Mardi Gras Traditions

It’s Carnival time all the time on this edition of The Founders Show, talking Mardi Gras traditions to the melodies of Armand St. Martin’s original musical compositions, heard exclusively on this week’s broadcast with Hy & Christopher.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Pot holes, the politicians mountain downthe road every faessition with no more corruption
and dysfunction. It's gone on.Jacovens, God bless out. There's just
trappin High make Henry you spend,Gary Bubbay all the Republic and with Christopher

(00:21):
dead Moore and folks. It isCarnival time. And as we're looms in
the Middle East and all the differentserious issues are going on, we actually
aren't going to talk about any ofthat today. We're going to talk about
what really matters, and that isShrove Tuesday, the traditions that come across.
But more importantly, we're going toactually make some world premieres of some
carnival music that have never been playedon the radio before, with our own

(00:45):
creole balladier who's joining us via phonelink, armand Saint Martin and he is
the bard and menstrul of the FounderShow and the greatest jazz piano player in
the South. And if you likeour opening music, obviously potholes and politicians
are creole goodbuyer closing music that's byarmand Saint Martin and Arman is making some
world premiere music. I mean,this is you heard the Grammys folks.

(01:07):
Well, this is this is thehighs, this is the highest. This
is mckenry's. Uh yeah, andlet's bring him on. Armand Saint Martin.
Are you with us, sir?Yeah? Can you hear me?
We can hear you again, wecan hear you. Fine, it's Marni
Gras time. Marti Gras only movesone way, and that's forward. And
you know it's a way it's movedquite quite a bit forward in the last
couple of years. Armand Saint Martin. You not only are world well renowned

(01:32):
valadier, but you actually write musicfor various carnival organizations. And uh,
you've played some, you've written somesome key pieces and we're going to actually
premiere one of those pieces here onthe show. But we got to kind
of get in the spirit of carnival, don't we. Absolutely? And uh
and you have one particular song thattalks about that's the overall Marty Gross song

(01:56):
that you have. If I'm notmistaken, it must be the mar Gros.
Must be the Marty Gras. AndI think we can start off you
know, I know we're a talkshow, but we gotta it must be
the Marti Gras and we'll talk aboutwhat this means. Let's go for it
on Mine, Saint Martin, itmust be the Marti Graus here on the
Founded show. Ladies, this again, oh steeze, that this must be.

(02:30):
This must be a little git theroom jumping where this must be you

(03:00):
get the more property. But it'sgot to see the people of the rig

(03:38):
a put album street my probably getto go from mile to rent. Ever,
look at that day. Don't getme. This be a far We
just got beat. But you,ladies and gentlemen, mister armand Saint Martin,

(04:42):
this must be the Marty Gras.And you hit something very key in
that in that song, armand thefact that you can be your own parade
in the Marty Grass. You're notjust talking about masking, but the fact
that what we think of as paradeshere in Carnival started off as different as
just basic processions of people through thecity. And it's still some of the
best parts of Carnival when you getright down to it, the walks,

(05:02):
the processions. Heck, even theoldest of the Carnival parades, Komas went
back to its roots. Kamas stillparades. It just parades the way it
did in eighteen fifty seven, asopposed to the way it paraded in nineteen
fifty group it's a marching marching group. Like yeah, walking group. A
walking group. By the way,the oldest one lives right around it's headquartered

(05:24):
right around a car from us,the Jefferson City Buzzards. That's the oldest
walking group in New Orleans. Heused to go in front of my apartment
everything, and it's it's you've gotthe Jefferson seat because remember Jefferson Parish,
as Mike Barkley often points out tome, you know anything past Louisiana Avenue
as the suburbs, because Jefferson Parishwent not just the Louisiana but it went

(05:44):
to the whole Garden district. Soyou hear a lot of Orlenians are like
Jefferson City Buzzers Jeffton don't realize thatthey actually it was a city. It
was the city of Jefferson City.And you and that gives you a root
of these walking crews, and yousee the creativity of Arnival as well as
many of the Bonton of New Orleanshead the balls at the same time on

(06:05):
these weekends, you've got, ofcourse crew to view but it spawned other
walking parades in the French quarter thatwith their well night does it twelve twelfth
Night has and they used to havea parade, you know, with floats,
but now they do the well theyhave maybe a carriage and the king's
on horseback and the rest of therest of the group is just kind of
dancing and marching with a jazz bandthem. And you've also got you obviously,

(06:27):
as I was, you got crewof Chewbaccas, which is now officially
religion, you know, two toChewbacca up in the falcon we pray and
it was it was really funny.Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, was
led the parade along with Andy Roll. Wow. And so he's well,
if if I may be so bold, Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca,
he's one of his best friends,is a frequent contributor and past contributor here
in wr No. And he's talkingninety five Alfred Richard, so you know

(06:50):
it comes through, uh And Alfredactually stayed with him during the storm during
Hurricane Katrina. So did Hans Soloshow up, No, he did not.
They would love Harry spor there,but it would not. But the
point I'm getting at is I'm enthusedabout this, and I wanted to ask
you about this because armand Martin,because you've composed a lot of songs for
walking groups within parades. But asit seems like all the floats are congregating

