New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Holiday Memories

2010-12-15T13:50:00.008-06:00

Since August, 2005, the grass roots nonprofit New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has donated everything from grants to cars to grand pianos to gigs for musicians in need, and even in a tough economy help is still coming in.

Community Coffee has become a partner with NOMRF not only in offering free family-friendly concerts for the past three years, but by donating all proceeds from their Java Jacket for $2.95. The Java Jacket saves waste from discarded cardboard sleeves, and makes an excellent sustainable stocking stuffer to help save the culture and the planet.

With paying gigs becoming harder to find, the charity has hosted music at locations everywhere from conventions to CC's Community Coffeehouse to clubs including MidCity Lanes Rock 'n Bowl, Carrolton Station and the Howlin Wolf. New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund-produced videos of live performances help promote the wealth of talent in New Orleans, and promoting New Orleans music nationally is also crucial. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members R.E.M. and soon to be Dr. John have been invaluable in that respect, along with The Subdudes, Wilco, Spoon, Ian Hunter, James Andrews, Susan Cowsill and many other musicians offering their time and talent.

In a poignant 2005 holiday memory, NOMRF brought the Great Southwest Holiday Toy Sleigh Ride to musicians’ children. The airline offered the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund space to bring 200 pounds of toys from Chicago to New Orleans post-Katrina, the nonprofit bought more locally from stores that had reopened, threw a gala and invited musicians to choose toys for their families.

Since so few musicians were back, NOMRF also mailed toys to displaced musicians’ children. So many toys came in, former WWOZ DJ and New Orleans music legend Bob French announced that families could pull up in front of the studio and choose from everything from skateboards to drum kits. Bob is now living in the Musicians Village with his NOMRF-donated couch and drum, and providing entertainment with his 100-year old family band, the Original Tuxedo Brass Band.

Grateful that the Musicians Village has offered housing post-Katrina, NOMRF has worked to fund concerts and provide emergency grants after the levees failed. "More instruments than grants come in these days, and we're happy to get them to promising musicians in the community," said NOMRF founder Jeff Beninato. This fall, a 100-year old Czech bass was donated to a young New Orleans musician; and a violin, electric guitar and clarinet have just come in. Donated instruments are repaired, if needed, and given to musicians at every level based on the quality of the instrument.

Details are available at http://www.nomrf.org.

Subdudes Benefit at Rock n Bowl Wednesday, 4/28

2010-04-28T00:13:00.000-05:00

Come out out to hear the Subdudes first local show of festival season at the new MidCity Lanes Rock n Bowl on Wednesday, 4/28!

Benefit tickets are only $20 and the Creole String Beans open the show. It's NOMRF's first big benefit of the year, so we hope to see you there!!

NOMRF ReDefines 8/29 on the 4th Katrina Anniversary

2009-08-23T15:34:00.003-05:00

It's almost impossible to think about the city of New Orleans without its trademark and historical music community. The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc. has provided housing, furniture, transportation, instruments and anything else it can to assist those still struggling to rebuild their lives post Katrina. The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc., a grass roots certified 501c(3) non-profit was founded in Internet cafes and FEMA rooms by musician Jeff Beninato and his wife Karen and is supported by volunteer graphic designers, publicists, video producers and friends of New Orleans music including Wilco, REM, Dr John and Ian Hunter.

With the 4th Anniversary of Katrina approaching, this organization has played a big part in assisting survivors in rebuilding their lives. Millions of Americans will never forget as they watched the horror unfold before their eyes as 80% of the city flooded along with many areas of neighboring parishes for weeks. Tens of thousands of survivors were left clinging to rooftops, trapped in hospitals and shuffled to the Convention Center where they were left without food or water for five days. Hundreds of thousands of other survivors were scattered around the country, many of them just now returning home. In the first few years after the storm the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund was able to mail hundreds of direct grants to musicians across the country and help them return.

With grass roots charities struggling to survive, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has increasingly received physical items ranging from drums to desks. Tanio, a brass band drummer, received a donated van for gig transportation. When the band's van was stolen, the lawyer who processed the donation paperwork donated her car just in time for his family's Hurricane Gustav evacuation. This week, 500 pounds of bright blue band uniforms were shipped from Williamstown School in New Jersey to Lusher Charter School to give them the chance to have a marching band. And within the last year, the Astor Crowne Plaza donated 20 floors of four star furniture to Furnish our Neighbors as the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund helped them kick off ReDefine 8/29. The furniture sells for $8 and $29 to those returning home and people drive home with truckloads. Furniture was also donated to musicians living in the Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village. Help keeps rolling in in the form of instruments including 3 grand pianos, guitars, horns, congas - even vintage clothing for gig wear. And the charity was pleased to offer a free family friendly CC's Coffee Shop series that gave musicians extra gigs this summer.

"It's been humbling how many of their own instruments music lovers have sent us, even four years after the storm when many are struggling themselves. Those who have the least sometimes have the most room in their hearts for a city still healing," said Karen Dalton Beninato. "Instead of focusing on the day to day struggle of trying to keep a small charity running, it's heartening to focus on the help that's still coming from music lovers and musicians."

Jeff Beninato agrees, and just told Press of Atlantic City about the charity's support from New Orleans legend Dr. John: His presence can make ailing friends and family members forget their troubles just a bit. We visited his friend in the Musicians Village who was having a tough time paying for his medication, and through Mac's generosity he forfeited his expenses from a show used to help many musicians," Beninato said.

