It's New Orleans: Happy Hour – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Until we're allowed back into bars in New Orleans and until people feel comfortable coming down and sitting around having a cocktail with random strangers, we're revisiting some our best shows from the past decade. Today Happy Hour Digital Producer, Andrew "C-Rock" Cirac has picked this episode, so here's the Return of the Random All Cajun Happy Hour Special. 

Happy Hour is billed as “Random conversation with folks who have nothing in common.” Anything that’s truly random will, sooner or later, appear to us not to be. Like flipping a coin and getting four “heads” in a row. Or inviting random people to sit around a table at a bar in New Orleans and discovering they’re all Cajun.

Louis Michot is the fiddle player and lead singer in the Cajun band Lost Bayou Ramblers. You don’t get much more Cajun than Louis and his tales of Petit Paris (aka St Martinville), living in Broussard, Lafayette, and out in the woods of Arnaudville. Louis plays two songs on this Happy Hour, accompanied on one of them by fellow Cajun Andrew Duhon.

Here in New Orleans we pronounce Andrew’s name Doo-Hon but if you go a few miles West (just how many is open to debate) it’s pronounced Doo-Yong. Until you get a few miles out of Lafayette, into Texas, where it reverts to doo-hon, as evidenced by Louis’ dog whose name was Clint Duhon, pronounced the Port Arthur way ’cause that’s where he came from.

Lizzie Guitreau is a Baton Rouge Cajun who decided that her inspiration from watching the TV show House as a kid should propel her into making TV shows rather than medicine. Lizzie went to UNO for film, started a band (of film makers) and is still working with them today, as Worklight Pictures. Ready for the next weird Cajun coincidence? Worklight Pictures are making a documentary about The Lost Bayou Rambers. It’s called On Va Continuer (we will continue).

Brandon Beeyard can’t hide his true identity too long. Yes, it turns out his name is really spelled Bulliard, and he’s Cajun, from, wait for it, St Martinville aka Petit Paris, and his family is related to Louis’s wife’s family. Brandon is headed for self-propelled meta-stardom (no, that’s not a typo, though he might also be bound for mega-stardom) by way of his of his revalatory and inspirational life-story podcast, Dreamster.

Photos from this show by Jill Lafleur – yes, that’s a Cajun name! - are at our website.

 

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In the Happy Hour annals of "random people who have nothing in common," the day artist Katrina Brees meets Tank and the Bangas stands out to Happy Hour Live Feed Video Director Asher Griffith as the Best Of Happy Hour. 

Where's Karina?

If you ever wondered what happened to Karina Nathan she’s now Kevin Simons. And Karen Regis. And Krystal Sedona. And Chi Chi the lead singer of the Girl Dawgs, who is actually a dog.

Katrina Brees sheds some light on this fantastic array of personalities, and their wardrobes.

Go Tank or Go Home

Tank from Tank and the Bangas has her own specialty wardrobe and range of personas too. Her wardrobe doesn’t extend to panties (which she has given up wearing) but she does occasionally wear boy shorts to boost her booty. Her personas start out with Terianne Michelle Ball in New Orleans East and extend to the woman sorting through damaged goods on aisle 4 at Walmart.

Norman Spence and Merell Burket from Tank’s band, Tank and the Bangas, join the party – but strictly under their own names.

Hello, Ricky!

Ricky Lemann’s alter ego is Frederick, his real name. Ricky could have gone with alter ego #2, Fred, but he’s keeping it real, pleading “the fifth” on a range of issues.

Photos from this show by sunny Alison Moon at the now defunct Wayfare at our website.

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Music is apparently non-essential. So New Orleans musicians have no place to play. Some are doing live streaming from their homes, but others – like drummers and sax players – don’t have the kind of live streaming ability that, say, a singer-songwriter has. And then there’s this interesting factoid – Petco is regarded as essential and is still open. So here’s the obvious solution: Live From Petco. Musicians go play at Petco, if not in the store then at least in the parking lot.

That’s the wisdom that comes out of this Covid Zoom conversation aka Happy Hour.

Back in the day when people went to work, Allison Hererra made social media influencer videos for people like personal injury attorney Chip Forstall. Allison is going to use her talents to film the Petco Sessions and put them up online.

Brian Hudson knows a thing or two about viral music videos. Brian is a street performer whose singing partner is internet sensation Grandpa Elliot, the older guy who sings Stand By Me on YouTube, Instagram and all over. The other interesting thing about Brian is he’s a therapist. And a keen observer

Sage Rouge is a sax player who is making live streaming videos with her roommate, Mark, who is also a sax player. Together they’re releasing a series of videos that combine music and alcohol, called Day Drinking Duets.

