JB: I was wandering around down on Frenchmen late on a Wednesday night, not too long ago. I hadn’t been down there in quite a while. In fact, the last time I had been there, I was surprised to see a mini bulldozer inside the Praline Connection and the floor all torn up. So now there was a brand-new, brightly lit Willie’s Chicken Shack right there on that corner… Made me go ‘Wow.’
I was hungry, so I decided to see what was on the menu….as I waited in a pretty slow-moving line, a young good-looking guy came along behind me and we started chatting about the new place and the line and had a few laughs.
He was dressed really nicely, and of course I had to ask him why. He said he had just finished a gig at Snug Harbor with Delfeayo Marsalis—was a horn player. I told him I was a songwriter and we talked about music for a minute.
Next thing I knew, I was next in line, placed my order and was getting ready to pay when he insisted on picking up my tab. This just blew me away ….I thanked him profusely. A bit later I realized I’d never even gotten his name, but I will certainly always remember his kindness.
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This project always makes me think of a song Jean wrote about that expression “Back in the day...” Most of the stories in the collection take place at least a decade ago, when (depending on which decade and who's talking) Frenchmen was a tight-knit neighborhood, an international music mecca, a blissfully piractic Wild West. The late 70s, the mid 90s, the early 2000s ... I have slightly insufferable Miniver Cheevy tendencies at the best of times, and of course these are all Frenchmen "days" I dearly wish I could have been a part of. But it's also nice to remember, as the song says, that "this is the day." (And you can still go out on Frenchmen and occasionally meet a handsome chicken-buying stranger.)
Honored to call Jean my friend!