PLAIN FOLK

by Denise Brown
New Orleans’ Biggest Surprise

After five days in New Orleans, it felt as though nothing could surprise me anymore. I had been totally and wonderfully unprepared for the sensual overload of Bourbon Street, and the down right raunchiness of most of the music venues. But by our last evening, I felt a seasoned veteran. The music everywhere had been superb and I had learned to appreciate the rawness of most of the clubs. I was game for one final late night, and willing to take the advice of a ‘local’. And so it was off to the Rock ‘n Bowl.

There was a moment of doubt when I gave the taxi driver our destination. “hmm – different” was his response. There was a second moment of doubt when he pulled into a seedy strip mall, and pointed to a small door between a pawn shop and a money lender. I couldn’t imagine what might be behind that door, and wasn’t at all sure that I should find out.

Bravely (after all, the taxi had departed) we entered. The cover charge was $6, taken by a young woman sitting on a step halfway up a long and narrow stairway. My fellow explorers climbed the steps and the shocked looks on their faces warned me to be prepared for the unexpected. But I was not prepared for the Rock ‘n Bowl.

It was Wednesday – Swing Night – with the Joe Krown Swing Band. And swing they did. Everything from the cha-cha to a big band waltz performed with style and energy. There was a blur of activity in front of the stage. It seems this band has a following of dancers, some trained at the dance school below the Rock ‘n Bowl. Seriously good dancers. In bowling shoes.

Yes, bowling shoes. Because a few steps down from the stage and dance floor are 18 lanes of bowling. I’m not kidding. Most nights the cover charge includes bowling and shoe rental! In fact, it’s hard to separate the music from the bowling. Dancers twirl in bowling shoes; bowlers boogie. On Swing Night, a ‘strike’ was cause for a jitterbug down the lanes. I can only imagine what shakes down on the lanes on Thursday—Zydeco night!

The range of music offered at the Rock ‘n Bowl is as surprising as the venue itself. Some of the best musicians around are ‘regulars: Sonny Landreth, Anders Osborne, The Iguanas, and Clarence Gatemouth Brown. They have open jam sessions, retro nights, Deltabilly, Jazz and more. Not to mention Movie Nights (again, I can’t imagine).

The Rock ‘n Bowl was, by far, the best of dozens of totally new and unique experiences I had in New Orleans. Great music, incredible atmosphere, people of every age immersed in music, dancing and, yes, bowling. It touched that place in me that comes alive at Folk Music Festivals. The place that is tied to a smile and a sense of “Ah. - now this is living”.