For a day job, Sage is a sax player in the band Spylights. Vincent Giovanni, the front-man lead singer and driving force behind Spylights, throws caution and social distancing to the wind for today’s show, putting together a 3-piece version of Spylights to play two songs on this Happy Hour.

Andrew Duhon takes us out with a rendition of his beautiful song about the heartache of separation, Coming Down Over Here.

Apparently, we’re all staying home till the middle of May, so we’ll see you back on Zoom Happy Hour next week.

Oh, and in the meantime, not everybody’s social isolation is totally dull and predictable. Listen to Asher Griffith’s story about shooting a chicken in the head.

Stay home and stay safe and see you back here in a week.

Photos by Jill Lafleur. Last week’s Covid conversation is here.

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You just know that the MeToo movement is going to be a feature at Mardi Gras this year. What you don t know, yet, is quite how sexual harassment is going translate into New Orleans style humor. So here s a bit of an early sneak peek at what you can expect. You d expect that the founder of the largest women s marching organization in the world who gave her club the name of "Bearded Oysters" would probably have a few unbridled and surprising points of view. Katrina Brees turns the tables on men and gets the upper hand by means of her own harassment, and the liberal advocacy for the recreational use of amyl nitrate, aka rush or in Katrina s shadow world online, VHS cleaner. Camp Morrison remembers using rush back in the day when he started his private detective agency the first time around. The second time was the charm and Camp has been in the private detective business in New Orleans since 1988. If you re looking to hire a private detective to snoop on people you ll have to use your own sleuthing skills to find Camp. His view of marketing is singularly unique, amounting to the belief that no good whatsoever can come from any public pronouncement. Lynn Drury makes a return appearance on Happy Hour with a brand new record, new songs and a new attitude about sex which begins with turning her phone off at midnight and not turning it back on again till 10AM when the male libido has supposedly quietened down. Lynn s take on the MeToo movement hasn t made the mainstream media. Because she s a Southern woman Lynn has reportedly had plenty of experience at getting harassed and is inclined to suck it up, or as Katrina re phrases it, lick it up. If you re looking to take the temperature of the average drinking New Orleanian at this beginning of the second year of the Trump era, this Happy Hour conversation is a good place to start. Photos at Wayfare by Alison Moon.

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In our 2nd annual Krishna Christmas the Das Brothers, Gadadhar Pandit and Srivash, from the local [Hare Krishna Temple][link1] play live, [James Moises][link2] brings his own wine, [Raine Bedsole][link3] gets yogic and Bill from [Slice][link4] explains how pizza saved his marriage.

[link1]: http://www.iskcon-nola.org/
[link2]: http://www.moiseswines.com/
[link3]: http://www.rainebedsole.com/index2.php
[link4]: http://slicepizzeria.com/

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Molly Richard pronounced the Cajun way, Re shard first got the moniker Budget Bitch when she was working with homeless folks in Lafayette. Yes, even in a small town filled with decent people there are apparently homeless people, but if you re homeless and lucky enough to run into Budget Bitch she ll slap you into shape and into a home. Budgets and math might not be Helen Gillet s strong point 3x6 Guy Madden but she is able to explain the physics of Indian musical scales. Oh, and incidentally, play them. On a cello no less. There are no words in the English or Hindi languages than can describe exactly what Helen Gillet does with a cello. If you don t know Helen s music, listen to this podcast for the sole reason of hearing it. If you re already a fan you have to hear this Indian raga. Derwyn Bunton met his wife playing soccer on a co ed team. Today they re married and Derwyn doesn t head balls any more but he does head up the Orleans Public Defender s Office. There are 60 lawyers in this office, all defending people who have allegedly committed crimes but can t afford to defend themselves in court. Just like you never know when hardship might strike and you could find yourself homeless, you never when misfortune might strike and you find yourself needing legal representation. You might be interested to know that Louisiana is the ONLY state in the nation that doesn t allot money for this purpose. Instead, Derwyn has to go on Twitter, and wear cargo shorts. Photos at Wayfare by Alison Moon.