(07:15):
on Saint Charles Avenue, no matterwhere it is that we've got this endless
uptown parade. The neighborhood parade seemedto be quote dying, but no matter
of speaking, they aren't because thesemarching crews seem to be bringing back the
idea of what Carnival started with,which is put on a costume and make
revels through the streets. I meanthe crew of Cowbellians in this and the

(07:41):
cow bell d Racan Society, whichof course became Comas started as just a
bunch of people marching. Are yougetting back to our roots? You know
where the cow bells came from inthe rakes where this was in Mobile.
It started in Mobile and they wereMarti gar actually started Mobile. But now
this group organizations started maybe you knowyears after Mobile was founded. They weren't

(08:03):
doing the usual impromptu thing party andwhatnot on Marti Gras d And one group
said let's get let's stop at thehardware store and get a bunch of bells
and rakes and make that our makenoise with it in our symbol. So
that's what they did. They've gota bunch of rakes. They're waving them
around and ringing the Kyle bells.And that's how the name came from that.
Yeah, but you heard that.You heard that armand said Martin.

(08:24):
It says these Americans say, youknow, Marti Grous actually started in mobile.
Marty Grass started with commas. Ilast time I checked, we Creoles
have been doing these carnival balls andthese processions since about seventeen thirty before these
Americans ever showed up. No.Fourteen ninety nine, when Bienville stopped near
New Orleans, that Marti Grass byyou. They celebrated Marti Gras. I

(08:46):
love telling people. The very firstnight that they had Europeans sleeping on the
soil and the permanent cases was byyou to Mardi Gras was Carnival night,
and it set the trend. Christopherand Aman. It happened twice because the
first trip down the river, theyactually picked the location downriver on the west
bank for where they thought they'd dothe city, and they camped there and
they just happen to arrive Marty Garraosday and had a Marti Grool party.

(09:07):
And then when they came back andhad to finally found a way to get
really get access to Nules to giveus the kind of ingress we needed using
the back door by Saint John andSaint Louis, the rigilies. They they
when they first landed, it wasby you, Marty Grul, what you
said, and the next day enteredthe city. If that doesn't teach you
the roots of the city, itdoesn't. But I want to get back

(09:30):
to the issue because we're gonna we'regonna set up some of these songs.
How important are these walking crews tothis day to Carnival and is it really
our future? And trying to getCarnival back in the neighborhoods because I'd like
to see Marti Gras not just bethese big processions down Saint Charles Avenue,
but actually back into the neighborhoods,into the spirit it once was Armand well
that's a great idea. I youknow, like I say, you can

(09:52):
beat your own paradas starts with one. You can go to Marti graos by
yourself and put on a costa color. You know, I said, wear
some color. That's it's good thatit's either you can be an observer or
you can be part of the show. And I think everybody should be part
of the show. And if you'renot sure the color, just check out
the Marty Girl Indians. You'll getterrible, great ideas of color. And

(10:16):
there again another marching group. Haveyou noticed that outside of like the Crew
of Saint Anne, which is amarching group in the French Quarter and some
of it, the tradition of costuminghas not just gone down. It's almost
absent now in uptown and going towardsdowntown. There's some people that do it,
and I'm glad they keep it.But for the most part, people
really aren't not only masking but costumingon Marty Grande right. No, it

(10:39):
used to be a not too longback, the whole families would dress up
is as like bumblebees or something.You have a theme, and they'd be
winding through the streets uptown. Infact, there's some great books that have
been produced, mainly focusing on costumesthat photographers have gotten through the city.

(11:00):
And there really is amazing to seethe variety and the everything about the costume
and the concepts of costume. IfI maybe there's multiple carnivals, and sometimes
I feel bad about that because thereare there are Marti Gras days in particular
that are three separate days, andthe three worlds don't come together. You
have the true traditional processions down SaintCharles Avenue of Rex, and then if

(11:22):
you want to throw in Zulu meetingat Jackson Avenue going downtown, you've got
that. On the You've got themart the Marti Gras Indians parading through the
neighborhoods, which is the ultimate inthese costumes. They spend a whole year
creating just to basically wear two days. And then then you've got in the
French Quarter, in the Faubourg Mariny, the crew of Saint Anna, all

(11:43):
this and these people who've worked ontheir own more conventional but very unconventional costumes
parading and it's it's a tragedy tome that we don't get to see or
we don't have a procession of everybody. I would I had something. I
had a dream the other night.I can honestly say I had a dream.
Now I had a dream. Thiswas an actual dream. And the
dream I knew was had to bea dream because it was so impossible,

(12:03):
and you know what it was armandno. The dream was as the Komas
procession came out of you, outof Antoine's to make it to their ball.
They were joined by the Marti grausIndians and the crew of Saint Anne's
Great and everybody you know, andthat they all proceeded not just to Canal
Street, but they went Twen's GalierHall and basically made a loop through downtown.

