Neal Pomea

Zing!

Back in the day, I too sucked up all the cajun I could lay my hands on - good, bad, really bad. So I understand about that. But nothing stays the same, especially in terms of South Louisiana music, which as much as any other genre/region is pretty much founded on beg/borrow/steal. Steel guitar/pedal steel was not part of the original cajun equation, but there's no question it's presence has enhanced countless post-WWII sides. And then there's Belton Richard playing accordian on Johnnie Allan's Promised Land - the best Chuck Berry cover ever! Or Johnny Sonnier doing The Devil Went Down To New Iberia. Not to stray too far from MG's topic, but have you heard Joel Sonnier do Chuck Berry's song Memphis? It was with Robert Bertrand and the Lake Charles Playboys. Great! I think many of the older guys were actually closer to the rock and roll spirit than the younger guys. Sung in English, you can even hear Joel's accent when he sings "Hep me information, more dan dis I cannot axe." Great use of steel guitar and fiddle on a rocking number. Memphis. I certainly don't have anything against steel guitar in Cajun music. That's probably the stuff I love the best. No, I mean the out of whack, busy bass guitar that you even hear sometimes in greats like Aldus Roger. He has two lps on La Louisianne that have either a simple bass or an electric guitar doing barre chords. They're great. A third lp has a too-slick swing bass in it and it's just about unlistenable, even for an icon like Aldus. If you like steel guitar, here are some YouTube videos of Arcange 'Coon' Touchet of the original Badeaux and the Louisiana Aces:

Somebody needed to tell Matt Diaz of the Braves not to take so many called third strikes last night! (Same for Adam Dunn of the Nationals, I know!) A near no-hitter for Scott Olson and the Nationals still could have lost that game! Well, at least some of last year's dread in the late innings seems to be going away.

That sounds familiar, Dan. There's some sort of dread over in Nationals Land about what will happen to him in 2012.

I don't understand contracts too much, but I believe that the reason Strassburg will not be up before June is in order to secure sole rights to his contract for a longer period of time. If the Nationals brought him up any sooner, then he would become a free agent sooner. It's discussed that way on Nationals Journal, the Washington Post's online discussion group. Anyway, the kid is like 21 years old and has no record of pitching past the 5th inning in the minors, so he probably also needs some minor league work. The one I want to see sooner rather than later is Drew Storen, a reliever. The bullpen could turn into our strength rather than the disaster it's been since 2006, but especially last year.

I would say that in the area of Cajun music I can distinguish between what's good and what's mediocre. I have a friend who collects it all, and he seems just as excited acquiring stuff that's mediocre as he does the stuff that's good. I just shake my head. How about this, MG? Could you point out to the people making the mediocre stuff what they are doing wrong? I know there are some Cajun musicians who think they are improving the music by adding a walking bass or by syncopating in rock style or playing fast when really, they're just messing it up altogether. Addition by subtraction sometimes. The simpler can be better.

Braves-Nationals game tonight is see-sawing through 5 innings. I don't know how many times there have been ties and lead changes. Lots of hitting for a 4-4 game.

Happy Birthday! And many more.

Don't worry. Your Braves can quickly gain ground by sweeping my team Washington when they meet! I have a feeling since we have done so well against the Phils, Mets, Rockies, and Dodgers, we will have a hard time with the Braves, Cardinals, Brewers, and Giants!

Easy Rider Blues, Soileau and Robin (for Leo Soileau and Moise Robin), per Tony Russell's book.

Thanks for your reply. What settings are you using for that old music? 128 kbps, 96?

I think I am going to try this with Goldwave. So far I have only used it to digitize records and tapes, but it looks like it can be used to merge sound files of different types in a sequence. Does anyone have experience with that function of Goldwave? It looks like I need to record voice files and save them, then arrange them in a sequence with song files upon which I make comments. Then save everything as mp4 or m4a files so that the 'cast can be played back in Itunes or Quicktime. Could anyone offer me some tech guidance with that? thanks!

Could someone recommend an easy podcasting program that a Windows XP user like me could use to start up a new podcast? Thanks!

6th save for our man Capps (the Washingnut Expose), and an 8-inning pitching performance by Stammen. Lowest fan turnout since returning to town. The Post would rather talk about off-off-off-season pro football.

Another win for the Internats! Hope we can get Ryan Zimmerman back on the field in good shape.

Nice come from behind win for the Washington Internationals (Internats) over Phillies, 7-5. Our closer, Capps, is 4 for 4 in save opportunities, but he gives us heartburn every time he's out there.

They ought to award that lady from Mobile in Ken Burns' documentary, The War. She made war a three syllable word! Come to think of it, there should have been some country music in that documentary too. If they had included Orange, Texas instead of Mobile as an example of a southern shipbuilding boom town with all the prejudices of Mobile, they could have had Texas Swing and Cajun!

Congratulations! I know you put a lot of work in it, and it will certainly contribute to our knowledge.

He once sold chicken starter mash on the Mother's Best radio shows. Now he's won a Pullet Surprise. Well deserved. Previous winners from the jazz world.

Nice win for Washington over Philadelphia yesterday, when the game see-sawed back and forth. Now, if we could only change our name to Internationals, we could be the Internats (instead of Nats). I am convinced that the multitudes embracing the word Nats, which sounds like Gnats, are jinxing us to hell.

Prohibition Blues, The Missourians

Happy birthday to you!

Yes, I agree about Patty Loveless. Her version of Busted is great! In fact, much closer to the spirit of the tune and lyrics than Ray Charles' overproduced version, imo. For Norman Blake, Blind Dog has the songs I enjoy most.

Two Bill Kirchen albums to recommend: Tombstone Every Mile, and Have Love Will Travel. I am sure his others are also good. I was lucky to hear him many, many times when he was headquartered a few years in Maryland.

baseball hat All my life it's been a baseball cap, not a baseball hat, but I am assured rudely on Reddit and elsewhere that a cap is a kind of hat (I knew that) and I am given a link to the Wikipedia article on hats. Has a generation lost the meaning of the word cap?