HOTG ventures to other internet venues

Well. pigs are flying over the glaciers of Hell with the Saints now set for the Superbowl and the Who Dat Nation gone international, at least according to one comment here of support from. . . France. So, I guess it should be no surprise that I have been doing some unexpected things in my "spare time" (what a joke that term is) that are turning up on other websites. It probably won't be a common occurrence - so check these out for some different slants on the HOTG mission.

My survey of New Orleans Guitarists of note (not all of 'em, surely, but quite a few) is currently available for perusal at the Jemsite Blog. You might recall Ms Ava interviewed me there last month, and I thank her for asking me back.

If that were not enough (and some of you may think it is way more), I have actually been captured on video spouting off about old records and other HOTG lore. Last month, I met a production crew from the NPR radio show State of the Re:Union, who were planning to kick off their new podcast series, Sounds of the Re:Union, with a show on New Orleans music. To prep, they had been listening to the HOTG webcast and getting a few suggestions from me about where to go and who to see; and, for some reason, they wanted to see me, too. So, I suggested that we visit a true musical treasure house, Jim Russell's Rare Records, which has been open to the public since the late 1960s. It's a local institution. With the permission of the management, we did our talking standing amidst the shelves and tables piled with vinyl, record players, eight-tracks and CDs. Other segments of the show will include, I believe, their visits to the Tulane Jazz Archives, the Louisiana Music Factory, and the Hi-Ho Lounge, plus various additional interviews they got around town.

UPDATE [2/3/2010}: The podcast was supposed to be available yesterday; but the SOTRU folks contacted me to say that they will delay that a bit, as they have decided to expand it into a 30 minute special. When the entire show is ready, it will be available at their website and on YouTube; and I'll let you know when that happens.


In the meantime, they are giving y'all a sneak peek at my little segment of the show for a limited time via YouTube. This is a lot easier to access than the earlier link to a high resolution download. Through the miracle of creative editing, they have made me appear coherent as I utter actual journalistic sound bites about topics related to New Orleans music. Wonder if I can get 'em to help edit da blog. . . .

Thanks to Brenton and the crew for the opportunity to help out (hope they considered it help, anyway) and for their enthusiasm for featuring New Orleans music on their first show. I look forward to seeing the whole thing when they get it updated. Future shows will focus on music from other areas of the country (write them at their website and give 'em some ideas on that); but, I hope they'll come back down at some point, as they now know that there is so much more to see and hear.