"The New Orleans Musician's Relief Fund has a great debt of gratitude to Dr. John for his unselfishness as an ambassador for the music of our city. Jeff adds that "Tragedies like the Galveston hurricane and Minneapolis Bridge collapse are forgotten too quickly in today's news cycle, like New Orleans, but I believe that people have enough compassion to go around if given the chance. Traveling across America after Katrina to raise funds for displaced musicians because we couldn't go home, it was amazing how many local jazz and dixieland bands would be playing traditional New Orleans songs. The sounds of New Orleans still entertain people across America, and it drove home the point that our music is a cultural mainstay."

You can help keep the music programs rolling. Founders Piano Prints are available, and soon NOMRF will post Jackson Squared - an artist's pop art nod to Michael Jackson's 8/29 birthday and Andrew Jackson who fought the Battle for New Orleans which is ongoing in many ways. You can also purchase ReDefine 8/29 tee shirts and memorabilia at the charity's web site.

This year's rebooted ReDefine 8/29 download for $4.99 will feature 6 tracks: Dr. John, Dream Warrior; Ian Hunter, When the World was Round; REM, live South Central Rain; Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey and Branford Marsalis, Begin Again; Dave Pirner, Start Treating People Right; and the late Barry Cowsill, Kid. Rolling Stone Magazine gave the first ReDefine 8/29 download a four star review.

An auction to support the charity now underway with a 40th Anniversary edition Fender stratocaster signed by musicians including Little Steven; Rock Tree posters signed by supporters including Mike Mills and Ian Hunter, and other pieces of history including two Andy Warhol photo prints will be auctioned on ebay through 8:29 pm on August 29, 2009.

Contact the founders with any questions or comments - all support is welcome.

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Link: http://www.nomrf.org

Ebay Auction Link: http://bit.ly/18mpfr

Furnish Our Neighbors Link: http://bit.ly/gJLCf

Press of Atlantic City Link: http://bit.ly/108oN9

For more information, please contact:

Jeff Beninato
Chairman
New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund
jeff@nomrf.org
http://www.nomrf.org

Jazzfest Features Ever-Growing Family Bands

2009-05-05T19:23:00.001-05:00

The musical heartbeat of New Orleans families shone through in this year's Jazz and Heritage Festival, deeply evident when Big Chief Bo Dollis sang "I Love You" and "Goodbye" for two stanzas while his son shook his head and looked to the skies. Bo's voice was in fine form despite his physical battles, and performing with the Wild Magnolias gave him the strength to stand up and reach out his fans, thanking his fans for giving him a career in music. Marva Wright joined the Big Chief in a set that was as joyful as it was heartbreaking. Little Bo Dollis is the new standard bearer in The Wild Magnolias, a band that blasted Mardi Gras Indians into the public's consciousness over 30 years ago.

New Orleans has always been blessed with musical families including Andrews, Batiste, Boutte, Clements, Ford, French, Neville and Paulin among many others. Shamarr Allen has three budding guitar players in his household and he's now touring with Willie Nelson who is on my wish list to headline next year's Jazzfest - it's not too early to start dreaming.

Representing for the twang contingency, three generations of Clements musicians (Annie, Cranston, Dave, Austin, Tyler and Lewis) gathered backstage after Annie's Sugarland gig. The teenage twins had already played a slamming original tune written with their dad, Cranston, for the Twangorama set which for the second year in a row drew a standing ovation from the Lagniappe stage. There's something about watching young musicians you used to babysit take the stage with talent that can take them as far as they want to go.

If a band can also be a family, Dr. John and the Lower 911 qualify. They have rallied around a bandmate who needs their support, broke through past a label that was done with New Orleans related songs to win a Grammy, and paid tribute to Eddie Bo at the new Rock n Bowl NOMRF Benefit with Marcia Ball, Joe Krown, Papa Gros, Cynthia Chen, Bob Anderson and Tom Worrell, ending in an all-star piano jam.

Aspiring guitarist Nicolas Broussard, Russ Broussard and Susan Cowsill

Members of New Orleans' rootsiest tribe, The Continental Drifters, are now mostly disbursed across the country and played a night show I regret missing. There's always the dream of a reunion tour - years from now it could include Nicolas Broussard who's been jamming to the White Stripes. Frankie Ford (the other one) sat in with Susan Cowsill on Saturday for her Covered in Vinyl show - he's 14 and already plays a mean harp.

New Orleans' musical families are growing by leaps and bounds, and it's wonderful to hear the heartbeat from stages all over town. In honor of Mother's Day, take your mom to see the Wild Magnolias the next time they play.

All you'll hear from Big Chief Bo Dollis is love.

Jazzfest Recap and New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Benefit Update

2009-04-28T14:34:00.003-05:00

Based on the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Nicolas Cage is selling his New Orleans houses too soon. All roads lead back to NOLA, evidenced when Wilco's Jeff Tweedy said from the stage, "It feels like home. John is home." Louisiana native John Stirratt somehow managed to keep a straight face while their John Holmes-looking cowbell player stole the show dashing around the stage during Hoodoo Voodoo - a song written by Wilco and Billy Bragg with reclaimed Woody Guthrie lyrics. Speculation ran rampant that the mystery cowbeller was a roadie, but it could have been a Second City alum doing a shirtless impression of the most enthusiastic cowbell artiste since Will Farrell on SNL.

(*Update from John Stirratt, it was guitar tech Josh Goldberg who will probably be booked on a solo cowbell tour once video of his, ummm, acrobatic performance gets out.)

