The French Quarter

9/14/2012 | New Orleans, LA

This recording was made during a walk through the French Quarter starting just past the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street, heading northwest to St. Louis Street and back up northeast ending by Dauphine Street.

Passing by a street musician singing Amazing Grace was fortuitous - and impossible to miss. The guitarist strumming out in front of Café Beignet at the very beginning is much less obvious. You can hear the instrument before and after the barista shouts out “177!” Oddly, the guitarist and later the signer were both in a related key. I would be very surprised if this were intentional.

The traffic gets busier at St. Louis Street as the street narrows. Towards the end of the recording, listen for the piano echoing the hammering of a carpenter just before a tourist at Antoine’s Restaurant asks the maître d’ for a copy of the day’s menu.