Posted in Other Music + on March 29, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This may have very little to do with “St. James Infirmary” or New Orleans, but it does have to do with music and place.
This very pleasing account of the sounds of doo-wop on subway platforms comes from Scrapple From The Apple:
At this subway stop, just below Carnegie Hall, there’s an alcove waiting area. It is [...]
Posted in New Orleans, Other Music + on March 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’ve been very delinquent here, too much else going on lately. But please enjoy this Trombone Shorty overview/roundup on the very fine site NolaFunk NYC. Music, video, links — it’s all there.
One more thing: Trombone Shorty at SXSW, reviewed.
(Earlier post on Trombone Shorty’s version of SJI is here.)
Posted in New Orleans, Other Music + on February 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The always amazing Home of the Groove has a particularly choice cut for you to give a listen to for Carnival season: Go here, and scroll down to “Shot Gun Joe,” by Ernest Skipper with Flag & The Boys. Mixing brass and Indian music and some guitar funk flourish (and maybe, to my ears, a [...]
Posted in New Orleans, Other Music + on January 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
As a follow-up to the recent entry about Quintron and his Drum Buddy, I offer the following reminiscence. It’s largely adapted from something that appeared in the second issue of the print zine version of Letters from New Orleans — but I’m guessing you haven’t read that.
Quintron, as noted previously, lives in the Lower Ninth [...]
Posted in New Orleans, Other Music + on January 12, 2008 | 6 Comments »
When we lived in New Orleans, Quintron was sort of a local celebrity — a “character,” I suppose you could say. And so far as I know, that’s still the case. (Certainly the quintronandmisspussycat.com site suggests so.) I’m a little out of the loop on the current activities of Quintron, but was reminded of him [...]
Posted in Other Music + on July 26, 2007 | 2 Comments »
I don’t spend much time wishing I was in NYC these days, but this would be cool to check out: King Britt’s Sister Gertrude “multimedia event” at Central Park Summerstage, with guest Ben Jaffe (of the Preservation Hall clan).
Both paintings and recordings will be featured in a multimedia event conceived by acclaimed DJ & producer [...]
Posted in New Orleans, Other Music + on May 24, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Live, originally uploaded by R. Walker.
Thanks to a tip from our friend Mr. Franklin, we wandered up the street to the nearby Starland building’s Desoto Row “Music Space,” which is really a street, to check out a New Orleans band called Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship. (You can hear some of their [...]
Posted in Other Music + on April 20, 2007 | Comments Off
Standout Podcaster and friend of no notes Daniel unveiled a special Louisiana episode of The Sounds In My Head this week. Not surprisingly, it’s excellent. The big discovery for me was a band called The Eames Era, from Baton Rouge. I’d never heard of them, but they do some good, catchy, fun stuff.
Check it out.
Posted in Other Music + on September 8, 2006 | Comments Off
Because of a crush of personal and professional obligations over the next two months or so, the “no notes” site will be on hiatus until November 1. I’ll resume the Rolling Jelly series around then, and start dealing with several interesting items that have piled up but that I haven’t had time to deal with [...]
Posted in Friends, Other Music + on August 29, 2006 | Comments Off
New book alert: “Signs of Life is a moving collection of photos of the hand-made signs that appeared [...]
[Or: The Point of this Site]
A couple of years ago I did some research into the song "St. James Infirmary," wrote up what I found, emailed that essay to friends and posted it on my web site (as part of a series of "Letters From New Orleans," as I was living in that city at the time). Based on the feedback, I wrote a second version of the essay, and asked for more feedback. Based on that, I wrote a third version.
And now, this site: A place to collect some of the links, leads, thoughts, and suggestions relating to the song that readers (from Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, Spain, England, Sweden, Canada, and all over the U.S.) have sent me. This may lead to a fourth and significantly expanded version of the essay, some day. Also on this site: Plenty of tangents.
Never heard "St. James Infirmary"? Start here.
The most recent version of my "St. James Infirmary" essay is now a few years old. But it's still a fairly decent overview of what I know about the song, and why I'm interested in it. You can read it either in the book Letters from New Orleans (see below), or in the archives of The Gambit, the New Orleans weekly that published the piece as a book excerpt when LfNO came out.
This site is a partial spinoff of the book Letters from New Orleans, published by the unstoppable Garrett County Press. My interest in "St. James Infirmary" is the subject of one essay in the book. All author proceeds from the book still go to post-Katrina relief efforts, so I think it's okay for me to say: You ought to buy it.
