God bless Thorny Penfield.
My old buddy from New Orleans passed away August 21st 2007.
He was a Quaker and a mover. He did me some big favors when I moved to New Orleans. He got me in my first working band in NOLA before I even arrived and put me up in his home while I was still living out of my moving van. He was a good hearted guy.
The Hot Tamale Brass Band is a New Orleans style brass band formed in 1992 by Mickey Bones after moving from New Orleans, Louisiana to Boston MA..
Bones had played in a Brass Band, while living in the Big Easy, called the Gentilly Brass Band. That band played a lot of neighborhood block parties, Mardi Gras and Lundi Gras Balls, Coronations for Krewe Kings and Queens and parades including the Krewe of Bacchus parade , which is the second largest in the city.
The Hot Tamales started rehearsals in Mickey's old Central Square apartment in Cambridge Massachusetts. His girlfriend worked at Redbones BBQ and brought home lots of food. Every Sunday Mickey would take all the meat and make a huge soup, feed and supply the band with a case of beer to entice them into coming to rehearsals. After six months he got them their first gig working for the Sam Adams Brewery, who paid them in cash and as much beer as they could fit into six cars, which kept the rehearsals going for a few more months.
The past fourteen years they have kept very busy playing the East Coast from Maine to Pennsylvania playing their supercharged brand of New Orleans jazz and funky second line brass band music.