It was Old Home Week when Stirratt was interviewed by reporter David Fricke of Rolling Stone. We caught up with him after his interview and before the cowbell and thanked him for the Wilco benefit that helped the Preservation Resource Center and New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund jump into action shortly after Katrina. Both are still going strong - the Preservation Resource Center sponsors programs to deconstruct and reuse materials in rebuilding New Orleans, and the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund donates repurposed instruments and, on a good day, used cars for evacuation.

When Fricke asked the Wilco bass player which CD he most recently bought and enjoyed, it was a recent reissue of legendary songwriter Bobby Charles, of "Walking to New Orleans" fame. Bobby often co-writes songs with Mac Rebennack, a/k/a Dr. John, and Mac passed the word back to Bobby that he received a shout out at Jazzfest, so there's your full circle. Gambit Weekly's Entertainer of the Year, Mac played at a NOMRF benefit and Eddie Bo tribute at the new Mid City Lanes Rock n Bowl Tuesday; interviews Wardell Quezergue at the Ponderosa Stomp Wednesday; plays at the House of Blues with the full band on Friday; at the 40th New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on Saturday; and with the Voice of the Wetlands on Sunday so it's worth a trip down to New Orleans - at the very least for Weekend 2 of Jazzfest.

Hugh Masecela closed down the first weekend in the WWOZ Jazz Tent describing how he still tours with the same white bandmate the South African police used to harass him about having in the band when Apartheid still separated the races. In response, Masecela gave the quote of the weekend: "We didn't give a shit."

With so many returnees, evacuees and relocatees walking the track at the Fest these days, I keep finding myself pulled into a mini-reunion around every corner with relocated friends like Jimmy Descant whose found object artwork rocked the art booths. Standing in the sandy racetrack path on Friday afternoon, our crew listened to Joe Cocker belt out "With a Little Help from My Friends." I've been humming it ever since.

NOMRf Benefit, Eddie Bo Tribute at Rock N Bowl with Dr. John

2009-04-27T13:55:00.002-05:00

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, a grass roots 501c(3) charity, is proud to announce a Living Legends benefit at the brand new Mid City Lanes Rock n Bowl with solo piano by Dr. John, Marcia Ball, Joe Krown, Papa Gros, Cynthia Chen, Tom Worrell, Bob Andrews and Marc Adams. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 28, and the tunes will include classic songs written by the late Eddie Bo.

The new Mid City Lanes Rock n Bowl is located in the old Helm Paint Store and it's now all on one level and beautifully restored, debuting to rave reviews in nola.com.

Benefit tickets are $25 and are available at Mid City Lanes Rock n Bowl, behind the old Helm Paint store and next to Ye Olde College Inn.

Dr. John, Friend of New Orleans Musicians, to Host Benefit

2009-04-15T22:48:00.010-05:00

Dr. John has a heart that's still broken over his lifelong musician friends scattered to the four winds after Hurricane Katrina. That said, he is resilient, hilarious, generous and a badass depending upon what's called for at any given time.

Here is a photo essay of one week in the life of a friend of New Orleans music; a friend of New Orleans and, we're proud to say, a friend. Here he is delivering a donated New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund saxophone to the legendary Smokey Johnson for his church; sitting in with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Tulane's Benefit Crawfest; and spending time with Red Tyler and Al Johnson at the Musicians Village.

Dr. John will be playing the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Living Legends Benefit on Tuesday, April 28th at the new Rock 'n Bowl Mid City Lanes, with New Orleans pianists including Joe Krown and Papa Gros with musical tributes to the late Eddie Bo.

He was recently honored with a Blues Foundation Slim Harpo Award including this City of Baton Rouge proclamation officially declaring it Dr. John Day.

Isn't every day?

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund's Video for Friday the 13th

2009-03-13T17:37:00.001-05:00

Suffering from Fear of Friday the 13th (Triskaidekaphobia)? This video won't help. It's Phil DeGruy guitar solo from 13 years ago on a Friday the 13th television appearance in New York:

Phil plays the CC's Community Coffee House / New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Concert Series next weekend, and Craig Klein plays tonight's Friday the 13th Gig. Stop by and show some support on the scariest damn day of the month.

March
The Craig Klein Trio 6 p.m. 3/13: 900 Jefferson (Magazine)
Phil DeGruy 6 p.m. 3/20: 2800 Esplanade
Joe Krown 6 p.m. 3/25: 900 Jefferson (Magazine)
Joe Krown 6 p.m. 3/26: 2917 Magazine Street

APRIL
Spencer Bohren 6 p.m. 4/3: 2800 Esplanade
Patrice Fisher 6 p.m. 4/8: 941 Royal Street
Patrice Fisher 6 p.m. 4/15: 2917 Magazine Street
John Rankin 6 p.m. 4/17: 900 Jefferson (Magazine)
Spencer Bohren 6 p.m. 4/19: 2800 Esplanade
Susan Cowsill 6 p.m. 4/23: 941 Royal Street
Johnny Sansone 6 pm 4/29: 900 Jefferson (Magazine)
Leroy Jones 6 p.m. 4/30: 2917 Magazine Street

NOMRF / CC's Community Coffee House Concerts

2009-03-08T01:15:00.004-06:00

Enjoy Free Shows throughout New Orleans

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, a grass roots 501c(3), is proud to kick off a free CC's Community Coffee House Concert NOMRF Series in New Orleans. Starting this morning, sit, sip and soak in the sounds from New Orleans' own: John Rankin, Phil DeGruy, Craig Klein, Joe Krown, Spencer Bohren, Patrice Fisher, Johnny Sansone and Susan Cowsill and Leroy Jones. Details are available at: Nomrf.org.

