God Save the King of New Orleans!

My cousin turns 40 this year on Fat Tuesday.  She realized that this was going to happen a few years back and decided that it must be a sign that she should celebrate her birthday in New Orleans . . . so tomorrow I will begin my first-ever trek to NOLA to experience Mardi Gras and celebrate the birth of my cousin! 

We have already established that I am a big fan of making lists when it comes to music.  I don’t need much of a reason to make such a list and a 3-hour flight seems like a great reason to make a playlist for my adventure. So in honor of my trip to New Orleans, I present my New Orleans mix:

1. Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) – Concrete Blonde:  It seems only fitting that I should start of the playlist with a band that my birthday cousin turned me onto. It is a song about picking yourself up after a bad experience that suggests if ‘you have the ways and means to New Orleans’ then you have an excellent location to stretch your legs and ponder how you are going to start creating some better times.

2. Mr. Bojangles – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band:  This song was an obvious choice and the only decision was which version to use since everyone and their brother has covered this song. Heck even my friend Andy Hersey does a version of this song at his live shows.  I took the easy route and choose the one that most people think of when they hear it.  When I was in 4^th and 5^th grade, my teacher would do music time almost every day and she would get her guitar out and play songs from the 60s and 70s.  This was one of the songs I remember her playing and every time I hear this song I think about her.  I used to get so sad when the dog ‘up and died’. Hopefully I will not spend time in the drunk tank in New Orleans and get the opportunity to meet a ‘Mr. Bojangles’ type.

3. King of New Orleans – Better than Ezra.  When ever I think about Better than Ezra I can’t help but think of Norm MacDonald. During my visit I may just declare that Cat Stevens was the greatest singer in honor of this song and see if anyone gets it.

4. Lucky – Seven Mary Three:  I have no doubt this will be an adventure full of happy times,  but a playlist that only plays happy music gets old fast. I imagine New Orleans during Mardi Gras to be like Vegas and I imagine that like Vegas, I will only really be able to appreciate it for about three days before the ‘French Quarter high’ will ‘get old real quick’.

5. Give ‘em Hell Kid – My Chemical Romance:  Really there is not much to say about this song.  I just get a kick out of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and this song makes me want to give them some more sugar and a couple energy drinks and see what they create.

6. Magnolia Soul – Ozomatli:  ‘Let the good times role and the sad times go.’  I have a feeling this song is going to be my theme song over there – enough said.

7. Ramblin’ Man – Allman Brothers:  I don’t imagine it is any surprise that a ramblin’ man would find themselves in New Orleans at some point in their journey.

8. Walking to New Orleans – Fats Domino:  I suppose a New Orleans mix wouldn’t be complete without a native son.

9. Miami – Counting Crows: And most playlists of mine are not complete without a Counting Crows song.  Although its title is a city in another state, the song is about how every chapter in life has to come to a close and knowing when it is time to move on to a new adventure.  Adam knows his time in Miami is coming to a close and decides that perhaps the best place to start the new chapter is in New Orleans

10. Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand – Primitive Radio Gods:  I hope my plane doesn’t have to land on Bourbon Street.

11. The City of New Orleans – Arlo Guthrie: I know this song isn’t technically about New Orleans, but it is a song about a train that travels to New Orleans – I think that fits.  In previous musings (although nothing on this blog), I have discussed an anecdote of how there were a handful of songs that I thought my dad wrote because growing up I had only heard them when my when sang them – this is one of those songs.

12. Mr. Tambourine Man – Bob Dylan: Although he does not ever mention New Orleans in the song, Dylan was inspired by Mardi Gras when he started the song and the imagery of the song sets the mood of how I imagine the days over there to be.

13. House of the Rising Sun – The Animals:  I figure since I started this mix with a song that reminds me of my cousin, it is only fitting that I end the mix with another one.  This song brings me back to high school down in my grandma’s basement rifling through her music collection for songs to add to my ever-growing collection of mix-tapes.  Although a co-worker of mine sang this at karaoke at the end of an out-of-town field project and now this song reminds me of the events that took place on that crazy night as well . . . but that is a story for another time.  Either way it is a fitting song to conclude this playlist and blog.

Until next we meet.