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Remy Robert rhymes with Amy Snowbear is, among other things, a professional matchmaker at a new startup called Tawkify where you can get hooked up with another human by another human, not an app. There are a lot of layers and nuances to this as you will hear in this conversation but Remy distills the the sum of her knowledge of relationships into this simple admonition Don t be a dick. Apparently just being yourself is enough to win over the right person, if you can find him or her. When she s not hooking people up, Remy s life consists of hanging out with famous chefs like Alon Shaya, translating their prodigious skills into simple enough language to become recipes in a cookbook. Her next cookbook is a Mad Libs inspired culinary adventure. And after that she just might be concocting a book with Chef Kenneth Temple. Chef Kenneth Temple is the recent winner of the prestigious TV cooking show, Chopped. He s been a personal chef to Lil Wayne and other celebrities Lil Wayne likes chicken wings and he s just published a cookbook with 75 of his favorite signature recipes, called Southern Creole. If you re a betting person you could pretty safely bet on Chef Kenneth becoming a big deal celebrity chef and media star. But don t expect him to follow any well worn path. His current cooking show is on Facebook and it s a vast departure for anything you ve seen before. NOLA FAM are charting their own path through the world of Hip Hop. Happy Hour favorites, Moni explains how he has undergone a persona change, inspired by the 1986 Saab Turbo S. He s not kidding. Like the Saab, Moni is nearly invisible, but reliable and fast, and that s how he s come to be called 900. The other half of NOLA FAM used to be known as Q Hefner but is now known as Q The Don. The genesis of these identity change is the imperative of rhyme and while you re betting on Chef Kenneth put a side bet on NOLA FAM. As 900 says, "Things are bubbling." Take a listen to their music on this show, these guys are definitely onto something. Photos at Wayfare by Hope Byrd.

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Morgan Ford got married last week and postponed her honeymoon so she could go on Happy Hour. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration. But Morgan did actually get married last week and she really is on this Happy Hour. Morgan probably knows more about what s going on in New Orleans than anyone in the city she s the community manager for Yelp Devin DeWulf arrived in New Orleans a decade ago and did what most people do when they get here painted his car and turned it into a work of rolling art, started a Mardi Gras krewe Red Beans, which has now spun into a sister krewe called Dead Beans met and married a Belgian woman, had two kids, wrote them both theme songs, and started teaching middle school history. In his spare time Devin also paints. He sells his artwork, often donating the proceeds to education causes. Dayna Kurtz is one of America s musical treasures, a song writer s song writer. Song writers like Nora Jones and Bonnie Raitt sing her praises. Dayna sings the praises of the city she calls home now, New Orleans, and on this Happy Hour she sings a song about a guy named Fernando who she fell in love with in a dream. Fernando who apparently doesn t exist was in Venezuela which does but his legacy lives on in this awesome song. If you ve never heard Dayna before, listen to this, you ll see what all the fuss is about, and if you are already a DK fan, this is a great version of this song complete with a finger injury . April Love Stolf sits in for Grant Morris. Photos at Wayfare by Alison Moon.

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Justin McKee doesn t let his career as a Michael Kors model get in the way of his literary pursuits. Actually, Justin wasn t a Michael Kors model for as long as he was a music conservatory student specializing in jazz vocals. These days Justin is a literary editor and publisher of a magazine called The Raffish. If you re thinking it s a little unfair that one guy could have so many talents, wait till you see how good looking he is.

Alicia Reynaud knows a thing or two about making guys look good. Including every single one of the guys on The Saints football team. Alicia organized for them all to get pedicures. The whole team. And get this the pedicures were a gift from Coach Sean Payton as thanks for the team winning four games in a row. The reason Alicia is the lucky provider of Saints footcare is she is the creator of a beauty care and spa services app called Spafoo.

Andrew Duhon could have used Spafoo earlier today when he got his hair cut at Parker Barber. It s the same barber shop Andrew is launching Friendsgiving, the night before Thanksgiving where you can enjoy Burmese food and know your dollars are going to a good cause busing Thai kids to school. Or something. Anyway, there s going top be plenty of food and booze and great music.

Janie Lynne Vessels started putting a band together when she was in elementary school. Her original band names were The Salteens, Da Babies, and Starfling. Things have moved along a little since then and now Jamie has a new record that s almost out. It's going to be Called Storm Comin after one of her most popular recent songs. Jamie brings the house down at Wayfare playing the song live.

Photos at Wayfare by Alison Moon.

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It was a day just like any other. Rev Dr Ray Cannata was walking down Freret Street in Uptown New Orleans, on his way home from his favorite new lunch spot 4 hours later when he happened to glance into Wayfare at the very moment Happy Hour host Grant Morris was glancing out from behind his mic, about to begin the show. Next thing you know, Ray has a martini and he s explaining why we re all going to Heaven even if we don t do any good deeds. If you ve ever thought about converting to Christianity or reaffirming your faith, look no further, Ray is the guy to talk to. Kay Morrrison, perhaps better known to New Orleanians as The Occasional Wife, started out as a good little Southern Baptist girl in Algiers. Kay was a member of a gang of like minded Southern Baptists known as Girls In Action. Today Kay is avowedly one of the happiest people you ll ever meet. Her joie de vivre is contagious. Even Andrew Duhon feels upbeat and gung ho about life by the end of this conversation. Andrew has finished his new album, which looks like it s going to called False River, and is considering taking some business advice, branching out and writing songs for other artists. Andrew tries out one of his new songs today, and plays one off of False River. The Kay and Ray show, one of the happiest Happy Hours in our 7 year history, is brought to you by dirty martinis at Wayfare. Photos by Alison Moon.

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