(12:24):
And of course, if you knowanything about Marty Grauslor, you know
those three organizations would never actually bein the same procession ever under any circumstances
whatsoever, no matter what. Butto me it was like I literally woke
up and it was a very pleasingdream because it was like this would be
such a wonderful walking culmination, youknow, comas returns to parading by actually
not doing anything like they go from. They would go from Antoine's along Royal

(12:46):
Street, across Saint Charles, goup to Julia Street, come back end
up in Canal Street at the hoteland I think at the Ritz, and
that would be returned the Komas paradeto active parading. You could have one
or two floats like the King's,but everybody else would just walk. And
it's a great idea. But Iwill tell you that the look of horror
not just in the Komas people whohad the snoody Coomess people, but you'd

(13:09):
also and the Marti Groye Indians andin some of the Hugess French quarters.
They all look. These are arethree groups that love to hate each other,
you know. So it's are youtalking about my uptown swells, Christopher?
Let me let me get the letme get the pretentious, let me
get the pretentious, uh uh sortof garden district accent. Well, yes,
I'm talking about your uptown swells.And you've got to understand hi that

(13:33):
uh you know, there's a certainway that anyway On that note, all
right, but I want to hearthis your famous quote because it goes with
Marty Girl about New Orleans failing itmight might And this is my theorem to
you armand Saint Martin. Then Igive you on the Founder's Show at ninety
nine to five w rn O,and of course uh WSLA fifteen sixty am
for those that understand, we arealive from eight to nine pm Saturday nights

(13:56):
here on w rn O and rerunMonday, Wednesday and Friday on WSLA fifteen
sixty am. We premiere there onFridays and a rerun Monday and Wednesdays.
So those of us listening to ASHWednesday, call this the last little bit
of your Mardi Gras experience. ButI have written a million words in my
career as a journalists, and I'vecome up with one original thought. New

(14:18):
Orleans is a failure to everything butliving. Do we know how to live?
Because we've went through every conceivable horrorflood fire, hurricane, natural disaster
and disease, largish epidemics, andthe history of America twenty percent of the
population every ten years at least andsometimes worse. And then of course invasion.
I mean, if we don't rememberthat in Bisentennial, the Battle of

(14:39):
New Orleans, nothing can be right. And so when it comes down to
it, we had to turn thefight against death into a reason to live.
And I mean, and I wantedto bring the jazz musician back in
you because we'd have you for thewhole air. We're gonna play a lot
of music. But when it comesright down to it, you've been involved
in more than a few second linesin your life. And this was really
the original marching group with music,and yet a second line started off as

(15:03):
a funerary procession. Well that's right. I went to grammar school at Lusher
on Willow Street and one you know, one side's Pine Side Lawer Line,
and I remember many times going pastour classroom would be a funeral with a
jazz group and the somehow they'd havea hearse or the coffin and the family

(15:24):
and nobody else, no photographers,you know, no no brew ha ha.
Just this was this people's funeral,just going down to one of those
cemeteries off Laura Line Street and they'dend on the way back, they'd pick
up the tempo and and danced theirway home. And you know it all
started, Yeah, because you hada We were a highly superstitious society because

(15:50):
death was so common and you withyellow fever was dark. Well, foodoo
was common, but I mean deathitself was common. In the morning.
You could you know, on twincould be having breakfast, she gets bitten.
By afternoon, she's a little yellow, by dinner she's dead or much
the next morning. Since we didn'tembolm, you had to get them in
the grave. You had to bringthem straight to the cemetery, to the

(16:11):
family crypt really quickly. We're acity that was five blocks wide all through
our history because we're building tough,say Jude, So we would have to
bring the bodies directly to the cemeteryright behind the back of town. Except
that's so close to the house thatthe spirit maybe come back and haunt you
by the next dinner. So whatwould happen is people would proceed through the
streets in a serpentine fashion and theywould beat a drum and blow a horn

(16:33):
to confuse the spirit, and you'dhave the primary line of mourners. Well,
you've got less than twenty four hoursbefore rot goes in. So what's
going to happen is that people donot know that someone's dead. They learn
about it through this line of mourners, and they grab whatever they have,
food, drink, and they forma second line of mourners. Well,
you end up at the cemetery.You've got musicians, you've got friends,

(16:55):
you've got food, and you gota party. And so the point being
that we turn and something that wasa superstitious move on death into an affirmation
of life, to the point wherearmand I don't know. I mean,
frankly, I second lined out ofmy wedding, which is probably why I'm
divorced. But that aside the peoplepeople don't even realize that a second line

(17:19):
has anything to do with people dyingin many cases today and it shows how
we've turned something into something very positive. But it didn't start out that way.
Well, New Orleans is here toplease, just like the boatmen would
come, you know, come downthe river before there was steam power,
sell their goods, sell their boats, get them their money in our in

(17:40):
our bars, and go home witha smile on their face. And then
you know, in our in ourlifetime, people would get off the airplane
in New Orleans and say, well, where's the Cajun food? And nobody
coming from elsewhere. I knew theCajun was not in New Orleans. But
being New Orleans, we opened Cajunaround straw Us and started playing cage and

(18:00):
music and we give them what theywant, amen, Amen, And it
comes through the country. French wouldcome to town, the country, French
would come to down. Well,when we come back, we're gonna you
actually have written some songs having todeal with marching groups within within Marti Graus
parades and their their parodies, andwe're going to play something dancing groups figure

(18:22):
as opposed to I've seen them stepand they're not stepping above there are side
stepping. They're actually not stepping.Well, any crowds love us called a
drunken step. Anyway, we're gonnaWe're gonna hit that when we come back
from our commercial break with armand SaintMartin here on the program, and folks,
stay tuned. You're listening to theFounder Show online at the Founder's Shows's

(18:45):
the and put in that the theFounder's Show, I m Henry Christopher Tidmore
with armand Saint Martin talking Marty Grasthis season and premiering a world premiere of
a new Marty Grass song right afterthese commercial messages. Stay tuned as armand
finishes this section for us with acreole goodbye. We'll see you in a
minute. God bless out there.I can see across the deion stars.

