Giants Among Us

And giants walked among us.

Ok, I'm not even sure if that is a real quote, but it seems like it is. Or should be. The giants I am talking about are musical giants.

Last night I went to a concert featuring Gatemouth Brown and friends. Said friends included Sonny Landreth, Walter "Wolfman" Washington and Snooks Eaglin. I should have such friends. The concert was held in the Parish, which is the small room above the regular House of Blues venue. It holds about three hundred people tops. The place was sold out. It's nice because it is so small. The stage is only about two feet above the floor. Larry and I were center stage, right against the front of the stage. We were so close we could have reached out and touched the performers.

I don't know the names of the backing band for all the guests, but they were great. The saxophone player was wonderful, he could blow that sax. Everyone played their best. For those you don't know, Gatemouth Brown is sick. He has lung cancer and is not expected to live a whole lot longer. So this was probably one of his last, if not last performances. I would guess it will probably be his last as I'll explain later.

The first up was Sonny Landreth. Sonny is a local boy, down from Lafeyette. He is one of the world's greatest slide guitarist. Besides putting out his own terrific music he plays backup on a lot of other singer's cds. He is a memeber of the Goners, the legendary backup band for John Hiatt. The Goners get together with John every few albums or so, and when they do it is almost a guarantte that is will be one of his best albums in years. Or since the last one with the Goners.

Standing there, literally just feet away from him playing, it was amazing to watch his fingers fly on the strings. He made that guitar do things....all I can say is that it was amazing. Sonny is the baby of this bunch, probably in his mid thirties.

Next up was Walter "Wolfman" Washington. A blues singer. But he looked too happy to be singing the blues. When he was up on stage singing he had the biggest grin in the world, his teeth flashing at the auidence. But happy or not, the man can sing the blues.

After Mr. Washington came Snooks Eaglin. Now for those unfamilar with the name, Snooks is a blind blues singer and as Larry said probably older than dirt. Snooks was at the first JazzFest thirty five years ago and I think he was old than. He was lead on stage and sat down. He complained about the chair he was in, it was actually for Gatemouth, saying it was like a bike seat and he didn't ride a bike here. There switched chairs for him, getting him an older straight back wooden one. Than he went to town. He likes to talk to the auidence as he sings.

After a few songs they came out and moved him over sligthly to the side of the stage. Than the main attraction came out. Gatemouth Brown. Gatemouth is more than just a blues singer. He sings and plays all types of music. He was in a wheelchair, we actually saw him drive up as we waited in line earlier. Well, not him, his ride and they got him out and put him in his wheelchair and brought him inside. They helped him out of the wheelchair and onto the stage, sitting him down on the chair that Snooks didn't like. They carried his oxygen bottle and placed it besides him onstage. He had tubes running around his head and in his nose, helping him to breathe. Very familar set up from going through this not long ago with my Dad.

Gatemouth sat for a few minutes listening to the rest of the band playing. He was as skinny as a prision camp inmate. I could have probably wrapped my hand around one of his legs. But he was dressed in his best, with his cowboy hat on. But you could see he was in pain. He would bow his head and I was close enough to him to see tears in his eyes. Every breath was a struggle. But he wanted to play. After a few minutes of listening to the band he played for a few minutes. Than he had to stop and listen again. I just don't think he could literally play that long. This went on for about three songs and than he called out to the side of the stage. "I'm done."

They came and got him and brought him back to his wheelchair and pushed him back into the dressing rooms. Snnoks, bless his heart, could not see what was going on, he just kept on playing and singing.

Overall it was three and a half hours of music. It was a great experience, seeing performers as talented as these. I noticed that Sonny and Wolfman, even though their sets were long over, stayed to the very end, standing by the side of the stage, watching and listening. I think they are as big as Gatemouth fans as the rest of us. And while it wasn't long set by Gatemouth I was glad to get to see and hear him, whatever little I could. But I just don't think he'll be doing any more shows, this one was hard enough to do, so I think this was probably Gatemouth's last performance. (A side note here about Gatemouth: He lives in the same small town I do, Slidell and even has his home phone number listed in the phone book. I just think that is kind of cool.)

After the show we discovered Gatemouth outside in his wheelchair. He was signing some autographs, even though it was hard for him to even do this. But the man must like to sing autographs, the first person that came up to him and asked for one didn't even need a pen, Gatemouth pulled a shapie out of his shirt pocket to sign for him. Than Sonny Landreth came out and went up and talked with him for a few minutes and afterwards he walked off with his girlfriend. Than they loaded Gatemouth into his van and was off.

Like I said at the start of this post, these guys are musical giants and tonight I got to see some musical history.