Mardi Gras & Moon Pies

Les Kerr and the Bayou Band will be holding their 13th Annual Bluebird Cafe Mardi Gras in Nashville on Fat Tuesday, March 4, 2003, beginning at 9pm. 

Kerr's event is the longest running Mardi Gras celebration in Nashville at a single venue. 

Kerr is also celebrating the release of his third CD, Red Blues.

A Gulf Coast native, Kerr knows whereof he speaks when it comes to Mardi Gras. His hometown is Pascagoula, Mississippi, strategically located between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, the city which claims the earliest Mardi Gras celebration in the United States.

"So many people don't realize that Mardi Gras has been celebrated for years all along the Gulf Coast," Kerr said. "Having grown up in that area, it's just a way of life for me."

Aside from his annual Bluebird Cafe show, the singer and his band play Mardi Gras events and parties throughout the season.

"We even did a Mardi Gras show at the end of April last year," Kerr said. "The spirit was there long after Mardi Gras Day!"

Fans of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will enjoy the material on the songwriter's new CD.

"My mistresses are Memphis and New Orleans," Kerr sings of the ever tempting river cities, "I'm just like other Mississippi men; I know I can't have either one forever but I've got to have them every now and then.

"Pray for New Orleans" is about an impending hurricane and "The Sun Also Rises" tells the story of Bourbon Street buskers who take tourists by offering to "tell you where you got them shoes" for a small fee. "Streetcar in the Rain is a ballad set on the St. Charles Streetcar Line, a venerable Crescent City institution.

A former full-time journalist, Kerr has reported on Mobile's Mardi Gras for Voice of America. His story about Fat Tuesday celebration appeared in the March 2000 issue of Music City Blues Society's Bluesletter.