruise...just go find Jay Curlee's YouTube postings of songwriters, Pianorama, wonderful songs by Jimmy Hall, Fred Eaglesmith, Eric Lindell, Teresa James, Joe Ely, Paul Thorn, Wayne Toups, Clay McClinton, each and everybody and especially the McCrary Sisters. My personal high point was singing "Where Do You Go?" and "I Wish You Well" with them and my band enhanced by Red Young and the Mingo Fishtrap Horns. Heavenly. The women's songwriter showcase with Gretchen Peters, Matraca Berg, Jill Sobule, Lari White, Kimmie Rhodes and Jonell Mosser was fabulous and the late night sessions with Red on the piano and Raul Malo and others singing jazz standards kept us all up way past our bedtimes. I'm leaving a lot of stuff out! It's impossible. You just have to be there. Part festival, part family reunion, with dancing. Did I mention Delbert? And Glen? And Danny Flowers and Spooner Oldham and Gary Nicholson? All of this with smooth sailing and beautiful weather. I'm telling you if you've been thinking about doing it or "fixin' to do it", don't wait. Do.

Yes, and there's more. We ended our Florida stay with a stop at the Plaza Theater for a show with Jackie Bristow that was a lot of fun. She's great. I got a little lost in old Orlando and discovered the beautiful neighborhoods around downtown with Craftsman houses shaded by big moss-draped oak trees. Really cool and I didn't have any idea it was like that. Plus really good Vietnamese food. Go figure.

And before all of that, the incredible chaos called The Holidays on which I will not elaborate except to suggest that refinishing your hardwood floors between Thanksgiving and Christmas is probably not wise.

Otherwise, I will repeat we are lucky, lucky, lucky to know you, to have work to do, friends to play dominos with, music all around us, a voice to gripe about politicians with and to have at least Rick Perry out of the presidential race although there have been some good laughs. Still hoping for peace, love and BBQ, curly hair and better gas mileage.