HBO presents 'Treme'
Reviewed by Thomas Fawcett, Fri., March 18, 2011
HBO presents 'Treme'
Ghost Room, Thursday, March 17St. Patrick's Day got a shot of Fat Tuesday courtesy of a world-class New Orleans second line parading through Downtown Austin across the noon hour. Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which later played a set featuring Austin trumpeter Jeff Lofton, set out from HBO's Treme party at the Ghost Room led by the fancy heel-toe skipping of Darryl "Dancing Man 504" Young and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, resplendent in full green and gold traditional Mardi Gras Indian regalia. The locally living Boudreaux wears the crown of the Golden Eagles tribe and sang on groundbreaking recordings by the Wild Magnolias in the 1970s. Gathering green-clad revelers all the way, the second line ballooned to 50 strong as an emboldened Dancing Man 504 yelled, "We're taking the street!" Back at the Ghost Room, New Orleans pianist Henry Butler took the stage after HBO presented musical clips from the upcoming second season of Treme. The classically trained Butler, blind since birth, tickled a history of New Orleans shuffle, blues, and boogie covering Allen Toussaint's "Working in the Coal Mine" and Professor Longhair's "Go to the Mardi Gras." His left foot relentlessly tapping time and the crowd singing along, Butler closed with Crescent City classic "Iko Iko" and a bluesy take on Otis Redding's "The Dock of the Bay."
