photo credit: Dylan Stansbury

Yesterday evening, August 12, 2009, the soul legend Betty Harris performed out front of the Old Point for the finale of the Wednesdays on the Point series.  Marc Stone’s All Star Soul Band backed her up. Here’s how it went down- Marc opens the show with Joshua Paxton on keys, Sam Price on bass and Jermal Watson on drums.  Then they bring out the horn section- Jimmy Carpenter on saxophone, Leroy Jones on trumpet and Rick Trolsen on trombone.  They do a hip version of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.”  Then the backing vocalists- Erica Falls, Elaine Foster and Tony Crews- escort Miss Betty Harris, resplendent in a burgundy gown and displaying a significant amount of cleavage, to the stage.  The band is really tearing it up at this point and Harris matches them in intensity.  They rip through a long set of her hits and some covers.  Towards the end of the set, Harris turns to Marc Stone, who she clearly enjoys working with, and says, “I’m going down.”  She proceeds to leave the stage and comes right up front and center, stretching her microphone cord to its limit, and sings to the crowd.  She ad libs a bit about how a young woman will take grief from a man that an older woman won’t tolerate.  Though the crowd took a while to get into the show, no one crowded to the front when they brought out the legend, she eventually had the group up front eating out of her hands.

Wednesdays on the Point’s 2009 Season Finale stars Soul legend Betty Harris and Marc Stone’s All-Star Soul Band.  The concert is from 6-8 PM tonight in the 100 Block of Olivier St. (at the intersection of Patterson and Olivier Streets in Algiers Point,  (outside Old Point Bar). It is free and open to the public.

She will be backed by guitarist Marc Stone who leads a 10-piece all-star band that features Jimmy Carpenter (Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Eric Lindell) on saxophone, trad jazz trumpeter Leroy Jones, keyboardist Joshua Paxton, Sam Price (Otra, Honey Island Swamp Band) on bass, trombonist Rick Trolsen, drummer Jermal Watson along with Erica Falls, Elaine Foster and Tony Crews on background vocals.

This is a rare chance to see her do a full concert here in New Orleans. She only does a select handful of shows a year, and has not played New Orleans since April of 2008.