(19:14):
Hi. I'm David Botner, theexecutive director of the New Orleans mission.
Desperate Reality Facing the Truth is America'sonly live radio rescue program. Our outreach
teams journey deep into the heart ofthe city helping hurting people. The New
Orleans Mission and the Giving Hope Retreatare all about giving glory to God through

(19:34):
rescue, recovery and re engagement.You can help the hurting people you hear
on this show by donating at DesperateReality dot com. Battles the Drifted,
digs and Logicians and welcome back tothe Founder's Show. Twos is the Founder's

(19:55):
Line here in WR nine nine tofive FM News Talk Live from eight to
nine pm months sad and rerun ofcourse on WSLA fifteen sixty AM from eight
to nine am Monday, Wednesday andFriday are more precisely Friday, Monday and
Wednesday, of course as always,I'm Christopher Tidmore and Chaplin. Hi mc
henry, your Spengary, Viviao theRepublic and now the disc jockey or the

(20:15):
greatest jazz piano player in the South. A'man Saint Martin Arman. Thanks for
being with us and your magnificent music. And we're talking. I'd like to
extend a hardy where you're at toour audience. There you go? Where
yet where y at ware? Yetout there, guys, where you at
and it trold me something that's totroth me something, troll me something,
and it's the whole thing we're We'retalking not only the traditions of Marti gro

(20:37):
but actually the music of Marti Graun. And there's so much we could be
talking about. There's so many songswe could be playing, from Professor Long
Hair to you know, al CarnivalTime Jones to all this different stuff.
But we're premiering some songs that Armandhas written that you may have heard on
the parade route, but you've neveractually heard on the radio until now.

(21:00):
And we've got a world premiere.But there's another song that comes through.
And I want you guys to explainthis because people think of Marty Gras parades,
they think of marching groups, JeffersonCity Buzzers, all those new things,
or do they think of Marty Grasparades. But there's there's a phenomena
that is very old. It's actuallybeen around Marty Grass since the very since
the eighteenth century, but it's it'scome back into four and it's something you

(21:23):
guys have played a major role in, and that is the dancing Cruise now,
Hi, what is you know?And the dancing cruise, by their
nature are satirical as well. Whatis the dancing crew first? And what
is it that we're about to do? Well? You had you had Pete
Fountains, half fast marching band wherethey would kind of do Margie Club club
do they just do like a littlejig going down the avenue wherever, playing

(21:45):
their jazz, you know, withPete on his clarinet, et cetera.
And but it developed as far asI know from all that I have studied,
but I have not read all theentire history of Marti girl. Let's
say I believe the first really seriousdancing group where we had they were we
were choreographing and whatnot with a danceand dollins of Deta and we we we're

(22:07):
talking about crude Deta Crewdeta. Weare the insurgents who are infiltrated with a
fifth column. We're infiltrating the generalpublic with dance. Now or to finally
bring New Orleans to its knees sothat our dictator can finally rule norms.
And we put out ultimatums on thecity. And the mayor is the real
mayor is shaking in his boots everytime we show up because he knows this

(22:30):
just might be the time he's thrownout of office and and and we take
over the city. But this dancinggroup is really great. We it's it's
very satirical. We do a lotof political satire with it. Uh.
Last year we did now sometimes notalways politics. It was sports last year,
Rob Roy and the time before that, it was the Bounty Style about

(22:51):
the bounty finds that the Saints wentthrough, and it kind of political because
we took some pretty good jabs atUh at the head of the NFL.
Now and that's where and that's aperfect transition. But we are now this
is a song that you wrote armandwhen it came in, Roger Goodell came
out and of course suspended Sean Payton, and this is this is high politics

(23:11):
in New Orleans effectively killed our chancesand none of the Super Bowl maybe killed
it for a while. And therewas another song that was kind of big
at that time. It still wasa little big something out of South Korea,
right, gang Nam Style was likethe huge hit that year on YouTube.
And every year we try to usea hit song as a basis for

(23:33):
the satirical song that I record andwrite for the Dictators Dancing Darlings. So
the Crew DTA, which of courseis the Friday Night Cruise, is one
of the three big satirical cruise ofCarnival. Crewd de tas Chaos, which
is Thursday has used in much ofthe former moments tradition of it, and

(23:53):
Crewe de Vous, which runs throughthe French quarter to a month before effectively.
But when you had the Anton Darlings, you guys, you come up
with a song Tackle Bounty Style,and it is While it's been played through
New Orleans, it has not reallybeen played here. So right, we're
gonna premiere it here Tackle Ladies andGentlemen Bounty Style by armand Saint Martin.
Hang on your seats, folks,this is a hot one and it comes

(24:17):
in b The are wealtha players inthe n f L. There's nothing ruder
here, There's nothing ud to tell. We all are enough today to tell
good. Tell the Saints are comingback soon. Go to down. You

