Gutterpunk bluegrass buskers in the French Quarter

Today in New Orleans French Quarter, I shot this short video of the gutterpunk busker-band Natchez on Fire performing "Red Rocking Chair." I was completely blown away by their performance, arrangements, vocals, and playlists. I can't locate any more info on them online, but I'll be looking for them.

Natchez on Fire

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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igled

I wonder if they are from Juan’s Flying Burrito home of “the gutterpunk”

http://www.juansflyingburrito.com/

“Gutter Punk ground beef, pinto beans, white rice, salsa, jack and cheddar cheese, sour cream and lettuce 6.95″
Anonymous

I’m in love with that cutie fiddle player
Ichabod

First off they are not gutter punks, they are not begging unwashed nor drunken and abusive.

Second as was mentioned, not really bluegrass more bluegrass/oldtime/jazz.

Third they rock!
echolocate chocolate

Jugpunk!
sapere_aude

I wish I lived in a city where it was common to encounter this sort of thing on an ordinary city street on any ordinary day. But, alas, unless there’s some sort of arts or music festival in town, you just don’t see this where I live.

BTW, I wonder why the washboard player and the fiddle player looked so bored.
- ethancoop
  
  It’s not an ordinary street, it’s the Quarter.
urpBurp

Could “Washboard Boy” and “Violin Girl” look any more bored?

… and Yes, those are their superhero names :)
Nom_de_Guerre

What a cool find, I’m an instant fan
Clayton

Not bluegrass – especially with that awful banjo. Otherwise, they’re fun.
Glaurung

igled, don’t remind me what I’m missing by not living in New Orleans anymore! Juan’s has the best burritos and guacamole ever.
xogo

Takes me back to one of my all time faves: Bob Dylan and the Band’s Basement Tapes.
EliZ

That pink haired violinist is my friend, Elena, absolutely the best violinist I’ve known – and I am also friends with the assistant choirmaster for the philharmonic, here (Sorry, Hannah, but you did call her a rockstar!)

Her myspace is http://www.myspace.com/fuckovaries/ and I have two or three music videos that I shot of her. Anyone want an interview?
- turn_self_off
  
  hmm, not sure if should be scared or intrigued about her.
  - EliZ
    
    A healthy mix of the two is best. I don’t know if Elena’s harmless, but she’s definitely friendly and good people. The rest of her band, that I have met, are also good folks – very nice, friendly, inclusive.
    
    - Eli
    - turn_self_off
      
      noted
Anonymous

obeyken, “old time” is a late-19th/early-20th century catch-all. Church-music, hillbilly, ballads, barn-dance, parlor tunes . . . Everything that went into the repertoire of amateur and/or itinerant performers who played parties, weddings, barrooms . . . wherever. Old-time gathered a bunch of bits, and distilled from that mix were country, rock, folk, bluegrass . . .

Clayton, gotta disagree on the banjo. That’s a classic style.

Cory . . . not bluegrass, not gutterpunks . . . but you got the “buskers” and “French Quarter” right! Yay!
- Clayton
  
  Classic style =/= quality play, talent or a good sound.
EliZ

Oh, snap – I just realized that means Cory is in NOLA! Get in touch with me on facebook (elias danger zwillenberg) and I’ll get you in touch with them. Incidentally, Neil Gaimann is here with his wife right now if you should want to try to chat him up, too.
- bruhinb
  
  Neil married Amanda already?!
  - EliZ
    
    Methinks – though I don’t know either of them personally, they were sitting together at Cafe Envie. Not that that and marriage are at all related.
    
    BTW, the article with his library here on BB was epic.
    - bruhinb
      
      I believe Neil and Amanda were Just Married when you saw them. She only makes a passing reference to it in her twitter stream (https://twitter.com/amandapalmer/status/3257130559733760), but their friend Kyle Cassidy (https://twitter.com/kylecassidy) tool an awesome picture that captures the event and their mutual character beautifully. (http://www.kylecassidy.com/lj/2010/neil-amanda-jason-wedding-iphone-1.jpg)
BethNOLA

Kept thinking, why is Cory Doctorow in NOLA?

Neil Gaiman’s 50th birthday party?
BethNOLA

Loved the music! I’ll keep an eye out for them and drop some bills in the hat.

