Blues musician Bryan (Braille Blues Daddy) Lee has been a fixture on Bourbon Steet for
four decades. He was frequently a live music stop for us during our many trips to New Orleans
during our time living in the Houston area. We first saw him at the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street.
When Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, like a lot of New Orleans musicians he began
touring more through Texas and up into the mid-west. In 2006 we saw him and his
band at a live music bar in Conroe, Texas north of Houston. The above photo artistry
image was created from a photo taken during one of his stops in Conroe.
We party like pirates who are going to be ghosts tomorrow The streets are stained with sweat and rain The brick walls rent by the shifting earth and in the fissure the hot green rot of new life, licking at the flames It is our pain These gaping wounds that make way for the river that flows through us all making us beautiful places to visit Aching and crumbling and crying make sweet breaking music A trilling trumpet on the air: One last drowning cry.
Erin Lierl Bourbon Street, New Orleans (Erin is a street poet)