(24:38):
can feel the wind, you canfeel the breeze. We'll make the next
Super Bowl. Des agrees, takethe way to change. You want a
jin rating set him three flee.Sean Payton got closed and we got in.
We got Crawn, Jimmy gran wegot him, We got last,

(25:03):
We got the air. We gotthe air. We got the air,
and we lease we tack go botterystyles, bounty style, tack go Boudy
style, bounty style. He thatgo bouty star, Stupid Roger, Yet

(25:36):
that go Boudy style. Stupid Roger. Orleans. Paris is not some county.
The Saints don't need to get somebounty. Our team is great knowledge.
Roger Goodell is desirab a monopoly.We don't you go back to win

(26:00):
this game fast? Just one.Stupid Roger gives Sayers who needs more money
to play on the field the millionsthat we're getting Sis and deal. He
got strolled. We got Harper,we got Smith, We've got will Smith,
we got Jakies, we got Ivory, and we got Henderson, a

(26:26):
Sid Henderson. We got Henderson.Please please Jack little bounty style, bounty
style back little Bowdery style. Lovethis Jack gold Bowdery start said, let

(26:52):
me let me make a comment onthat I was there and uh our we
we our uniform, our we doa different costume every time. This time
it was a Saints for ball uniformand we had the old fashion, the
the old leather helmets and uh wewere we Our makeup was blood and bruises
and I'm telling you the crowds wentcrazy over it. But every year when

(27:14):
the year before that were the onepercenters and were dressed in tails top hats,
they went crazy over it. Andthen and then last year we had
another great one. And uh buton the county, the tackle bounding style,
that particular move dance move is extremelyenergetic and ext and just as exhausting.
The guy who leads us is ironMan. Can we talk about for

(27:37):
those just joining us here in newstalking ninety nine and five and W R
O and W. S l Awere talking about the dance and darlands of
the Crew de Taie and the satiricaldance they do every you know, basically
every Marty Grass. They go alongwith the fellow who leads us as an
Ironman competitor, he's really good.When we finished that, he said,
it's the hardest thing he's ever beenthrough and I don't know how we made
it through though, And we youknow, it's like about a five mile

(28:00):
five to six miles, right routes, but we're going forwards and backwards and
side to side, so you candouble at least double the amount of mileage
we put on our feet on thisthing. It's it's And by the way,
you've heard of the six ten Stompers, and many people think that we
copied them, just the opposite.We were the first ones they copied up.
They predated. ID like to say, my favorite line there is our

(28:23):
team is hotter than Manuel's hot theMollys. Yeah, that is fantastic.
I can imagine how you get thesesatire writing these songs, armand Saint Martin.
You're you're you're tapping into what Ithink is the most important part of
carnival. A lot of people sayit's the pageantry, or it's the mythical

(28:45):
or it's the beauty of the parades, or it's the balls. I actually
think, believe it or not.As much as fun and wonderful as those
things are, they're nothing, Norare the beads, the parades, the
you know, all the different stuff. I think what matters that Marti Grass
is satire'sence, the idea that wecan not only make fun of things,
but through humor and song and music, and really over the top floats we

(29:10):
might actually be able to to movesome kind of political or social change.
Marty Grass has been used for thatthroughout the last two centuries. We got
rid of it. It was amajor reason for getting the carpet Bakers out
of here. Uh, Marty Gorois such a big thing. Back at
that time, much it was better. Uh it was more let's say,
considering uh the setting and whatnot.It was more extravagant. It wasn't as

(29:32):
large as it is today anything,but we didn't have the technology back then.
But it was considered to be thegreatest show of all the shows going
on. So it made the pageof beads they made, They made the
front page of major European American newspapersand uh it when they saw the satire,
it gave us a voice, away to get our message out about

(29:53):
what the carpet Bakers were doing.Uh. The radical Republican newspapers read just
like it. Amilk It's hometown newspaperin Springfield, Illinois. Glory to God,
the spirit of seventeen seventy six stilllives in America. And that was
the precipitating event, catalyzing event thatfinally forced the federal government to pull out
federal troops and restore home rule toNew Orleans. And by the way,

(30:18):
the group when we had the battle, the largest ethnic group in that battle
with the blacks, they were sufferingI think more than any Well some would
argue in a wake of what happened, but that that it made a major
national political change? Did I meanafter Katrina though, And this is something
you gentlemen played a role in.If it weren't for the satirical floats that
came in that got national attention,I don't know. I think that there's

(30:41):
a good argument that a lot ofthe money and help that that was already
trickling down might have stopped flowing.Armand well, I'm always available for more
trickle. Well, let's speak,get more trickle. We got another song
here that on my wonderful trusty device, before we go, before we got
our where a mirror. And thisis a little bit more uh contextual for

(31:03):
Marti Gras. It's called rock androll Fat Friday. I set this up
for now now you said it,Reverend, but this is a very solemn
song, armand correct. How westart. Yeah, part of this is
the tradition of course that Crew Detacomes out on Fat Friday. You know,
think about this, what is whatdoes Marti Graus mean Fat Tuesday?
What does Londy Graus mean? Theoreticallywe made it up Fat Monday, but
we don't. You can't really say, you know, demolish Gras. It

