Southern Nights

The Hollywood Bowl in 1929

Southern nights

have you ever felt a southern night?

Free as a breeze

not to mention the trees

Whistling tunes that you know and love so.

-Allen Toussaint

We had our own little Southern Night at the Hollywood Bowl yesterday. The weather was humid and warm. We could smell the fragrant elderberry and fuchsia bushes in bloom. This was a celebration and tribute to the late, great Allen Toussaint. Toussaint wrote so many famous songs, including, Southern Nights, Java, Mother-in-Law, I Like it Like That, Fortune Teller, Working in a Coal Mine, Ruler of My Heart, Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky, Yes We Can Can, Right Place Wrong Time and MORE!

Many of those songs were performed expertly by the band, Galactic, special guests Cyril Neville, Irma Thomas, the Allen Toussaint Band with singer Erica Falls, along with Dr. John and his Night Trippers.

Cyril Neville

The Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas

Dr. John

We ran into a few friends, had yummy Shrimp Po' Boy sandwiches for dinner and generally had an excellent evening under the stars in Daisy Dell in the hills of Hollywood. I only wish Allen Toussaint, himself had been present to play and sing his own wonderful tunes.

"Muse of Music, Dance, Drama," WPA funded sculpture by George Stanley, 1938-1940