Birthing New Music

The folks in Shreveport's Blanc et Noir Marching Society know a good thing when they hear it. They are terrific supporters of The Red and Black Brass Band from Grambling.

This week's show (February 25, 2009) on American Routes features young musicians in brass bands who are taking Louisiana's roots music into the 21st century.

Mardi Gras may be over for now but there's always next year. By joining Blanc et Noir Marching Society in Shreveport you can help this new/old form of marching band music continue to grow. Imagine that. Shreveport is a part of the vibrant Louisiana music scene and not just the Other Side.


Thank you Talbot Hopkins for the cool video of The Red and Black Brass Band in the 2009 Krewe of Highland parade.

Highland Jazz and Blues Festival

November 15 is the date for this year's Highland Jazz and Blues Festival. Like Trudeau recommends bring a blanket or chair.

The one day Saturday fest is packed with live music and local visual artists vending their wares.

Recycling Shreveport Farmers' Market

Think the market can't get any greener? Shreveport Farmers' Market Manager Noma Fowler-Sandlin says tomorrow is "...the annual Cookbook Exchange, this year joined by a Tote Bag Exchange, too. So bring out your tired old cookbooks and tote bags and trade them for new ones you like better."

Also just in are reusable Shreveport Farmers' Market totes. The bright red bags feature the market logo in black. Only $10. The money raised will continue special events like the musicians on Tuesdays. Operating hours: 7 a.m. 'til noon on Saturdays at the Festival Plaza in downtown.

Pictured is the cool tote of Conchita McElwee. Snapped at last year's market.

Church

While Pope Benedict XVI didn't make it to Shreveport we've still got Alan Dyson and his new Church stickers. Dyson is host of the Fairfield Studios House Concert Series and a musician.

He's also father of talented Shreveport singer Alana Dyson (it's a talented pod of people as Trudeau explains in this 2005 blog post of his. If RRBJ ever secures a pot of money for documentaries can't think of better place to begin recording than with them...). He's married to Shreveport artist Debbie Buchanan Engle.

Shreveport architect and multi talented artist Dyson may not be the pontiff or any other type of official spiritual leader but his message is thoughtful. If we view the whole world as Church won't we take better care of it, ourselves and our neighbors? Who was it who said "Love thy neighbor..." Shoot him an email at salandyson@comcast.net on how to get one of these nifty stickers.

Plain Folk Houses - Backside

RRBJ intended to make it to BOTB 2008 but just a few steps away from The Shell the light diverted us. We filled our digital camera with images of the backside of a block of houses. Difficult to fathom a campus of the leisure class, with the time, money, and energy to pursue higher forms of education, is just across the street from where these were taken.

It is ironic that some of the papers of Jack London, with his need to escape extreme poverty, are housed at Centenary College. From the rear, these homes radiated decay. You'd never know this was the 100 block of Wilkinson, just across the street from the college's gravel parking lot #15.

Jon Schleuss has supah-dupah coverage on BOTB 2008 at the KSCL Blog.
We'd planned on posting this a couple of days ago but the RRBJ offices have been suffering with a Comcast Internet outage.

Those Crazy College Kids

They are calling it The Big Event. Early tomorrow Centenary College students, staff and faculty will take part in the community service project that will help folks in Highland with household tasks, such as scrapping and repainting shutters, raking, cleaning sidewalks, etc.

Later in the day it's back to the Shell on campus for the annual Battle of the Bands.

Shreveport Sounds

Dan Garner penned a chapter entitled The Legend of Old Blue Goose in the new book Shreveport Sounds in Black and White (American Made Music). It was published last month by the University Press of Mississippi and edited by Kip Lornell and Tracey E.W. Laird.

What, musically, is the "Shreveport Sound?" A big mix up of country, blues, R&B, rockabilly, and rock. RRBJ would add folk and bluegrass in there seeing as Leadbelly was from these parts as is The Cox Family. Can't think of a better example of SB Land sounds than Garner's new collection, The Second Album.

Captured in front of the black wall outside of artspace, just up from Tipitina's is Garner along with his son Paul.

We Was All Happy When Elvis Played the Hayride

It's the birthday of the King. RRBJ salutes the man who The Shreveport Times said created "one of the finest displays of mass hysteria in Shreveport history."

Elvis Arron Presley was born January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. Celebrate with the hip story about Shreveport at ElvisNews.com.

Picture of the Day

This is not what Texas street will look like tomorrow night with the return of Thursday Night Trolley Tours. The fun starts with a cash bar at artspace, 710Texas Street. The Shreveport Times describes the event this way "A guided tour, will showcase what downtown Shreveport has to offer in the way of art, history, culture, movie trivia, and science, on 14 trolley stops..." Your tour guide for the evening will be Jan Pettiet.

Did we mention this event is FREE?! (Excluding the cash bar). Sipping something cool and riding around on a trolley -- can't think of a better way to take in the Southern Museum of Art, West Edge Artists' Co-op, Municipal Auditorium, Logan Mansion, Strand Theatre, Millennium Mural, SciPort Discovery Center, Tipitina's, Spring Street Museum, Hilton Hotel, Shreveport Convention Center, Sports Museum, Arodasi Dance Center, Highway Grrls Gallery, Multicultural Center of the South, and Robinson Film Center.

