We saw Marcia Ball the other night at Panoply here in Huntsville.  As usual, she sounded great and was backed by a tight, talented band that really rocked the house.  Her special brand of swamp rock/blues is always fun, and no one today plays better n'orleans barrelhouse piano than Marcia herself.  So we had some fun.
But I got to thinking as I looked over the crowd and at Marcia's black and white hair, why her audience was the reverse color of her hair, i.e., mostly white with only a thin streak of black.  Why is it that most of today's popular blues bands, white or black, play to predominantly white audiences?  And why is it that certain other blues bands, mainly African American, play to predominantly black audiences?  And, further confounding, why is it that performers like Marcia Ball, who play a kind of Louisiana psuedo-Zydeco, blues, pop, country gumbo, that has traditionally been popular with all races, continue to play predominantly for white folks?
Well, I don't have the answer, any more than I have the answer to why all the races don't mix more than they do.  But I wish they would, and I wish, at least, we all would give some blues music we don't normally listen to a chance once in awhile, because a lot of rock blues (e.g., Buddy Guy, Joe Louis Walker, Microwave Dave), southern soul blues (O.B. Buchana, Johnny Rawls, Latimore), and cajun country blues (e.g., C.J. Chenier, Rosie Ledet, Marcia Ball) is damn good.  So give it a shot; try something different.  You might be pleasantly surprised.  Here's Bo Diddley and Marcia Ball:
  

More book signing on Sunday at the Cape San Blas Lighthouse and then back home on Monday.  At the Lighthouse, I heard a lot more juicy, local secrets, some of which I may have to divulge in subsequent books.  Seems as though every corner of Florida has its own Killing Mr. Watson tales. 
I listened to Christopher McDougall's book Born to Run on the way home.  If you have any interest at all in long distance running, read this.  Its hero, Micah True, just died, after the book was published, and this book gives you his complete back story, as well as everything you ever wanted to know about running.
On the trip, I also listened to the Alamama Shakes' debut album, Boys & Girls.  And surprisingly, this new band from down the road in Athens, Alabama is as good as all the hype that it has been receiving.  Not nearly as highly touted is Curtis Salgado's new album, Soul Shot, that I also listened to on my trip, but just as welcome.  It's the best thing Salgado has done in years and really hones in on the type of deep soul music that the veteran bluesman is a master of producing.   Buy 'em both!

I had fun signing Secrets of San Blas yesterday at the No Name Cafe in downtown Port St. Joe--lots of good book people and local story telling.  Today I signed at the Cape San Blas Lighthouse and, among a series of passing showers, talked to a lot of book lovers and loyal lighthouse freaks.  Weirdly enough, I met a family who lives on the same street in Huntsville that I live on, only a couple blocks away, as well as other assorted admirers, of all stripes, including a club of hardcore Harley riders from Pensacola, among them: 

I'm back in Port St. Joe to sign Secrets of San Blas.  Here's a brief article that appeared on the front page of yesterday's Star,  the local rag:

'SECRETS OF SAN BLAS' AUTHOR TO VISIT LIGHTHOUSE THIS WEEKEND
On May 16, 1938, E.W. Marler, the assistant lighthouse keeper of the Cape San Blas Lighthouse was brutally murdered.  No one was ever charged with the crime.

More than 70 years later, the case remains one of North Florida's great unsolved mysteries--until now.

Charles Farley's new novel about the crime, "Secrets of San Blas," solves the murder, at least fictionally.

Farly will be visiting the novel's setting this weekend for a book signing April 21 and 22 at the Cape San Blas Lighthouse, the scene of the crime.

Farley's novel is both fast-paced and historically accurate.  While the solution to the mystery is supposition, the descriptions of the area's history, natural beauty and pre-World War II culture are not.

I'll also be signing books at the No Name Cafe in downtown Port St. Joe this afternoon, Friday, 1:00--3:00.  Hope to see you there.

Just returned from a trip to Boston.  My wife attended a Catholic educators conference there, and the kids and I did the tourist traipse:  Children's Museum, Harvard, Science Museum, Freedom Trail, Fenway Park, and the Boston Marathon.  We also saw some great, old friends and ate at some of our favorite restuarants:  Addis Red Sea, New Shangai, Legal Seafood, Pizzeria Regina, and the Summer Shack.  It was a lot of fun, but not much in the way of books or blues, although I did finish Dennis Lehane's Moonlight Mile, which was fun since it was set in Boston.  I managed to miss Willie Clayton who was performing in West Roxbury, but plan to catch him here in Huntsville at the annual Downhome Blues Festival on Memorial Day Weekend.  Heading back to Cape San Blas tomorrow to sign books at the No Name Cafe and the Lighthouse.