(31:26):
just doesn't, you know, Vondrad Graus, It just doesn't kind of
you know, Sunday Gras. Vondergo Friday gau You can't say. So
you gotta say Fat Friday. Itflies better. So this is this is
talking about the night that really kicksoff the final weekend of Marti Gras,
and it kicks it off with aCrew de top Raid in which you guys
are playing. And give it justa few minutes of this and let it

(31:47):
to armand Saint Martin's rock and rollFat Friday Night, all right, never
before heard, never before heard onradio. Now you know what, I
have a blue Let you go radyou did Rady shot ou bro it rasover

(32:27):
face look a grass bas rid raprock a rat run Shall rock and brass
rock and from the night roll youday day go roun bro Las face time,

(33:00):
Oh rot they do run Ride,They yell round r r r um
ride rock and go round, rundown rock in the road fnight that ridnight,

(33:30):
that fridnight, run right ron bright the back with the l ron

(34:06):
rapping night night by night. Ohyeah, oh probably wouldn't happen up there's
back up an go right rock rocklacking room were a round la rad we

(34:43):
gon back rather rock and bad nightthat bad night, get runn for our

(35:16):
w s l A listeners, forw s l A scisenors. If that
doesn't put you in the spirit onFriday, as this is coming out for
you for Friday of Carnival, nothingdoes, I mean for everybody of course
our listeners in the weekend. Thiscomes out in r no. And then
did you hear those keys band tornbing just uh heated up to red hot,

(35:37):
just extreme high temperatures. Yeah,I mean, I mean, I
think that piano was getting on fire. Just not let me tell you a
story about Arman I was my mon. Saint Martin of course, the balladeer,
the crill baladere is joining us herewith his Marty gar grates that he's
written for not only himself, butfor the crew to tah we wears for
their dancing Dolands. Armona and Iwere at a ball a few years ago.
Uh, Jimmy Maxwell was his band, and people were eating and a

(36:00):
few people were out on the floordance. Most people just sitting around their
tables talking and eating, and he'dgone on for a while. It was
like nobody was hardly gonna dance.Well, Armand's good friends with Jimmy,
and he let him get up thereon the piano for about twenty minutes.
I'm telling you, Within about aminute of Armand being on the piano,
the table's empty. They were allon the dance floor and listen, Jimmy
Maxwell band is a great band.I'm not saying it's Jimmy. And he

(36:22):
played for like twenty minutes and thenwhen his time was over with the floor
emptied again. I mean, itwas a really amazing thing to see that.
It's very interestant. Well, speakingof a little wiggling and we've got
ourn Natalie's got this primed up.There is another song that has never been
premiered anywhere else that you wrote forCarnival. Give us a little background on

(36:44):
what you mean by Sampson. Well, the dancing Darlands did the dressed up
as Rob Ryan, who was thehero defensive coach of the Saints, and
so they of course all the dancershad this long hair. So I declared
that he was the Sampson of theSidelines. The song follow and our costumes

(37:04):
we this. We had a baseballhat with Saints thing aren't with long flowing
hair which we would part of theroutine was to take our hand and run
our hand through our hair and aswe you know, wiggled our armond high
and theos here you know, wait, wait and then and then the rest
of the costume was great. Imean, the rest of it was just
like you know, brown khaki pantsand a and a shirt of a sweatshirt,

(37:27):
but with a Saint sing on him. But the key to the costume
was the belly. We were allissued large bellies, foam rubber bellies,
which we then proceeded to decorate andand leave our jerseys slightly up so you
could see our big ugly name andbelly button. Her mind as somebody who
formerly had a rather big belly.And so it's part of that club,

(37:49):
I know, you're dancing group,the dancing darlings. Not many of them
needed much extra padding. Here aboutabout half of the fashion trend which some
of our bellies were exceedingly large.Yes, we got Kim Kardashian, you
know, leading people to have afew implants on the on the rear end,
now here New Orleans on the frontend. But you know how you
implant in the front end of NewOrleans where you're going to steady diet of

(38:13):
poor boys, you know, andbeer for yeah, beer for the entire
Marty Guard season. So on thatnote, In an honor of former defensive
coordinated New Orleans Saints, the songNatalie Sampson on the sidelines with the main
like colon the main black co lionRob Ryan, the defense gets a straight

(38:36):
from hair longly, his hair longly, the Sampson of the sideline drop Ryan
Ryan Ryan, Ryan, Ryan RyanRyan. The blow is go ahead,
never God is. He's throwing bothnight and daneuristic Satan daneuristic Satan drop ran

(38:58):
the greatest colors him. That iswhere you see him painting like a menace,
attacking with the podifs rock, riding, rying, riding while riding right
roun to blow us and glowing You'renever slowing down. With his hair written
to the elode. He gets themin the writsole. He snapped them in

(39:21):
the writzle ou Ryer. He glittersany sacks if he sacks the quarterback,
the corner back of the crying whenthey said his name from me said raw
Ry Oh says, and you seepower says, try to strip the ball,
running right, running left, glowingoff, grubing out. He'll dance

(39:45):
it right there. He'll never getaround him. Man, He'll p you
in the ground. He's the latestin the jet set with his hair and
his head set, his hair andsense and drown right surprises and his shirt
and let's reserve. Come, we'llcome out with the song. Pause it
right there, if you would,Natalie and Armand I mean it gives it

(40:08):
shows the Saints are so elemental.I mean even before we had, you
know, uh, a black andGold super Bowl, you know when it
can't we had a Marty Grass superBowl. The Saints are going to be
the elements of it. Any anycomments in the Saints and this year's cruditade,
by chance, not in the maybe durricle float about rob Ryland.