CC's COMMUNITY COFFEE / NOMRF CONCERT SERIES

MARCH

John Rankin 10 a.m. 3/8: 2800 Esplanade
Phil DeGruy 6 p.m. 3/11: 941 Royal Street
Craig Klein Trio 6 pm 3/12: 2917 Magazine Street
Craig Klein Trio 6 pm 3/13: 900 Jefferson (Magazine)
Phil DeGruy 6 p.m. 3/20: 2800 Esplanade
Joe Krown 6 p.m. 3/25: 900 Jefferson (Magazine)
Joe Krown 6 p.m. 3/26: 2917 Magazine Street

APRIL

Spencer Bohren 6 p.m. 4/3: 2800 Esplanade
Patrice Fisher 6 p.m. 4/8: 941 Royal Street
Patrice Fisher 6 p.m. 4/15: 2917 Magazine Street
John Rankin 6 p.m. 4/17: 900 Jefferson (Magazine)
Spencer Bohren 6 p.m. 4/19: 2800 Esplanade
Susan Cowsill 6 p.m. 4/23: 941 Royal Street
Johnny Sansone 6 pm 4/29: 900 Jefferson (Magazine)
Leroy Jones 6 p.m. 4/30 2917 Magazine Street

Thanks for Micro Giving

2008-12-25T14:43:00.006-06:00

Micro-giving has been a godsend to NOMRF for over three years. James Andrews received this trumpet from an East Coast musician, and thanks to a generous donor the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is replacing the saxophone of an elderly musician whose horn was stolen from his FEMA trailer.

The founders of of Betaworks suggest in their blog that, "We're entering a new era in fundraising and perhaps other social/political causes. What's new? Virtual tribes -- networks of caring people with more commitment than cash. And that's what excites us about micro-giving: It takes so little. You might not have much to spare, but you've got a penny jar -- and we all know that if you reach in and remove a handful of change, you'll feel no pain. What's great about the new, frictionless online giving we're testing here is that, if you've got a good cause, you no longer need to spend a fortune on real-world marketing. Online, with word of mouth and simple technology, pennies can become serious money."

To commemorate the spirit of micro-giving at the holidays, here’s Ian Hunter’s “How’s Your House” video by Grewvia:

More ReDefine 8/29 Downloads are available at:

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund

www.nomrf.org

Second Baby Grand Piano FInds a Home

2008-12-15T14:52:00.006-06:00

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, a grass roots 501c(3), is grateful to music lovers including the woman who donated her baby grand piano (above) to replace Steve's whose home was at the 17th Street Canal breach; and we're grateful to companies like Pearl River which gave piano teacher Sylvia a brand new baby grand to replace the one she lost to Hurricane Katrina.

If you're holiday shopping and would like to support our ongoing efforts, a percentage of the proceeds from CC's Coffee holiday gift packs and Lee Michaels Jewelry Fleur de Lis Ornaments will be donated to the charity, as well as downloads of Lionel Milton, Trombone Shorty, Bonerama and Big Sam's Funky Nation-designed levels on PS3's Little Big Planet video game. Santa Sack Boy pictured below. (Visit www.nomrf.org for details.)

Santa Looks for Louie

2008-11-28T23:00:00.001-06:00

In Santa Looks for Louie, St. Nicholas is delivering a trumpet and tell his reindeer, "I guess Louie hasn't made it home yet." NOMRF offers the image in everything from a tote for green shopping (at right) to holiday cards to a variety of tees. Browse HERE or stop by Saving NOLA store in Jax Brewery, New Orleans.

One hundred percent of the net proceeds benefit our charity's programs, from offering housing for returning musicians to helping musicians find gigs as they make it back to the cradle of jazz and rock. Also on the shelves this holiday season, Sony Playstation's Little Big Planet is donating proceeds from game levels created by New Orleans musicians and artists. Sony and Southern Comfort kicked the new benefit levels off in style at the Voodoo Music Experience.

And throughout Louisiana, CC's Coffee is offering a percentage of the proceeds from its holiday gift bags, for which the Fund is very thankful.

Messageboard for Musicians on the Road

2008-08-31T22:31:00.000-05:00

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has posted a new messageboard for those who have room for musicians out on the road or in shelters. So far we have offers from Austin, Santa Fe, New York, Florida and Kokomo.

No one knows what Hurricane Gustav will do yet, so before heading out of town we passed along an evacuation car to a brass band drummer whose first donated car was stolen last year.

When we get back to New Orleans, hopefully in a week, a new Pearl River grand piano is going to a music teacher who lost hers in Katrina. She asked the company to hold her replacement piano as she can't take a chance on losing a second one. This week, NOMRF will finally pass a donated grand piano along to a New Orleans musician who has relocated to Chicago after struggling with the decision to relocate.

There are many ways to help musicians out on the road: If you're a community organizer, plan a benefit; If you're a musician, donate i-tunes proceeds from your song - especially if it's about lending a helping hand; And If you're a music lover, download ReDefine 8/29. Our grass roots charity only receives help from individuals, so every effort counts.

Back in the Midwest since Katrina, New Orleans is weighing heavily on our hearts as we hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

The question we heard more than any other after Hurricane Katrina was, "How's Grandpa Elliot?" the New Orleans street musician. This time around, he's on a train to Memphis.

Smokey on the Water: Rock Star Scholarships Awarded

2008-08-21T17:27:00.001-05:00

Mark Hudson and Shamarr Allen jam at Rock Fantasy Camp

When Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp rolled into New Orleans, the rock star counselors asked the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund to fill some scholarship positions and show them the effects of Katrina three years later. Showing someone around New Orleans these days not only includes pointing out abandoned slabs where homes were washed away three years ago, it also includes touring the areas where the city is finally rising thanks to ongoing grass roots efforts.

