It’s New Orleans: Happy Hour

Hosted ByGrant Morris & Andrew Duhon

HAPPY HOUR is a cocktail-fueled 60 minutes of random conversation with folks who have nothing in common, other than being New Orleanians in a bar. Featuring extraordinary New Orleans musicians playing live, host Grant Morris and sidekick deluxe Andrew Duhon.

Hair of The Cat – Happy Hour – It’s New Orleans

By the end of this show you’ll be able to say “Hi, how are you?” in Swahili, French, and Manadarin. This frst ever tri-lingual Happy Hour is not recommended listening if you are easily intimidated by the awesome achievements and amazing life experiences of others. If, however, you find sharing of diverse tales over cocktails enlightening and you love the discovery that we have more in common than you might at first glance imagine, meet Rosemary, Holly, and Ralph. 

rosemary reyes

Rosemary describes herself as an Afro-Latina. She started out in New Jersey, went to grad school in London, lived and worked in Shanghai – which she describes as disappointingly cosmopolitan and not Chinese enough – before working for the Julliard School in New York then moving to New Orleans to be a part of an artist non-profit with a non-ornithological or violent bent despite the name, Pelican Bomb. At Pelican Bomb you get affordable art – yes, real art for $80 – and for a short time get a portrait of your hair. That’s right. hair.

ralph shoemaker

There’s a chance you’ve met a lot of Southern Baptist ordained ministers who are also Jewish and Catholic, but if you’d like to meet one more here’s Ralph. You can actually meet Ralph pretty much any night you want at Bacchanal in the Bywater where he presides over the nightly spreading of wine, good will and love that forms the focus of his intentional good works. Originally from Lafayette by way of the Universe, you really don’t run into many points-of-light like Ralph in a lifetime.

If you’re thinking you couldn’t get much more incongruity around a small table in Uptown New Orleans, wait till you meet the pre-eminent authority of New Orleans’ hip hop.

Holly Hobbs

Holly Hobbs is the founder of the NOLA Hip Hop Archive and she’s literally writing the book on the power of New Orleans rap, hip hop, and bounce. By the time she’s finished the book/dissertation she’ll have a Ph.D and be the official Dr of Rap. In her off hours she’s the guardian of Violet the feline and one of the saviors of the music industry in Tanzania and Kenya. For real.

If you want to be reassured that you never know who you’re going to run into in a bar in New Orleans, this a fascinating, NOLA-affirming Happy Hour.

grant morris, holly hobbs, rosemary reyes, ralph shoemaker

The photos on this page were taken at Wayfare by Alison Moon.