Here’s a really nice item that came down the pipe [just on the heels of my last post here on the Sketchbook Style].

New Orleans Magazine and Louisiana Life Magazine are clients that I “cultivated” many years ago on a visit to New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival. I figured that as long as I was in town, I’d drop by the office and make my trip tax deductible. Besides getting a long time client, I also got to meet Cosimo Matassa the legendary record producer [The AD at the time had just done a feature on the French Quarter genius and gave me the address to his grocery store – Yes! That’s right, the man who recorded Little Richard, Fats Domino, Guitar Slim, Lee Dorsey, Shirley and Lee and so many other founding figures of Rock’n’Roll ran a grocery store in the Quarter!]. I dropped by and shook his hand. His office was above the meat counter! Later that night, I saw Joni Mitchell with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Vaughan [Stevie’s brother] at a bar where Boozoo Chavis was throwing down! It was one Mofo of a trip.

Both magazines have little budget but I am honored to work in the same milieu as Louis Armstrong, Lee Allen and Professor Longhair. And the stories are terrific! This was for AD Jenny Descenzo @ Louisiana Life called Food for the Soul and features folk lore and recipes drawn from 3 notable songs from the Bayou country: POLK SALAD ANNIE, by Tony Joe White, JAMBALAYA by Hank Williams and SHRIMP BOATS by Jo Stafford. In an ideal world, I’d have gotten more money but not better subject matter. Not by a long shot. Start to finish: 2 days.