A minor quibble: these folks aren’t “gutterpunks.” They’re clean, for one thing. And they provide something in return for the money they seek. The Quarter is plagued by gutterpunks, and they’re not the delightful performers we see in this video. They threaten and bully passersby and have made parts of Decatur Street unpassable in the evenings. There’s nothing hip or cool or interesting about them.

During the first year or so after the storm, there were Help Wanted signs on every shop; New Orleans desperately needed workers. Gutterpunks flocked in from out of town, ignored those opportunities and instead demanded money from people struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. They stretched out across the sidewalks on darkened streets, and created a hostile zone throughout the lower Quarter. One group of gutterpunks squatted in a house whose owners had evacuated, put a handmade sign on their truck reading “Animal Rescue” and went through the Bywater looting empty homes, using their rescue front to deflect police and National Guard inquires. They’re parasites.

I can see where an imaginative writer from out of town might romanticize the term, out of ignorance of what it means in the real world. But if you’re visiting New Orleans and a local tells you to cross the street and avoid the gutterpunks, they’re not being silly; they mean it.
gluther

We could get even more nit-picky about genre and say it’s jug-band/vaudeville, since the banjo’s all strummy and plectrum-style.
- gluther
  
  of course, without the Jug.
narrowstreetsLA

These guys are pretty nifty too, and along the same lines. Asheville, NC.
http://www.myspace.com/themilksheiks
- Rich Keller
  
  My wife and I saw Sweet Street Symphony, also from New Orleans, in Asheville last May. They have a similar feel and played a crazy version of Bei Mir Bist du Schoen that I really liked. I listen to their CD in the car fairly often.
cosmic_kiiljoy

Yeah, these folks are too clean to be gutterpunks and they don’t have a sign that says, “give me money for beer”.
Anonymous

For more of the guitarist and banjo player look up “lil maxwell and the malt liquors”
Anonymous

oh, i am sure they wouldn’t like to be called gutter punx
Anonymous

The fiddle player is a friend. She travels between NOLA and Seattle and some places between, playing with various people and busking solo. I’m pretty sure “Nachos on Fire” is some kids she started traveling/hanging out with. Most band she’s in don’t last very long, people gotta travel their own ways in their own time.
EliZ

Oh, BTW, and I swear I’ll quit commenting now ;-) it’s Natchez On Fire, not nachos.
- Cory Doctorow
  
  Thanks!Just fixed the band-name. I’m actually in town for Neil’s birthday party (which was wonderful)!
  - EliZ
    
    You are welcome. Elena’s psyched about being on the bESTbLOG, and I would love nothing more (well – maybe being invited to Neil’s party next year so I can have his autograph tattooed on me) than to introduce you two, get you more video and an interview or anything else you like.
    
    Feel free to contact me… hell, feel urged, lassoed, yanked, compelled by the power of zombie Jesus.
DrPretto

Let me guess:
They are TIME TRAVELLERS (from the past), Where is their Time Machine?
They have talent, I wish them Good luck (Hope they stay on Our Time).
Tom Fury

You’re in NOLA? Man, I am sooooo jealous – it’s the greatest city in the world. Don’t miss eating at Mena’s Palace!

Great band, by the way, love that old timey music …
Anonymous

definitely not the best traveler group on royal street.
the cake is taken by Tuba Skinny. yall should check them out.
Anonymous

sweet…ever hear or see “larry and his flask”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We2PgYzgpPE
glace neuf

Enjoyed the music, and the parade of people and vehicles passing by in the background. Including a bride with a bearded non-groom companion around 1:40 :)
VoiceUXGuy

Yee haw! The “check out how old-timey I am” thing can get a bit tired for me, but these guys wear it well. Very entertaining. Thanks.
Billy Blight

There are a million of these groups in the French Quarter on any given afternoon.
Anonymous

The same intersection in 2004, pre-Katrina:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1vtDobvLxh_Pt1hio8LN0g?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZANIqCJZVJJn5o2kux3-Jw?feat=directlink
Spinkter

A nit: This isn’t Bluegrass; it’s Old Time. Excellent nonetheless.
- obeyken
  
  what did they call Old Time back when they first made it?
  - pencilbox
    
    They called it “time.”
Anonymous

if you like these guys, check out the cardboard songsters
pretty swank digs
Anonymous

Nice, also check out a band on Bloodshot called Devil in a Woodpile. Great stuff