Camp counselors were Elliot Easton (The Cars); Glen Hughes (Deep Purple); Gilby Clark (Guns and Roses); Dave Ellefson (Megadeath); Chip Winger (Winger); Mark Slaughter (Slaughter); Chris Slade (AC/DC); Marc Hudson (the Hudson Brothers); and Earl Slick (David Bowie). We visited Global Green, Make it Right, Furnishing Our Neighbors and the Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village the day before the show.

Hudson, Elliot Easton, Cosimo Matassa and Chip Winger at the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp gathering.

Along the way, Aerosmith and Ringo Starr producer Mark had the chance to meet recording engineer Cosimo Matassa who founded J&M Studio in the French Quarter at the age of 18. Cosimo was responsible for Little Richard's Tutti Frutti and Fats Domino's The Fat Man, and Mark was fascinated at the soul of musical history still to be found in New Orleans. Dr. John called my husband Jeff and when he found out about the tour Mac said, "The Hudson Brothers? I wrote a song for them," so Jeff passed the phone along to Mark for old home week. Dr. John also played on Sonny and Cher tracks, whose show the Hudson Brothers replaced so there's your variety show fun fact for the day.

Mark Hudson and Dave Ellefson talk with rock drumming legend Smokey Johnson.

At the Musicians Village, New Orleans drummers Smokey Johnson who toured with Fats Domino for 28 years, and Bob French, leader of the longest running jazz band in New Orleans, held court. Smokey was waiting for us at beginning of the street and the counselors piled out of the bus as soon as they saw him. Smokey talked about how he invented a cadence called Ratty Number Nine in his high school band and the second line beat can still be heard throughout the city on a good night. Mark told Smokey stories about Ringo's fascination with his drumming style.

Eliot Easton autographs one of the lampshades at Furnishing Our Neighbors

Smokey's Habitat home is now sporting a wheeled desk and chair thanks to Furnishing Our Neighbors, which was another stop on the tour. Mandi Thompson's brainchild converts rooms full of furnishings from luxury hotels into furniture for returning New Orleans residents at only $8 and $29 as part of the ReDefine 8/29 campaign. The warehouse is open Thursday to Saturday behind Rock and Bowl and it's gratifying to see truckloads of furniture drive away as people continue to come home. The overstuffed chairs are comfortable which was good after a New Orleans tour in August, and the rockers were kind enough to autograph a lampshade and headboard for FON.

Glen Hughes and Dave Ellefson view the Global Green Holy Cross Project

Beth Galiente showed the rock counselors through Global Green's eco friendly home, as beautifully designed as it is practical. At the end of every year, the utility company owes the New Orleans Global Green home money back. With an energy crunch at crisis proportions, that's quite a feat. The home was designed by the winner of a architectural competition sponsored by Brad Pitt. I want to move back to New Orleans and live in the Global Green home. Just saying.

Rock Tree Poster from Rock Camp

Kenneth James from Jazz City Tours not only hosted the rockers, he hooked us up with a table at the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club that night. Last week, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund was able to pass a saxophone along to Kenneth thanks to one of our amazing instrument donors. In the tightly knit community that is New Orleans, almost every musician at the Zulu club that night was Kenneth's cousin. The counselors turned in early, but took time out to sign NOMRF's series of rock tree posters and a 40th anniversary Fender Strat, auction link coming soon.

Chip Winger and Scholarship Student Austin Clements

The next day was band camp, and Mark Hudson helped NOMRF present two guitars to twins Austin and Tyler. Mel in Chicago sent down 14 guitars with her Bat Mitzvah money, and the rehearsal was held in a synagogue so it was one of those days where the rivers keep intertwining. Cosimo told the counselors the story of how his first microphone was bought from a nearby synagogue which no longer wanted their high end German microphone after World War II and sold it to him for half price. It was the microphone that recorded some of the earliest songs in rock and roll history. Much of Cosimo's memorabilia washed away after the levee failure, but he can still be found in Matassa's Grocery Store in the French Quarter most mornings to expound on the roots of rock and roll.

Elliot Easton rocks out at the House of Blues

Austin and Tyler jammed all afternoon along with their guitar god dad, Cranston Clements, and trumpet virtuoso Shamarr Allen brought his kid brother Khalid Allen in for the third NOMRF Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp scholarship. Mark Sleeper came up with the scholarship concept so props to L.A. Shamarr was in the movie Skeleton Key with Mark's niece Kate Hudson, which made for another six degrees moment. On Monday night Cranston, Shamarr and his kid brother kicked out Proud Mary at the House of Blues with their camp counselor Mark Hudson.

The band name was Cosimo's Kids.

Making New Rock Stars, One Axe at a Time

2008-07-01T17:33:00.002-05:00

Today nola.com's Chris Rose described our nomrf guitar transfer (story here). Next month the charity is passing along a donated grand piano and good used car to New Orleans music families thanks to the help that's still coming in.

Jammin' Generosity of Two Families Places Guitars in the Hands of Young Rockers

By Chris Rose, Columnist, The Times-Picayune

Let us pause to consider, once again, the kindness of strangers.

There is a young woman in the north Chicago suburbs -- Wilmette, Ill., to be exact -- who cooked up a rather unorthodox plan to celebrate a hallowed rite of passage in her life.

