Jazzfest Day 1 recap- it's all about good choices

After an absence of almost 9 years, I returned to jazzfest with Rhonda who is at the fest for the first time. There is always far more to see and hear than you can possibly digest in one day- you simply can't see it all. the trick is to make good choices and don't second guess. Here is a brief rundown of our experience on Friday , day 1 at the fairgrounds:
- Charmaine Neville at Congo square- after stopping first for a strawberry snowball with condensed milk (jazzfest breakfast of champions) we heard a set of original songs with a distinct female voice and, importantly, checked our first "Nevilles box". The family is ubiquitous at the festival. We will see the Nevilles on Sunday.

- Soul rebels brass band at Gentilly stage. These guys are on their way to taking over the mantle of best brass band in new orleans from the dirty dozen. they rocked the crowd of about 10,000 fans with a mix of current songs and a few New Orleans standards. Then it was back to Congo square for ...
- George Porter and running partners- George Porter (original bassist for The Meters) played with a group of mostly younger musicians and riffed on classic meters tunes. George still looks and sounds great, though he let the young guys do the heavy lifting in this set. This bodes well for tonight when we will see George and another incarnation of the meters on Frenchman street.

Next for a change of pace, we went to the blues tent to see

- John Mooney. Rhonda loves blues so this was an easy call. Mooney sounds great on slide guitar, where he did his own take on New Orleans standard "Hey Now" as well as originals.

At this point, around 3pm, it was time for a snack so we headed over to the grandstand for a snack and the only real bathrooms at the festival. We had sampled the crawfish etoufee and crawfish rice earlier in the day but Jazzfest is hard work and we were hungry again. Nestled next to the lagniappe stage is a hidden gem, the oyster stand. I stood in line for a good half hour- not bad at all- and came away with 2 dozen fresh delicious oysters. The jazzfest gods were smiling on us.

We finished just in time to head back to the gentilly stage to see ...

-Gary Clark, jr. We had heard a lot of buzz on this guy and decided to check him out though neither of us knew his music. Gary Clark turned out to be the revelation of the first day. He played a set equal parts Chuck berry and Jimi Hendrix but all mixed together in his own style. He tore it up for a good 45 min and we stayed for the whole thing. Fantastic stuff. Gods smiling again.

At this point , we were faced with the choice of waiting 45 min to see Band of horses to finish out the day , then fight the crowds back to the busses or take beat the crowds and call it a day. We decided on the latter and were again rewarded for a smart choice. We jumped right on a bus, taking the last seats and were whisked back to the quarter.