Hey everybody!

Our friends at Lake View Park & Beach in Eunice, LA have a great thing going.  An old-school campground complete with beach, lake, barn-dances and great company.  

Check out their website! 

They've revived this historic park where Cajun greats such as Dewey Balfa and Austin Pitre used to play back in the day, and the spirit is alive and kickin'!  

Download the Lake View Theme Song, written by Linzay Young and performed by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBYlK0KOiDo

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/gulf_oil_spill_threatens_sarga.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBL_MUGtWds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOVEIlMF63U

This awful mess hits home with me for a couple reasons.

Not only did one of my father's good friends (who we hunted and fished with since I was a kid) perish in the explosion that led to the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon rig, but growing up hunting and fishing in this "sportsman's paradise" has led me to be connected to the land we live on here, including the saltwater on our coast, especially Grande Isle.  

I've had dreams of living down there and fishing and crabbing and eating shrimp, and taking my kids and grandkids to do the same things. Now it's doubtful if I'll get to do those things again in my lifetime.

I know accidents happen, but it's sickening to think that this could've been avoided or at least contained if BP had spent a little more of their billions and billions of dollars to pay for safeguards that hopefully will become the standard for offshore drilling.

I mean, a vessel that could handle this kind of spill out at sea was developed and designed 20 years ago, but never built so that the oil companies could save $$; the technology to drill in 8,000 feet of water was developed, but the industry's still using the same technology for spills and cleanup that they were 30 years ago; apparently there was an automatic BOP that BP could've sprung for that would've shut off in case of an emergency, but it would've cost them too much money!!  Instead, an accident did happen and gas came to the surface so fast that no one could hit the kill switch and now 11 people are dead and an entire ecosystem and thousands of people's way of life is in Jeopardy.

To add insult to injury, two top officials for BP have made insensitive, ignorant remarks that I wish they'd uttered at Rome's lounge on Grand Isle in front of a bunch of drunk shrimpers.  BP's CEO Tony Hayward was quoted as saying he "wants his life back".  To quote a brother of one of the workers killed on the rig, "I want my brother's life back". Another BP top-hand, Randy Prescott, said "Louisiana's not the only place that has shrimp".  I'd like to see these two jack-asses rolled in the fetid crude that's washing up on the beach and in the marsh and then feathered with the plumes of dead pelicans killed by the spill.  

Please do your part by staying informed, informing others, and above all, BOYCOTT BP FOR LIFE!

Thanks, Linzay 

Hey folks, we'll be at the Crawfish Fest up in NJ during the first week in June! Get your tickets now...

Michael Arnone's Crawfish Fest
June 4,5 and 6th 2010
Sussex County Fairgrounds
Augusta, NJ

Visit em and get your tickets at www.crawfishfest.com

And they're on facebook too - join the group here

Hey Everybody!

NPR's American Routes were at the 2009 Black Pot festival and are featuring audio from the festival on their Mardi Gras edition of the program.

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Also, mark your calendars for the 2010 Black Pot Festival, October 28-30 2010!

blackpotfestival.com

Happy Mardi Gras!

Howdy friends and neighbors! It's an exciting time in South Louisiana. Our own New Orleans Saints are in the Super Bowl this Sunday! And if that wasn't enough of an excuse for a party, here comes Mardi Gras bringing up the rear! So take the paper bag off your head and get out your Mardi Gras Masks! After the Saints thoroughly trounce the Indianapolis Colts (Who Dat?) this Sunday, we'll have just a few days to recover from our celebration before we begin reveling in Louisiana's favorite holiday (Yes, it's bigger than Christmas), MARDI GRAS! Whether you're off to New Orleans to celebrate with the Who Dat! Nation, a little further west to Baton Rouge for some Spanish Town "Flaming Flamingo" action, going to Lafayette for their "Crescent City in Training" parades, or wandering out into the wild, lonesome prairie for the ancient, rural "courir de mardi gras" you're bound to have a good time. Whatever you do, make sure and make the Red Stick Ramblers part of your Party Gras good time by catching us at one of our local stomping grounds. See "Tour" for more details. Soignez-Vous, and keep it 'tween the ditches with all four on the ground. King Nizzy, Krewe de Cort-No-Yo

Howdy friends and neighbors.

Hope you're enjoying the holiday season so far.  We've received Louisiana's earliest snow ever on record, and in other improbable news, the Ramblers latest record, "My Suitcase is Always Packed" is #6 in Offbeat magazine's TOP 40 CD's of 2009! 

The Ramblers have also been nominated in several categories in OffBeat's Best of the Beat awards 2009.

VOTE FOR THE RAMBLERS! in these categories: 

#15 - Best Cajun Performer

#19 - Best Country/Folk/Roots Rock Album

#23 - Song of the Year (Bloodshot Eyes!)

#41 - Album of the Year (My Suitcase..!)

In other news, NPR's Folk Alley has announced it's TOP TEN FOLK SONGS OF 2009  , and the Ramblers' Cajun original "Nonc' Yorick" was included!

