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By Cat Lilly<br />
Fat Tuesday (March 4 th )<br />
Juke Joint Junkies • Briquettes Smokehouse<br />
The most popular time to visit New Orleans is Carnival (or<br />
Mardi Gras), an annual two-week celebration of non-stop<br />
parades, music, and festivities throughout the whole<br />
city. Mardi Gras begins around the Epiphany and<br />
ends on Fat Tuesday, which always falls the day<br />
before Ash Wednesday, which is the first day<br />
of Lent. Mardi Gras is actually French for “Fat<br />
Tuesday,” referring to the practice of the last night<br />
of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting<br />
of Lent. Fat Tuesday marks the end of the celebratory<br />
season, and the beginning of the penitential and more<br />
religious phase. In other words, it’s your last chance<br />
to whoop it up and let the good times roll before the<br />
self-imposed period of self-deprivation!<br />
The tradition of Mardi Gras is observed not only<br />
in New Orleans, but in big cities and small towns all<br />
over the country, and Ashtabula County is no exception.<br />
On Tuesday, March 4 th , Briquettes Smokehouse, on<br />
historic Bridge Street in Ashtabula Harbor, will be<br />
jammin’ with the sounds of the Juke Joint Junkies<br />
from 8:00 to 12:00. We might be in for nasty weather,<br />
but “birds of a feather gotta flock together” for the last<br />
hurrah of the Mardi Gras season. The Junkies will be<br />
“pulling out all the stops” with a special New Orleans<br />
style repertoire, along with their usual stuff, a unique<br />
brand of real down-home “feel good” music. This is<br />
sawdust-on-the-floor honky-tonk, mixed in with a little<br />
swing, country and jump blues - Americana at its best.<br />
Chef Nate Rockwell will be cookin’ up a virtual Fat<br />
Tuesday extravaganza -- Cajun and Creole-inspired dishes<br />
like Gumbo and Jambalaya, along with a few surprises.<br />
All you need to do is walk in the front door and get a whiff<br />
of that smoker, and you will know you are in for some of<br />
the best authentic southern style Bar-B-Q you have ever tasted.<br />
Likewise for the cornbread, the Brunswick Stew and the Mississippi<br />
Caviar, standbys off the regular menu that are worth mention, and the<br />
homemade desserts and hand-spun milkshakes are to die for!<br />
Briquettes has a full service bar and a great selection of craft beers and wines to<br />
compliment any taste. So gather up your Mardi Gras beads, and come on down and join in<br />
the revelry on Fat Tuesday- it may be cold outside but inside the only thing frosty will be<br />
the beer! The fish will be fryin’, the gumbo will be steamin’, and the music will be sizzling<br />
hot! Laissez les bons temps rouler!<br />
Briquettes Smokehouse, 1033 Bridge Street, Ashtabula 44004 Phone: 440-964-2273<br />
Hours: T-Th 11 – 10, Fri – Sat 11 – 11, Sun noon – 7<br />
Live entertainment every Friday and Saturday www.briquettessmokehouse.com/<br />
Mardi Gras Music<br />
The esteemed archival label Real Gone Music is<br />
celebrating Mardi Gras this year in fine fashion with a trio<br />
of New Orleans-flavored reissues guaranteed to rock your<br />
Fat Tuesday to the rafters! On March 4th, the label will<br />
release updated versions of Professor Longhair’s The Last Mardi Gras and Dr.<br />
John’s GRIS-gris as well as the previously-unreleased Full Time Woman from New<br />
Orleans R&B legend Irma Thomas.<br />
Henry Byrd, better<br />
known to the world as<br />
Professor Longhair, was an<br />
enormously influential blues<br />
pianist whose work impacted<br />
the lives and music of talents<br />
like Dr. John, Allen Toussaint,<br />
and Fats Domino, among<br />
many others. By the late<br />
1970s, however, the Professor<br />
was languishing in obscurity<br />
when producer Albert<br />
Goldman shamed Atlantic<br />
Records into recording a 1978<br />
performance by the rowdy<br />
pianist at the city’s legendary<br />
Tipitina Club. The sixteentrack<br />
mobile studio captured<br />
the Professor at his very best,<br />
knocking out 18 rollicking<br />
performances that were subsequently released as The Last Mardi Gras. This two-disc reissue<br />
represents the album’s first appearance on CD, and includes Goldman’s original liner notes as<br />
well as additional photos.<br />
A protégé of Professor Longhair, pianist Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) had made a name<br />
for himself on the competitive New Orleans music scene, lending his talents to records by the<br />
Professor, Joe Tex, Frankie Ford, and others until he ran afoul of the law in the mid-1960s<br />
and lit out for Los Angeles. With the help of fellow Crescent City expatriate Harold Battiste,<br />
Rebennack found work as an L.A. session pro before launching his lengthy and impressive solo<br />
career with the 1968 release of GRIS-gris.<br />
Produced by Battiste,GRIS-gris introduced the persona of Dr. John, The Night Tripper, a<br />
psychedelic voodoo man who fused classic New Orleans R&B and blues with roots-rock and<br />
psychedelic flourishes. GRIS-gris remains one of Dr. John’s best, and most consistent albums,<br />
and while some of the period influences sound a bit dated these days, the bedrock sounds, based<br />
on the best Crescent City tradition, are timeless.<br />
While we’re speaking of timeless, look no further than the wonderful Irma Thomas, a<br />
supremely talented singer whose body of work over the past six decades has quietly built a<br />
legacy of great soul, blues, and R&B music that is second to none. Although she never reached<br />
the heights of fame experienced by contemporaries like Tina Turner, Etta James, or Aretha<br />
8 www.northcoastvoice.com • (440) 415-0999 February 26 - March 12, 2014
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