Why Did The Accordion Player Have a Nervous Breakdown? – Happy Hour – It’s New Orleans
In the next 60 minutes you’re going to hear how a relatively successful New York City accordion player broke down on stage, became a Buddhist cult leader, and inadvertently gave birth to the Gwendolyn Molson Quartet.
Leslie Molson tells the story and many more besides, including how she cured having a fat face and tiny eyes with a tube of eye shadow and the difference between the microscopic mites on your face and hers.
If that isn’t a wild enough story for you, meet Charles Marsala.
Charles has lived a number of lifetimes, apparently simultaneously. Charles grew up in New Orleans, became the mayor of Silicon Valley, transformed the US Air Force in Alaska, and is currently back in New Orleans saving the African Elephant from extinction. He has a TV show about saving wild animals and has written a book about finance. Is he New Orleans most interesting man? Voting is open.
Helen Gillet brings along her cello and her foot pedal rig that transforms her cello into an array of sounds from a drum and bass section to what sounds like an orchestra, guitars and an indescribable sonic wonderland that is not only rocking and rich, but you can barely believe it is all totally live.
Andrew Duhon finished writing a song literally minutes before he plays it here. If you need any encouragement to check it out, it contains a line something like “My heart is like a rowboat I tow through land-locked towns.” Being a musician might be totally wrecking his love life but it’s paying off in songs like this.
Photos taken at Wayfare in Uptown New Orleans by Alison Moon.