When I started writing my novel back in 1992, I had just opened an art gallery called Good Venom in Memphis. Copywriter by day, gallery host by night, novelist somewhere in between. Good Venom was a cool place to hang out in midtown with art by Dr. Bob, Joe Light, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, Charlie Lucas, and others. We kept it open for two years before we ran out of steam.
When we decided to wind things down, House of Blues was just spinning up. Isaac Tigrett, the visionary who turned Hard Rock into an iconic brand, was performing an encore with the new string of venues. House of Blues New Orleans was being built out and was on the hunt for art to cover the walls. One afternoon, we met him in a run down recording studio by the railroad tracks. He only traveled in his custom caboose at the time. We ended up selling him a collection I wish I still had.
I’m not sure what survived Katrina. All I know is that I had outlined a novel called Water Drowned the Fish thirteen years earlier that ended with a flood in New Orleans. Now here we are seventeen years since that catastrophic flood. Many of the artists we met through Good Venom have passed on. Dr. Bob is still holding court on the edge of the Bywater on Chartres- Be Nice or Leave.