Park Slope -  Fabrice Kindel and Delphine Poulin, two French tourists, were strolling along the "Atlantic Antic"
on Sunday afternoon, when they recognized the deep blues of "Popa Chubby", (pronounced Popa Chooby to our French visitors).

    This is impossible, they thought, that the revered blues artist, who has appeared on numerous magazine covers and commands $30 a concert ticket, should be playing on the street in a community festival.

    They sifted through a crowd gathered outside of Peter's Waterfront Ale House and instantly recognized the distinct frame and bald head of Popa Chubby.  Realizing an opportunity they would not find in their own country, they introduced themselves, shook hands with the musician, took a few snapshots, and can't wit to tell their friends back in France about stumbling upon one of Paris' emerging greats.

"He is popular for modern musicians," says Kindel, who has watched Popa Chubby's popularity grow in France over the last year and a half, especially among musicians interested in a new generation of blues.  "He is quite famous."

    "For us, he is the number one of New York blues men," says Kindel in his native French accent.  He plays in some of the best known venues in Paris, places like Primus.  He has played for crowds over-flowing with 150,000 people.  He even topped off a summer tour with a music festival in Lyons, to a crowd three times the size of the one at Woodstock.

     So what is all of the rave?  Popa Chubby attributes his success in France to the fact that the French "have a reverence for blues and for jazz, for Americana," he says.  "And for things that are original."

     Popa Chubby was inspired by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Led Zepplin growing up in the Bronx and Queens.  Today his music is a fusion of many different styles, what he calls rock-n-roll rooted in the blues. 

    He can't hide in the streets of Paris, or other cities in Europe, where he tours extensively through Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Belgium. "It's a smaller world in Europe" says Popa Chubby.

    But the fame that follows him on his travels is not enough to lure him out of New York City, or Brooklyn in particular. 

    Popa Chubby says many venues for live music are closing in the city, as the mayor and the police continue to hassle club owners.  But he feels he lucked out when he found the Waterfront Ale House, and pays homage to the borough with his newly released album, "Brooklyn Basement Blues".