Her name is Mel and, as her bat mitzvah approached this past May 31, she told her parents that she would like to forgo the bundle of cash and gifts that generally attend the Jewish celebration of a young woman's entrance into adulthood and, instead, would like to buy -- of all things -- a bunch of guitars for kids in New Orleans.

At the very same time, a couple of kids from the Discher family in Wheaton, a western suburb of Chicago, decided to canvass their neighborhood residents and businesses, soliciting donations for a trip they planned to take with their family to New Orleans this month.

It's part of a Discher family tradition, something they call their annual Donation Vacation, wherein they pick a troubled spot in the world -- hopefully one that's nice to visit, as well -- and they go there not only to sightsee but to help out in any way they can.

What both of these kids' families had in common -- other than the obvious Chicago link -- was that the parents in each case went online in search of a worthy recipient of their generosity.

Both considered but eventually eschewed the big dogs of the rebuilding effort -- the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, etc. -- and looked for something more grassroots. Since music was a common tie among all parties involved -- the two kids in Wheaton are both musicians -- they both happened upon the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund.

To add to the serendipity of it all, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is headquartered in Illinois, south of Chicago in Bloomington. It was founded by a former New Orleans couple, Jeff and Karen Beninato, who evacuated there for Hurricane Katrina and remained.

The timing was just too exquisite. The Wilmette family bought 14 Fender Squire electric guitars. The Dischers asked the Beninatos what they needed most, so they made a list of accessories -- guitar cases, straps, strings, amps, picks, etc.

Put in touch with each other by Karen Beninato, the two families met last month in Rosemont, Ill., for the guitar handoff. Then the Dischers headed south for New Orleans. They arrived last week and, on Thursday afternoon, 14 New Orleans kids got outfitted with brand new guitars.

The giveaway was a little unusual not just because of the very poignant details of the donations, but because most music charities around here tend to focus on horns and other staples of the brass, jazz and marching band traditions.

"We didn't want to leave out the rock-and-rollers," Karen Beninato told me with a laugh at the Parkway Bakery in Mid-City, where the giveaway was held. "We're what you'd call an 'instant charity' -- what people donate to us, we immediately deliver to New Orleans. And we've brought down everything from saxophones to cellos, but this is the first time we delivered a bunch of axes."

The Parkway Bakery courtyard was abuzz with activity Thursday afternoon as the chosen recipients picked out their guitars from the selection of black, turquoise and even pink Squire models.

What most of the kids had in common is that they are the children of New Orleans musicians; this is one way to keep the music flames burning here. Eleven-year-old Olivia Huston, the daughter of local sax player Derek Huston, hugged her turquoise model to her chest like it was a favorite doll or stuffed animal.

It's her first instrument. She was wearing a Ramones T-shirt. I asked her what kind of music she planned on learning on it and she told me: "The guitar kind."

Yeah, you right.

Eight-year-old Dinneral Shavers Jr., the son of the slain New Orleans brass band leader, leaned on his new ax with a big smile. "This is my first real guitar," he said.

I asked him what his music ambition was. He said: "Like, I don't know. Jazz?"

Other Squire recipients hailed from equally notable New Orleans musical families -- the Frenches, the Andrews, the Allens and the Clemenses. Also, six guitars were being donated to the Lusher Charter School -- "the school of rock," Karen Beninato called it, a reference to the inordinately large number of musicians' children who go there.

Carson and Emma Discher watched it all with satisfaction. He's 12, she's 14. They're the two kids who solicited their neighbors up north. She wore peace sign earrings and told me: "It's cool to help people."

Their mother, Deb Discher, said: "We live by the motto: To whom much is given, much is expected."

And what we can expect around here now is the sound of ringing guitars. Courtesy of our friends in Illinois, strangers no more.

ReBuild Your Own New Orleans Garage Band

2008-06-21T18:23:00.002-05:00

"Give what you have to somebody, it may be better than you think."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Since Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent broken New Orleans levees, hundreds of music lovers have donated enough to keep displaced musicians in gear, transportation, housing and instruments through the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. This grass roots support has freed nomrf from having a large staff, office or professional fund-raisers and lets us concentrate on getting instruments directly into the hands of New Orleans musicians.

Next week, fourteen Fender Squier electric guitars, amp and stands will be given to young musicians in New Orleans thanks to Mel who bought them with her Bat Mitzvah money. Another family will drive the instruments down, along with gear they collected from neighbors in their Penny to Remember New Orleans Drive. The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund will distribute the instruments with Dash RipRock entertaining, and NOMRF supporters REM are sending some surprises down to encourage the beginning musicians. The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is also part of replacing a piano teacher's Pearl River baby grand piano which she had just made the last payment on the week Katrina hit, so it's a summer of new beginnings.

Founded while displaced from Hurricane Katrina, our 501(c)3 certified charity operates entirely on grass roots donations with no corporate or government sponsorship. Between now and 8/29, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is hosting a ReBuild Your Own New Orleans Garage Band drive in honor of Scott Sherman, drummer for one of New Orleans' first garage bands, Dr. Specs and the Optical Illusions. Scott, who my husband Jeff gigged last with the week before Hurricane Katrina, died in the storm, and many of our city's legends have passed away too soon.

Almost three years post-Katrina, touring musicians are struggling with higher gas prices and can use help staying out on the road. In the current economy, CD sales are down across the board, and many displaced musicians are still attempting to build a new fan base in towns halfway across the country. None of today's music, from jazz to R&B, would be what it is without the contribution of New Orleans musicians. Please join us in getting the next generation of New Orleans musicians started out right.

