We had a marvelous time last weekend in Louisiana. There must've been forty or fifty people piled into Jamie Hauser's wee cottage as we performed our first house concert in Louisiana. But it wasn't just the performance that was the cool part. It was the whole experience.
We arrived on Friday evening after a lonnng car drive to East Louisiana. Had a marvelous gumbo dinner and enjoyed the kind hospitality of Jamie and her husband Bob. The food, as usual, was delicious. We chatted about Jamie's frequent trips to Russia and even Bob and I even had a wee political debate. Obviously, we were both fairly well stuck in our ways. ;)
Next morning, I awoke early had coffee with Jamie out on her porch. She has a huge secluded back yard, with deer running through, and hummingbirds. We sat and dreamt about winning the lottery and owning our own faires. I related my excitement about heading to Italy next year for Carnevale. She talked about her travels and amazing life. It was very peaceful, and something I'll cherish for years to come.
Around noon, faire folk started arriving. The show served a dual purpose as a Louisiana Renaissance Festival costume preparation and cast group entertainment, which is one of the things Jamie does as the Assistant Entertainment Director of LARF.
Folks gathered and we got to meet a lot of wonderful people and see many of our friends we met last year at faire. Oh! And we stopped by the LARF festival site to see what was new. Bob was out there building Jamie's wee Renaissance cottage at the side of the lake. Beautiful wee building, and she's also hoping to turn it into another little stage.
Sounds like there are a lot of changes coming to the faire too, including moving stages and what not. They've a lot o'work ahead, but there seems to be a really great crew out there working and building it all up.
Well, come evening, the place was packed! Our artistic friend, Marrus arrived for the show. I spent some time with the LARF Queen and her entourage chatting, and also a bit o'time with ethnobotanical fiddler friend, Stephanie, watching some movies on Jamie's computer, or wandering around listening to Bonnie Raitt and Eric Clapton on the speakers.
Finally, show time came. We were all set too. We had Katie's (Jamie's daughter) face taped to a cardboard cut out of Legolas, which was all we needed to start the show. If Andrew or I had remembered to carry a time piece, we might not've power driven our way through well over two hours of music, with people laughing and clapping throughout. But hey... I'm not complaining, because it was a blast!
Folks were really seemed to dig, "Lily the Pink", "Jedi Drinking Song", and one of our newest that we learned from Boogie Knights, "Exclamations." I was wishing we actually DID bring the sound equipment, because it would've made a brilliant recording. But the sound in Jamie's house was pristine. Traveled so well. Course it helps that we're used to performing at faires and belting out our vocals.
After the show, I collapsed to recover. I was wiped, but the party didn't end. I was brought some Scotch and wine, and people partied till the wee hours. At one point, I remember coming out and hearing Andrew on the guitar. Sheesh! I never knew he played guitar so well!!! Guess that comes from years of jazz band.
I crashed fairly early. Aside from being exhausted, I was also hoping to spend another quite morning on the porch with Jamie. And I did. Pancakes and packing and we were on our way home.
Way too short a weekend, but it went so well, we're looking forward to doing some more. We'll be back at Louisiana Renaissance Festival for one weekend this fall, and may also do some other shows in New Orleans if we can get it all rolling. Meantime, we'll have many, many fond memories on our drive to Georgia this weekend.
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