During the evening at the Barnwell Center sounds of live "Hot Jazz on the Red" will fill the air as part of their Friends of Barnwell Summer Concert Series. The Meadows Museum of Art is also slated to participate, but this confuses RRBJ because that place is in Highland and not in downtown... but, oh well...

Thank you to Ryan Austin Dean at jawbone54 for the night capture of Texas Street.

Shattering the Quiet of Highland...

...with the bright musical sounds of belly dance coins and the beats of hand drums was the result of an the overflow crowd Saturday night at 444 Olive Street for the opening of Lotus Studio. Even a spring shower didn't stop the fun.

Classes start this week. It's just one door down from Lila's Cakes and Chocolate.

RRBJ note: This story was not reported in The Times, however John Andrew Prime produced a nicely written story on the quiet of another Highland boulevard being shattered in a different way. It's like local favorite musician Dan Garner keeps saying "We make art illegal and we'll get all the headlines we want..."

Downtown - Alive and Happening!

Art. Film. Music. We found it all this week in downtown Shreveport.

The Brown Bag Series kicked off Friday around lunchtime with the Four Seasons String Quartet. Three more Fridays are left: April 27 - Freddie Pierson; May 4 - Professor Porkchop and the All Stars; May 11 - Buddy Flett and Friends. The live music is sponsored by Downtown Shreveport Unlimited.

Thursday night films were shown on the other side of the Caddo Parish Courthouse, across the street in the Artisan's Court. The most well known being Bill Daniel's* black and white documentary "Who is Bozo Texino?" It was an event put together by Susan Garner (hard to imagine this chicka is only in high school).

As we walked to our car after viewing the movies, near Nanking's we ran into folks getting out of the Coast Guard concert that had been at the Strand Theatre. Animation in an urban downtown, there are plenty of cities around America who'd be tremendously jealous if they knew.

*For more on filmmaker Bill Daniel, see Trudeau's Shreveport blog.

Savage

It was the big white hand lettered sign that caught RRBJ's eye as we zoomed down Texas Street towards the river. Why did a square of paper block the entrance to Noble Savage Tavern? It said they were temporarily closed and to check their myspace for a future opening date.

What could cause this closure? It may have something to do with a story KTBS reported back in November. Interestingly, the tavern is located across the street from the statue of Huddie Ledbetter, a man who cut most disagreements short by waving a pistol or knife in the air.


The hand lettered sign is now gone. In one of the windows a blue application for a liquor license is posted. RRBJ hopes that whatever happened to cause the closing of the tavern will be settled and the good music and ale will once again flow at 417 Texas Street. Chef Colby and the Noble Savage bring quite a bit to the downtown area as this article in the November 2000 NeonBridge points out.

On a completely unrelated note: Why is it the local television stations keep the links to their old stories live but the newspaper "deads" the link to older stories?

Mini Grand Old Opry? Really now? Please!

It was just a teeny note in Sunday's Shreveport Times. In the same section with the full color photo spread about Lorenzo Jones and his tasty turkey legs. On the back page in the Today's Calendar column there was a blurb about the chance to participate in an open mic "mini Grand Old Opry Stage."

At first glance RRBJ thought it was something to do with the Municipal Auditorium because the phrase Legacy of Stars Hall of Fame Theatre and Museum was used and the Municipal Auditorium has a Stage of Stars Museum.

We were all set to get on our high horse and rant: "To promote anything connected with the Louisiana Hayride as a "mini Grand Ole Opry" denigrates the important role our area had during a major transformation of American popular music. Tracy E. W. Laird covers this in her 2004 book Louisiana Hayride. Shreveport gave the world Hank Williams and Elvis. Both men were rejected by the Opry...yada, yada, yada..."

At second glance RRBJ noticed the web address for LSHFTM. Completely different venue. It's on Grimmett Drive and the Municipal is on Elvis Presley Avenue.

In an almost different note: LSHFTM's website says it's available for birthday parties, which reminds RRBJ that we discovered this weekend you can have your daughter's birthday at Guy's Beauty Academy. Makeovers and cake and ice cream! What better way to celebrate your 9th birthday or maybe even your 39th birthday.

Shreveport = New York?

It's day one of filming in Shreveport for cast and crew of Blonde Ambition.

The script is set in New York. How do you make the City on the Red look like the Big Apple? See for yourself by clicking on slides 11 and 12 at StageWorks of Louisiana.

In what other ways do we resemble Gotham?

New York -- Alligators in the sewers.
Shreveport -- Alligators everywhere.

New York -- Subway Trains
Shreveport -- SporTran runs at night.

New York -- New York Philharmonic the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States
Shreveport -- Shreveport Symphony Orchestra Louisiana's oldest continually operating professional orchestra. Your next chance to hear SSO? They perform The Nutcracker with the Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet December 8. Then the following weekend it's their annual Holiday Pops concert.