ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!! You know you are - don’t even come with that "I’ll get into it a few weeks into the season." NO - it’s here and now! Hehe.... Geaux Tigers! They’re gonna make a run for the SEC Championship. Come on Saints - one more try, one more year, there’s always tomorrow for dreams to come true. Oh shoot, it don’t matter. We’ve got a pro team in New Orleans. We’ve got a Pro Bowl caliber QB - the best player to come outta college ever (some say) - no blocking and no linebackers (oh no!) - a brand new Superdome (frightening to recall it just a year ago).

OK, I just looked at the Saints schedule - it’s brutal to start. They might be 2-9 by the time San Francisco comes in. But, I think they can win 6 games easily this year. I’m hoping for 8-8. LSU is just so hard to predict, with the 3 toughest games on the schedule all outta town. However, this is a supremely talented team. The simple winds of fortune are so important in the college game; so, I’m gonna say they will beat Auburn and Florida, and stumble against Tennessee, giving them an 11-1 season, taking them to the SEC Championship v. Tennessee. I think that’s as far as I’ll take it.... hehe.

Thanks everyone for supporting me at new gigs, like La Caretta, Southpaws, and Fat Mama’s. I had a great summer at Satterfields. The Sunday afternoon shows are over now, for another year. I will, however, try to do some evening gigs there. September 16 will find me there with Matt and Chad - that will be after the LSU v. Auburn game, so I hope we’ll be celebrating. Check us out at Superior Grill the night before; then, later that night, the guys go to play the Station with their band New World Funk (NWF). The 3 of us will also appear at the St. George Fair on October 7 - 11:30am to 1:30pm. That’s always a great day of family fun.

Speaking of NWF, the Elvis and Jesse show 2006 was highly successful, entertaining, and funktageous. I loved every minute and Gerard did a great job, as always. There was video tape this year, and some photos. I haven’t updated my site in a year, so I hope I’ll add some new pics from that event. NWF did fantastic, before and after the King appeared. Thanks for giving G and I an opportunity to celebrate Elvis’ life and music - something we truly love and admire, and are intrigued by.

The Ascension Parish tour continues, with my usual Sundays at Spanky’s, and appearances at Southpaws and On the Half Shell. I’ll also return for my monthly Thursday in Covington at Columbia Street Tap Room (waiting for the winter draft beers to start flowing). Oh, and back to Fat Mama’s for some comfy temps this month, and French Quarter Daiquiris, which is a great listening room.

Great reviews came from my August newsletter. It seems everyone enjoyed the humorous vein in which I was writing. Glad you laughed! I haven’t had a political rant for some time, though I have had many thoughts, of late, on those kinds of topics. It is all weighing heavy on my heart and mind. I worry for this next generation of children - that is, IF THEY WERE BORN HERE - because what we possess here is being taken away. Every right citizens of the US were born with is slowly being eroded away; and what I fear is less from Islamic fundamentalists and more from liberal ideas that are fueled by some misguided feeling that we should be guilty for working hard, creating a rich society, being healthy and strong, and trying to lead our own peaceful lives. I don’t just blame liberalism. I don’t know my facts well enough, but I don’t know what my President (and I mean that - he is my leader and I like him) seems to be wanting to just bestow US citizenship on folks just because they are already here. There has always existed a way to become a citizen, and earn the rights therein.

Man, we are all to blame - big business looking for cheap labor - Americans who don’t want to do the jobs that others will - government handouts that are now considered rights to be demanded - abuse of the systems that were supposed to give head starts, but are now lifestyles - me and you for our lack of foresight (which I think is there because we have been taxed, fined, fee’d, and regulated to the point that there is no time to think about the future, but only to work hard enough to just keep up).

Don’t get me started on how easily many have seemed to forget about September 11, 2001. Mayor Nagin of New Orleans, in responding to criticisms regarding the slow healing in NO, called the Twin Towers area a "hole in the ground" that New York hasn’t fixed. What an idiot! (The funny part is, he was going to New York a few days later to promote New Orleans with potential New York investors!) God, I admire the British for how they thwarted this latest terrorist airline plot. Can’t we see that bottles of liquid found at security checks is not the problem? It’s the people that are carrying them. Man, I’m tired of hearing about whose feelings might be hurt. Afraid of Spanish on every company’s answering service. Dismayed by cries of "where was the government?". We can save ourselves - and I hope we will and will be allowed to. Vote in November, friends... and I’m sorry for getting serious. I think it is my way of waking myself up and knowing that this great country is something to hold sacred and protect. I’m beginning to believe that we are the generation that is responsible for which way this wonderful place will go. I hope I’m up for that challenge - it’s a massive undertaking and dwarfing responsibility for us. God bless us, please.

To get positive and back to nice feelings, it’s time for cool temps, great game days, fall festivals, Oktoberfests, friends and family around gumbo pots, and the best for us all. You all make my job worth doing - thanks so much. I’ll see if I can’t get to learning some new songs and writing again.

Kirk