Blackpot Festival

Well, the birthday weekend is over and it had its peaks and valleys. I had two awesome dinners. One at a friend's house (wild pig with a balsamic glaze) and one at a great area restaurant courtesy of Carlee's mom. Thanks to both hosts! Another highlight was the couple of hours I spent at the Blackpot Festival. This was the first year of the festival which celebrated roots music in Louisiana as well as traditional black pot cooking. I had some kick ass Gumbo aux herbes and and my first ever (and probably last ever) taste of cracklin.

The band line up included Feufollet, Corey Ledet & Cedric Watson, Racines (Steve Riley, Kevin Wimmer & Mitch Reed), Pine Leaf Boys, The Figs, Drew Landry, Louisiana Purchase Bluegrass Band, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, Ann Savoy & Her Sleepless Knights, Bonsoir Catin (I missed them...which is too bad because this is our friend's new band. You first read about her here.), and the Red Stick Ramblers (highly recommended). Check out information on all of these great bands here.

I ended up just catching Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, who happen to be the musicians who wrote the first song I ever danced to with my wife, The Lover's Waltz. It was really special to see it played by the original musicians. If you have ever seen the Ken Burn's Civil War series, you may have heard their song Ashokan Farewell - another song that was played at our wedding.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I ended up missing the MLS final though...our DVR mysteriously deleted the recording when we paused it and made dinner this evening. Cox is going to get an earful tomorrow from this grumpy old man.