Friday, March 27, 2015

The Weekend Mix, 3/27/15




One of my very first "only in New Orleans" moments occurred in 2000. At the back of the French Quarter, just a few blocks from where the neighborhood becomes The Marigny, is a small shack of a restaurant called Fiorella's, whose claim to fame is the fried chicken and bingo in the back room. This isn't a food blog, so I will keep the chicken hyperbole to a minimum, but DAMN! It was the best I had ever eaten. (This was 2000 and it was never the same after the original owners sold it in 2005.)

This back room with condiment baskets on each table and bingo boards on the wall, faced the Mississippi River and just sitting there in those surroundings was special. And then of course, there was the music. It wasn't being played in the restaurant, but coming from a sound system somewhere else. Distant enough to give it some reverb and just a slightly haunting feeling, but close enough to enjoy every tune. It was in Fiorella's back room, as I waited for my chicken, where I heard the genius trifecta of the Rolling Stones' "Dandelion," "Susan's House" by Eels and "O Sole Mio" by Wingy Manone, a native New Orleanian. It was then that I fell in love WWOZ, the local radio station. What programming!

15 years later, I still think about it and well...this mix was built around that.

That's all I got.

Enjoy.



TRACKLIST

2040- Spy Mob
Happenings Ten Years Time Ago- The Yardbirds
Tell Me Your Plans- The Shirts
Dandelion- Rolling Stones
Susan's House- Eels
O Sole Mio- Wingy Manone
What's Now Is Now- Cake
Big Yellow Taxi- Lindsey Buckingham
I Wish You Would- JD McPherson
Never Mind- The Replacements
Splendor In The Grass- Jackie DeShannon
No More Tearstained Makeup- Martha & The Vandellas
Waterfalls- Sloan
Subterranean Homesick Blues- Rickie Lee Jones

zip

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wingy Manone! How can you NOT love a one-armed trumpet player? - bill buckner

A walk in the woods said...

Nice story... I've had those moments in N'Awlins too. And it's always great when a jukebox somehow plays a magically segued set.

dogbreath said...

Best mix of the year so far. Great back story. Then, icing on the cake time for me, I learn that Wingy Manone was one armed. I guess the "Wingy" should have told me!