Thanks for supporting your local Rambler and have a happy Chrishannukwanza and a Slappy New Beer!

L

Howdy friends and neighbors, It's that time again...time for the Ramblers to have all their favorite musicians, cooks, dancers and all-around good-timers down to Lafayette for the best party of the year, the BLACK POT FESTIVAL!

For those unfamiliar with the event, it's our very own music and food festival started by the Ramblers and Work Agencies in 2006. This year will be our 4th year, and it's going to be better than ever. It's coming up on October 30 and 31.

Go to the festival website at www.blackpotfestival.com for info, a list of performers and to register for the Black Pot Cook-Off if you think you know how to throw a sauce! Looking forward to seeing you there!

Howdy friends, neighbors and not so friendly neighbors...you know who you are, borrowing my lawnmower and not bringing it back...ever. I'll get you.

Anyway, here we are in Ireland, well...Northern Ireland to be exact. Without getting into the politics of it all, we're here in Belfast playing at the Open House Festival's Chilli Fest. That's right folks, it's a festival within a festival. There's hot chilli pepper eating competition's complete with wretch buckets and paramedics on standby.

Apparently they've amended the rules from last year because everyone tried to eat all the peppers at once and they began going into spasms.

There's lots of "American" music here, but only 3 bands from the states that I can tell, T-Model Ford from Mississippi included. Never heard of the guy, but he's practically a neighbor all the way over here.

We played our first set yesterday, Friday, and have another today and then I'm doing a Cajun cooking demo outside in the courtyard area. We'll show 'em what it's all about baby.

Then one more day of Chilli Fest and we head off into the Republic of Ireland for another 6 or 7 gigs. We'll be running into our friend Tony Davoren in Donnegal and spending a day in Galway. Should be fun.

More to come.

Cheers

Linzay

Hi friends. We've been enjoying the cool weather and cold beers, and sights that Copenhagen has to offer for the past few days, and tonight we'll play our first show.

It's at Loppen in the unique neighborhood of Christiania. For those of you that aren't familiar with it, it's built around an old army base that was squatted in the early 70's by "free thinking" hippie types, and has remained a somewhat independantly governed by it's residents. There are people openly selling hash and pot in the streets and but they also handle their own garbage pickup and sweep the streets clean. It's quite interesting and charming.

Well, hope fall is arriving gracefully back home, i suppose it's already here in Danmark.

Howdy friends and neighbors. I'm writing from back in Louisiana to let you all know we made it home safe and sound from our summer touring, which took us from the gulf coast to the west coast all the way to the east coast and back. Yes indeed, if there be doubters as to whether the Ramblers deserve to be called Ramblers, let them be henceforth silenced.

Our 1999 Ford Econoline 350 (V8) seemed up to the challenge so we decided to drive out west for our first month of touring, which, in turn, meant we had to drive the whole summer.

The first day of driving towards Berkeley, CA ended unexpectedly in Schulenburg, TX, where the radiator cracked open. Say what you will about Texas, but they are a helpful and hospitable people. The kind folks at Chuck Brown Ford set us up with a loaner while they ordered our part forthwith and had us going again by noon the next day.

Following some of our first gigging in the San Francisco area, we made our way (via Seattle) to the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, in Port Townsend, WA where we had fun hanging out with some of our Louisiana brethren and sestren like Dirk Powell and Christine Balfa-Powell and Jesse Leger and Joel Savoy. We also got to watch the fabulous 4th of July fireworks display over Puget Sound.

Before heading into Canada for a few gigs including the Vancouver Island Music Festival, we decided to get the van checked out again and put some new shoes on it. The good folks at Les Schwab Tires gave us new ball joints, tie road ends and an alignment along with new rubber and we were ready to make the ridiculous drive back east for Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. On that trip we were in the van for 55 hours straight, stopping only for petrol, pissing and pop-tarts.

Somehow we made it and did another month + of touring on the east coast, enjoying some great hang-time in Rhode Island (where I was lucky enough to become engaged to my sweetheart Emma!). All told, we covered approximately 11,679 miles this summer!!!!!!!

Now we're back home and resting up for a couple weeks before one last month-long jaunt up to Michigan for the Wheatland Festival, where we'll be joined by honorary Rambler Blake Miller for some more stateside fun before we head to Denmark and Ireland for a few weeks.

Keep in touch Rambler fans, and dog-bless.

Howdy all you web-surfers. Hope you're hangin' ten. Welcome to the coolest place on the intraweb, the latest, greatest incarnation of the RAMBLERS WEBSITE!

Big thanks to Ryan Baker from Sugar Hill Records for creating this work of art. Be sure to drop him a line at ryanfbaker@gmail.com if you need some web-wizardry. ALSO, be sure to sign up at the bottom of this page for our news letter so we can keep you abreast of the hap's.

CHEERS!

Linzay (writing from beautiful Saunderstown, RI)