US road trip: Naughty Nurses Prom and more

A showery day in New Orleans yesterday. After breakfast in Anita's Grill we made our way to the Louisiana Music Factory where Davell Crawford was playing a free set to promote his new CD on Basin Street records, My Gift To You. He's a gifted piano player as he showed on Iko Iko, I'm The Creole Man and Louisiana I Love You but I didn't buy the album. Afterwards Chubby Carrier played a set in the store which we watched and listened to from outside the store.
In the evening we had some excellent soul food at the Praline Connection and then went on to the Palm Court on Decatur for an event called the Naughty Nurses Prom, a Ponderosa Stomp-organised event in aid of the New Orleans Musicians Collective. The music was provided by Little Freddie King, who looked and sounded great, and Guitar Lighnin' Lee, who played some excellent rock and roll and swamp pop. True to the event's name there were quite a few women dressed as nurses, some of whom would be welcome at my bedside any time. Sharing duties as MC were an Ernie K-Doe impersonator (he said he had come down from heaven for 24 hours) and a beehived singer called Christine Ohlman. Lee Wilkinson knows Little Freddy's manager so we got to go behind the scenes for a photo .The Palm Court is still run by a British lady called Nina Buck who I interviewed back in the nineties for an article in The Times.  I'm not sure if she remembered me or not. We also bumped into a guy called Jason who asked if we were Woodies: clearly our fame is spreading. Later we thought about going in to Snug Harbor to see Marcia Ball but needless to say it was sold out. We did get to meet her though, courtesy of a British guy called Graham who has booked her twice to play in the UK, and got our photos taken with her.
Today was another wet day so we decided not to go to Jazz Fest. I went off on my own in search of records and bought some good 45s at Euclid on Chartres, which is a cracking record shop. Then I moved on to Jim Russell's Rare Records. The place is looking very dilapidated with rain coming through the roof in two areas, but the records are good so I bought a few more. Tomorrow looks like a good day at Jazz Fest so we're hoping that the weather improves.

Nick Cobban.