(40:30):
Actually all right, we'll get moreof that. Stay tuned more armand Saint
Martin with Himick Henry and Christopher Tadmoretalking about this year's Marty Grass back when
we come in. Does this haveto be the end of the night,

(40:50):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chaplinhih mc enery reminding you about our ministry
here in New Orleans. That's LAMBMinistries, and you can go to our
website Lambanola dot com and find outall about us. That's l A m
b n O l A dot com. Lambministry is an inner city ministry with
an inner city formula for inner cityfolks. Check us out. And by

(41:13):
the way, we are right nowon a fundraising campaign for a new van,
as our old van is about readyto die on us. We are
a vehicle intensive ministry driving kids allover this city. Thank you so very
much. Check us out lambnola dotcom. That's l A m b n
O l A dot com. Welcomeback to the special Marti Gras Audition of

(41:37):
the Founder's Show, Ladies and gentlemen, with our own creole balladeer armand Saint
Martin has always on Christopher Tidmore andChaplain II mcgenry all it's been gary by
by the Republican one of your dancingdollins right here on the Founders Show.
You know, harm On, Ithink it's time for some seriously solemn church

(41:57):
music. Could you give us asong like that? Folks hang on to
You appears Phzter the moti ver votinggear has made a redmus that Friday back

(42:37):
Frisa back Friday Talk. Just takea car on the Monygon This back Friday
Back Friday Talk just takes care ofthe monygra Ter rack grabbing. Let the

(42:59):
dras Christopher, what do you thinkabout that hymn? Now we got we
got three sterical parades that come through. Honest crew to view some of the
stuff that was really funny. You'vegot a crewit Ta, which runs the
Friday before Marner, And of courseyou've got Chaos Formerly, which you know

(43:20):
has no association with the Momas Parade, but takes up what Momas once did
of the sat tire. But youknow, you're seeing satire more and more
cruise and it's kind of nice tosee it come through. You're also seeing
a lot of New Orleans nostalgia.And I want to throw a hat tip
out to the crew of poncha Train. And I'm walking on Saturday morning down
Napoline Avenue and the crew Ponta Traindid back to Lake Pontchatrain and they did

(43:45):
everything from the Valley High to PonchaTrain Beach to They actually had a float
called the Submarine Races with a submarineon it. They had you know,
crabbing off the sea wall and yousee the Ain't there no More? And
of course my favorite one was theyhad a float to get dedicated to all
the restaurants that were once out there. Fitzgerald, sim U, sid Mars,

(44:07):
the uh uh, the oh MyMy Lounge, the you know,
my Mile, the Bounty so theonly uh and of course Brewings, which
was my favorite place I have.I was literally the one of the last
people who ever ate at Brewings Saturdaynight before Katrina celebrating a special HOLI you
know, anniversary in my life.And we're there very late and we go

(44:30):
and then it's funny because because thatday it was sort of like the farewell
tour of New Orleans. We haddinner at Brewings, we we went and
essentially, you know, went tothe Louisiana Nature Center, which I hadn't
been in years and didn't exist twodays later, you know, all things,
and and I think capturing that returningto New Orleans viewpoint is something that

(44:52):
you've done very accurately. We've gottwo more songs to play, and one
of them, though, talking aboutdriving around the city. This is not
a stor song of Marty Grad.This is just trying to catch the spirit.
What do you mean when you sayyou're out on patrol? Arm mar
Well, when I was away fromNew Orleans, I'd come home and do
just what the song says. I'dpick up a couple of cousins in the

(45:13):
middle of the night, drive around, and I would show them places in
New Orleans where our family had livedor things that happened. I could describe
neighborhoods that hadn't been there or changed, and and so we just sort of
I just called it being out onpatrol. It's sort of reacquainting itself for
the place you love. And let'splay a little clip from that comes through

(45:34):
Armon Saint Martin. It's Margaro show, like to that old riis just driving
around like it's so good. False. That's what you call out of control.

(46:44):
It sounds like you actually had yourown body graw that day. Start
off with the Blues and end upwith a jazzy song. Interesting. I
feel like you're sitting in the backof somebody convert them. All of a
sudden, they stomp it and they'regoing eighty mixing the genres, mixing the
genres, very uniqu very eclectic.Thank you. Well, what about trailers?

(47:06):
We know something about trailers down herein New Oles and FEMA. Uh
we everybody, Well, many peopleneeded a FEMA trailer. Many people got
FEMA trailers. Many people probably wishthey hadn't gotten them, because you know,
I think many people may have diedof cancer from those trailers. I
will never forget Junior Rodriguez, theparish president of Saint Bernard's comment. He
says, you uptown people, Hesays, when I was growing up,

(47:28):
you know, you made fun ofus for having a trailer. Now you
show up, you know, peopletalking I got a nicer trailer in my
front yard. You all become rednecks, you all become it was we were
red next city there for a while, and it was and it was I
it was it was like it wasreally he was he was so I missed
juniors. It was he was comicrelief. But no, it's we're trying

(47:52):
to trying to get this all primedup when it does here, But it's
uh when we got it Arman satireof New Orleans. What's happened is something
that is just the essence of whowe are. But it allows us.
We have to laugh because otherwise wewould cry. And it's better to laugh

(48:14):
than cry. And you know what, New Orleanians, you give them half
a chance, and they love eachother. And you run into other New
Orleans people anywhere away from New Orleans, and it's not long before you're talking
about gumbo and bow boys and whereyour mama lives and where you went to
high school? Yeah, the ultimateNew Orleans question, of course, you
know, where'd you go to highschool? Where'd you go to school?