Donations may be made at nomrf.org or at our MySpace page, or you can:

Host an instrument and gear drive

Plan a ReDefine 8/29 event in your own town

Download ReDefine 8/29 with tracks including REM, Dr. John, Ian Hunter

Ask a local hero to donate part of downloads, ticket sales or merchandise

And Grace Will Lead Me Home: Aaron Neville Returns to New Orleans Jazzfest

2008-05-05T11:13:00.002-05:00

Aaron Neville just gave the show of the year at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, closing out the Gospel Tent with Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927." It was his second encore, and at the words "What has happened here is the winds have changed," the audience burst into applause. Jazzfest audiences now include a mix of those who lost their houses to the levee failure and have not come back, like Aaron, and those who pioneered New Orleans recovery and offer evacuees a couch when we come home. When he sang, "I Was Born By the River," it became obvious that there is a new gospel now.

Some locals reacted angrily to the Neville Brothers not closing out Jazzfest the last two years after the storm. Cyril Neville, now an Austin resident, expounded on whether or not New Orleans supported its musicians, even before the storm, and that added to the controversy. Aaron suffers from athsma, and in 2006 I saw an "Athsma My Ass" tee shirt worn on the festival track. With his warm welcome in the Gospel Tent today ("When I Say Aaron You Say Neville"), it's clear that the town is ready to heal. John C. Reilly was one of the celebrities wise enough to come down and enjoy the set. Next up for Aaron is a tour with Dr. John, hopefully coming to a city near you.

Aaron's inimitable falsetto carried "Amazing Grace" through the tent, dedicated to the late Wille Tee, a great musician who died far from home, and to Aaron's wife who was battling for her life during the last few years.

"This is for those we lost, who are waiting for us," he said.

After Katrina I settled up north to stay with my father as his memory faded. We lost him just after last year's Jazzfest, so quickly I never had a chance to say goodbye. My mother's mind slips a little further away every day. Last week I walked up a set of deck stairs, and turned around to notice that she was walking up the shadow next to them. It's like living with a performance artist. There are as many factors keeping hundreds of thousands of us away as there are drawing us back. The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund still exists because it has to -- so many are still so far away.

Walking across the fairgrounds as familiar faces drift by, this is the line still with me, sung by a man with a voice like an angel and a sword tattooed on his face. New Orleans reconciles opposites.

"Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come.

Tis grace that brought me safe so far and grace will lead me home."

Jazzfest in New Orleans: Showing Up for the Party

2008-04-26T16:54:00.002-05:00

Welcome to virtual New Orleans. It's a cool day, wild parrots are screeching in the back yard and we're waiting to see if it rains before heading to the racetrack. Bob French, proud owner of a Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village home, drummer for the longest running band in the city and the planet's most uncensored disc jockey on WWOZ is keeping listeners posted on Jazzfest weather. He says, "There will be no rain today," and his guest adds:

"You listen to some of these weathermen with their gloom and doom and they say, 'we're all going to be under water . . . well actually we were under water that one time so maybe they're right." Radio New Orleans at its finest.

Dr. John is a must-see at 3:20. He's been working in new tracks from The City That Care Forgot, and based on a sneak preview over the holidays this one will make him the most uncensored musician in New Orleans when it debuts in June. We listened to hundreds of tracks to compile the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit ReDefine 8/29 download and I thought I had my fill of post-Katrina songs. It turns out I haven't.

The "Turbinton's House" Tribute is this afternoon in the WWOZ Jazz Tent to honor Earl "The African Cowboy" Turbinton and his brother, Willie Tee, who both passed away within the last year. Too soon, and both very missed. Each New Orleans musician is distinctive enough to each leave a void that can never be filled, but each also mentors a new generation in a way that no other city offers. They gather in a rolling sideshow of bands as exemplified by Paul Sanchez and his Rolling Sideshow. Paul's former band Cowboy Mouth also plays today. John Thomas Griffith of Cowboy Mouth was in The Fate Brothers with NOMRF founder Jeff Beninato, and all these ties reinforce the sense that everyone you love is just up the festival track.

Jeff now plays bass with Bryan Lee Lee and the Blues Power Band. The Braille Blues Daddy mentored Kenny Wayne Shepard as a young prodigy, and Kenny Wayne will be playing the Fest next weekend. Bryan will rock the Rivershack tonight before heading to a festival in Germany. He's one of the many New Orleans musicians back on the road after losing a steady gig to the storm, and his "Katrina Was Her Name" is up for Best Contemporary Blues Album at next month's Handy Awards. But first it's off to Ingolstadt, fictional (hopefully) home of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.

Back at the Jazz and Heritage Festival, the rain is finally coming down and Big Jay McNeely, a founder of rock and roll, is taking the stage. Known for leading strolls out of clubs and around the block, he was once arrested for disturbing the peace on one of his second lines. His band kept playing until he was bailed out, came back to the club and finished the song. In the '40s, Big Jay once crawled from home plate to first base on his back while playing sax in an LA stadium. His stage show made him one of Jimmy Hendrix' biggest influences, and eventually got him banned from LA. He introduced his track 3-D, available from the nomrf Sax on the Web download, with:

"When I was 21 I recorded this number. I'll be 81 on Tuesday, so here we go . . . "

Yesterday Robert Plant played "Fortune Teller" as Allen Toussaint beamed backstage. He also loaded up on swamp pop at the Louisiana Music Factory, as any good visitor should.

John Boutte just stopped by the WWOZ tent to thank New Orleans visitors for supporting its music. He also described the challenge of bringing music to fans ready to let the good times roll, while waiting for the recovery of your home town.

