You probably already know that Alex McMurray is one of New Orleans’ finest songwriters.

You may not know that he’s also a business magnate with a vast empire and team of employees engaged in global business including building a massive dam that it is almost complete and will be known as The Alex McMurray Dam, the main task of which will be to power The Dark Web.

In his spare time Alex sits home and writes songs or comes down to Happy Hour and writes them live while other guests talk about frothy subjects like the destruction of your Constitutional 6th Amendment right to a speedy trial.

Lindsey Hortenstine is married to Barksdale and changed her name from Riehle – yes, really, it sounds like an Australian saying “really” which in a strange twist of fate is the voice on Lindsey’s Siri which she uses to deliver the news about the Rolling Stones playing live in Havana.

Anyway, back to the Public Defender’s Office where Lindsey works as the Communications Director. Lindsey uses her communication skills to paint a pretty bleak picture of what’s going to happen to the New Orleans justice system after the current round of budget cuts. And the answer to your question is, “Yes! It COULD get worse!” Apparently quite a lot.

Luis Arocha left the corporate world of wealth management to work with at-risk young men, which is a vast, untapped market. Apparently there are 25,000 kids around here aged 17-24 who don’t have a job or are not in school, or both. Luis gives as many of them as he can handle a 6 week course in life skills and restaurant work at his Westbank project, Cafe Hope. 

You know you’ve gone down a dark road when it’s Andrew Duhon’s song that lightens the mood. But that’s where we are on this Happy Hour, deep into the bleak reality of a blighted generation, till Andrew turns it around and Alex throws the last blast of dynamite down the hole with an improvised bluies about getting arrested in Palquemines Parish where they throw away the key and don’t get you an attorney. Ever.

This is a crazy conversation that veers all over the road but somehow miraculously avoids ending up in a ditch.

Photos at Wayfare by Alison Moon.