Tour à Nola

04/01/2026

Checkpoint Charlie's, the music venue/bar/restaurant/laundromat at the corner of Esplanade and Decatur, shut down abruptly this week after 37 years in business (the building was reportedly sold, though city records online have yet to list a new owner).

We went back over some old live music listings at the club and found a few surprises, including an appearance by the great R&B artist/producer Eddie Bo in 1991. Anders Osborne and Coco Robicheaux made regular appearances beginning in 1992.

The laundromat featured in the movie The Pelican Brief in 1993, the same year the club hosted Galactic Prophylactic (before they started going by, simply, Galactic).

Checkpoint's is perhaps best remembered as a home to the city's rockers and roustabouts--a few weeks ago it hosted the hard rock band Suplecs on Mardi Gras Day, as it had for the previous quarter century.

The club coalesced as rock venue in the mid-90s, a fertile time in New Orleans music history. 1995 was a good year for monarchically themed groups, with appearances by The Royal Pendletons and Royal Fingerbowl.

You can find more on the roots of rock 'n' roll in New Orleans on A Closer Walk: https://acloserwalknola.com/historical-context/the-roots-of-rock-n-roll-in-new-orleans/

📸 by Jordan Hirsch

12/30/2025

Sad when history isn't preserved

Joe Victor's Saloon, one of only three surviving Storyville buildings, is facing demolition, as the Preservation Resource Center has been reporting. Until now, no one knew anything about Victor or his saloon in particular. New archival research by A Closer Walk shows that he may have been a person of color, and his establishment was a Black bar. That makes this building the only link we have to the often-overlooked community of color that lived and worked on the backstreets of Storyville.

The city's Historic District Landmarks Commission recently recommended the approval of the owner's request to demolish the building. The matter is scheduled to be addressed at a meeting on January 7th.

Our research revealed layers of historical significance that public officials have yet to consider, including the fact that it opened in 1903, when the young musicians Louis and Freddie Keppard lived two doors down. Freddie Keppard is a key figure in the development of jazz, who was hailed as the "King" of horn men in New Orleans after Buddy Bolden was institutionalized in 1907.

We also found extensive ties between the building and New Orleans' German immigrant community. A German family lived and worked here for decades, and another native German--later the custodian of Deutsches Haus--took the helm of the saloon toward the end of its run.

We even spoke to a man who grew up on the building's second floor in the 1950s, when his parents reconfigured the saloon space as a grocery store. His memories shed light on the early years of the Iberville public housing development, which was built on Storyville's footprint.

You can read everything we found, including more on Joseph Victor, on A Closer Walk: https://acloserwalknola.com/places/joe-victors-saloon/

📸 by Jordan Hirsch

12/26/2025

Merry Christmas constructions!

05/21/2025

Fun times!

12/31/2024

A Free Museum

08/23/2024

We are number 9 on the ReverbNation R

Thanks to all for your support!

Time to record and perform more original music!