Jan Ramsey, 03/03/2009

When I moved to New Orleans about 20 years ago, I was young, quite naive, and full of dreams. I was hoping to somehow get involved in the music business and eventually called Offbeat Magazine (THE New Orleans authority in Louisiana music). Jan Ramsey (its' publisher) answered the phone, and after hearing me, with a point of sarcasm, she said, "Good luck!"
About a year later, we found each other in a car with a few other people driving from Paris down to Southern France after a long, sleepless flight from the US. It was a trip to hell, where Jan and I became very good friends...
Her help, as well as that of a few other people I will mention later, has been crucial to the accomplishment of the New Orleans Walls project. Right away, she understood what I was trying to achieve, and she opened her mind, along with her address book. Now, for those of you who have never heard of her, Jan knows EVERYBODY in the music business in New Orleans (actually, it goes way beyond the music!)
Her picture was taken on Elysian Field, just a few blocks from her office. The wall just handed itself to the project. It’s been painted, spray-painted, gray-painted and placarded (and I’m sure a lot more has happened to it in the past couple of years.) I think we got it at a pretty good time. I’ve had friends look at the photo of Jan “in” the wall with very different interpretations. I love that!
Here is a crop of the wall:



On the Fats Domino side, I had just been introduced to my Fairy Godmother...