(48:36):
No other city does that, thinkof that, No other city does that.
And every segment of society, everyevery possible socioechnic group, ethnic group,
when they meet a new person fromNew Orleans, one of the first
things I'll always say is where'd yougo to high school? Not college?
Other folks are thinking of college orwhere maybe their graduate work or something.
No, where did you go tohigh school? Because at IDs you it

(48:57):
tells you where from where you've comeand Where You Belong and seven. Yeah,
it's really fascinating. I started.I just started singing waiting for my
trailer when I had a show Iwas doing not long after Katrina, and
I realized I had an instant hit. And I still play it today.
I played at Sunday at the BoomtownCasino where I do the Sunday Brunch,

(49:20):
and people get it. They justget it, and it's just it's one
of those incidents. We're trying toprime it up here when it comes out,
and this is an up close andpersonal experience for her mind, because
her mind, you had your ownFEMA trailer, didn't you. Oh?
Absolutely? And even Alec Gifford cameand filmed me with my trailer. Wow.
Uh. But you know it waslike within the month before I retired,
and I went to Norman Robinson's showto play it, and Norman was

(49:44):
trying to take everything very seriously.And remember you had that post Katrina show.
Yeah, And I said, well, Norman, this is actually funny.
You know, you and mister Greenwere probably the most two most famous
people with trailers here and then andI told him all camera, I said,
I think we should have a gameshow called what's my waterline. We're

(50:07):
gonna what we're gonna do. Ourmind is is we leave the show.
We're going to come and tackle things. But what we want to go ahead
and do is hy McHenry's Gospel bymy moment and patriotic moment right now.
So we'll do that right now.We'll come come back to Marty Garth because
see the subject of the patriot momentis Marty Grass. Yes, absolutely,
and now it is time for ourchaplain by bah patriotic moment. We just

(50:28):
took a brief moment to remind youof the biblical foundations of America. Now
we have a gentleman, one ofour finding fathers, who would have been
mister Marti Gros if he lived inNew Orleans. Certainly he became mister Paris
if you will, when he livedin Paris. And I'm talking about Benjamin
Franklin. And this is what BenjaminFranklin said. When our Constitution Convention was
first meeting, there was great discord, great argumentation. People were having fits

(50:52):
and fighting with one anothers terrible.The small states with the big states.
The rich states were the poor states, et cetera, et cetera, and
Benjamin Franklin and strangely quiet and normallyvery gregarious man. After a couple of
weeks, he tapped his cane onthe floor and the entire room became silent
to listen to the Great Franklin makecomment. And he said, in the
beginning of this contest with Britain,when we were sensible of danger, we

(51:14):
had daily prayers in this room fordivine protection. Our prayers, Sir,
were heard, and they were graciouslyanswered. Do we imagine that if God
considers the state of a sparrow,he certainly would consider the building of a
nation. We do that if withoutprayer we can only hope to build the

(51:34):
tower Babel, do we possibly thinkwe no longer need his assistance? Franklin
also went on to say that inthe Benjamin Franklin University that he founded,
which became, I believe, theUniversity of Philadelphia or Pennsylvania, he said
that the university should be dedicated asa nursery of religion and learning, built
on Christ the cornerstone. And concerningthe public schools that he also helped start.

(52:00):
In his plan of education, heincluded this in the charter that the
Excellency of the Christian religion above allothers, ancient or modern, should be
taught, folks. I really thinkthat Benjamin Frankly One certainly wanted to keep
God in government. And I'm talkingabout philosophically, not institutionally. Well what
about God? And you you know, there's going to be a great party

(52:22):
one day making Marty Graul look small, and that's going to be Heaven.
God's got a great party plan forus up there, and it's going to
be fun, folks. It's theKingdom of God is going to be more
fun than you can possibly imagine.And God wants you there. He has
sent you your invitation. It's calledthe Gospel, and this is what it
is. The Gospel is Christ diedfor all your sins, according to the
scripture, was buried and rose fromthe dead to win for you that precious

(52:44):
free gift of everlasting life. Exceptthat invitation, show up, show up
for the Marti Graul in heaven wherewe're going to have fun for all of
eterne thank you. And on thatnote, folks, we're going to go
in and instead of tears we hadit with waiting for my trailer here on
w r O Needs at Talk ninetynine to five and the Founder's show Ladies

(53:05):
and Gentlemen. Here on the programLadies and Gentlemen, armand Saint Martin and
our own Hi McCann and Christopher Tadmoresign off. When it comes to be
so calm to drop it eimn myyoung wait involve tree. It's reading the
EMA. I'd talk again to Fee. They think I'm on the list,

(53:37):
but they say I don't wait.Exists to upweed ball my tree, I
said to the Medes and I justhave to kee. I'll cook out all the gust