Have you ever been to New Orleans? I haven't been back since Katrina (and I gotta turn that around, yeah, you're right!), but for a while there I had been visiting every year. I would take my time to pick though The Quarter for treasures, taking in the sights and sounds, and the food, of course. One year, I hooked up with an old friend, Steve Popovich, who I knew from his long tenure doing promotion at Epic Records in New York. He took me to Mother's Restaurant for a debris sandwich. In this case, debris is defined as the meat that falls off the roast into the cooking juices and fat in the pan. We bought enough for our respective families back home. The cab ride back to the airport was accompanied by the overwhelming aroma, there wasn't a square inch of open space left. Yes, I need to go back!
Phil Lee came aboard the Music Fog bus in Memphis, at Folk Alliance 2010, with Tom Mason and performed a debris song of a different sort. I loosely translate it as "White Trash Girls," but then, it has been since high school for me and French. Feel free to chime in. What I do know is that before this song I never noticed that Phil Lee has a Kinky Friedman-like approach to music, as Kinky, too, would say anything, no matter how politically incorrect it was. And so does Phil. You gotta watch this video. Pay special attention to how Phil is dressed. Everything, all the time. "Les Debris, Ils Sont Blancs" is on the CD The Mighty King Of Love that Phil put out in 2000. Phil continues barnstorming through the south on the "I Saw Him Before He Died" tour.
- Jessie Scott
