Free Wine Tasting

Last night I had a great time at Cafe Roux in Central. It is a wonderful little cafe with separate rooms for entertaining and dining. The place is owned by Rick Bennett. I was hired to play acoustic blues during the wine tasting event hosted by Debi & Lonnie Nogle from Lafayette, Louisiana. They taught us the fine art of wine tasting which is like an exact science, including seeing, swirling, sniffing and sipping. Needless to say, after the third bottle to sample, we were all feeling really good. And there were five more to go. My buddy John Baute rode along and helped me carry the amp and gig bag. He's an unpaid roadie. And I don't know how many verses I forgot when I started playing again, but no one seemed to mind. We were all singing and laughing and enjoying the food. Check out Cafe Roux sometime and if you know of a cafe that is willing to host a similar wine tasting event, let the Nogle's know. www.debidoeswine.com

Too much music, or not enough listeners?

Sometimes I feel that there is perhaps too much music in the world. And what with all the latest technology available, everyone can be jacked in all the time to headphones or find a club with some kind of live music going on. Still, people love to hear songs they know, they still like to feel the groove that music provides, provided the music is worth listening to. Here in South Louisiana there are some incredible, talented musicians. I've been fortunate to see, hear and play along with a few of them. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to try to introduce some of them here, so more people can have access to their music and unique talent. Maybe it isn't that there is too much music, it's just that it's getting to the point that the saturation level makes it harder to discern what's worth listening to. I remember Dr. Szekely wrote somewhere, "we should go back to reading the ancient knowledge instead of being content upon reading the commentaries on the commentaries." Similarly, I feel that the best songs have probably already been written, but it is the delivery and re-interpretation of them that gives old songs new vitality.