"People are still dying from the devastation from the failure of the federal levees and they're dying in auto accidents trying to make it back home, they're dying from increased substance abuse, people are being thrown out of their homes, living in facilities, but yet here we are. We're still trying to make it through. Thank God we do have a little distraction, and thank the world for helping us."

John specifically thanked the Threadheads, a jazzfest supergroup, for funding his and Paul Sanchez' new cd, and closed with "Showing Up for the Party":

"I'm showing up for the party so everyone can see. I'm showing up for the party, but I know it's not for me."

Mardi Gras Fashion Police

2008-02-27T01:06:00.000-06:00

If this year's Oscar fashions were too tame for your taste, check out the Saving NOLA Mardi Gras Open House. Styles were more Bjork than Tilda Swinton, so mix up a Sazerac, crank some Subdudes and check it out (HERE).

Our internet connection died (so much for liveblogging) and an ebay strike postponed the rock auction so clearly we're on New Orleans time. Photos of rockers and relief workers decked out in Zulu beads and solidarity have been trickling in for weeks.

For rebuilding style, come down to the Gulf Coast for festival season and shop for merchandise at the Save NOLA Now Store in Jax Brewery. Their tee shirts and handbags benefit the Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village, New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Global Green and Make it Right.

Happy 3-weeks-after-Mardi Gras. We loved this guy's feathers, by the way. Discuss among yourselves.

I'm Still Not There

2008-02-25T16:19:00.006-06:00

LINK to: I'm Still Not There on the Huffington Post

Free at Last: Second Line Released from Charges

2008-02-21T23:12:00.001-06:00

Glen David Andrews, a member of the Jessie Hill musical dynasty, just had charges dismissed by New Orleans City Attorney, as well as Derrick Tabb. Both musicians were cited last fall while marching in a memorial second line for Kerwin James who fell ill far from home, as so many other New Orleans musicians have.

There are no hard and fast figures for how many. A filmmaker just asked me exactly how many New Orleans musicians have died of heartbreak before they had a chance to move back. If the funding existed for that study, we would give it to displaced musicians. The only overall mortality study that exists is from an individual who counted obituaries.

Before Katrina led to his displacement, Kerwin was a member of the New Birth Brass Band, and his brothers were in the Rebirth Brass Band. In the middle of their heartbreak, to be arrested at a funeral march is unimaginable. Tanio Hingle of the New Birth Brass Band is doing his best to come back to the city, but a van the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund donated to him has already been stolen.

It's an ongoing struggle and here's some back story. Glen was part of the rally when Dinerral Shavers of the Hot 8 Brass Band and filmmaker Helen Hill, both beloved members of the New Orleans arts community, were murdered in unrelated incidents. It hit close to home - at the time Dinerral's bandmate was living in an apartment NOMRF provides.

Thousands of residents rose up, and Silence is Violence has kept that movement alive. Andrews marched up the steps of City Hall at the Silence is Violence rally and said, "I'm scared to death of the police." The Mayor showed up to speak, but rally organizers turned him down. He could speak anytime - this was their day. Katrina has given many the ability to speak truth to power. What do we have to lose?

Glen was charged with "disturbing the peace by tumultuous manner" while playing "I'll Fly Away," a traditional funeral march. His cousin, James Andrews, wrote Sixth Ward Soul (HERE), a description of what has changed after the levees broke. Last spring, Dr. John led a second line (pictured above) to dedicate a headstone to James' grandfather Jessie Hill in a cemetery that is still a shambles

New Orleans needs every available voice, and thankfully Dr. John is there for us. He has an album (I still call them albums) coming up in the spring that's so badass I'm going to listen to it all day every day. Because every voice is crucial.

There's so much we still have to lose.

Kaiser Chiefs Rock Brit Awards and New Orleans Anthem

2008-02-20T17:11:00.000-06:00

Indy darlings the Kaiser Chiefs, expected to play the Brit Awards in collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney, are nominated for two of tonight's awards and their benefit track Out of My Depth is exclusively available on ReDefine 8/29 Downloads.

Rolling Stone Magazine reviewed Out of My Depth as a fine stomp with overtones of a "pissed off Badfinger."

The song's chorus is a rallying cry against apathy for New Orleans musicians still coming home to a city with fewer gigs and higher rents:

(Song preview (HERE).)

I get out of my depth
until nothing is left
and it's only coming up to our hips

I get out of my depth
unless something is said
if you ignore it then it doesn't exist

The last line is especially telling as mainstream media outlets narrow their stories to Mardi Gras, the Katrina Anniversary and sporting events like the NBA All-Star Game that New Orleans is doing a spectacular job of hosting. The BBC has covered the ongoing struggles of New Orleans evacuees extensively, and New Orleans legends who sell out European tours but rarely get booked in the states can attest to the difference in support.

Two more Brits who have pitched in on the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund's ReDefine 8/29 are Ian Hunter (All the Young Dudes) with his How's Your House anthem and Grewvia video, and Liverpool's Joe Topping who not only donated his ballad, Lord Willing, he also hiked from Chicago to New Orleans to help raise awareness for the city.

Thankfully London is still calling.

Auction to Keep New Orleans Rock Rolling

2008-02-11T14:39:00.000-06:00

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Global Green, Habitat for Humanity, Make it Right and Saving NOLA Now hosted Mardi Gras Day at the Circle Bar for relief workers and musicians including Papa Mali, Kirk Joseph (Kirk Joseph's Backyard Groove), Viki Peterson (The Bangles), Mike Mills (REM), Bill Davis (Dash Riprock), Rev. Goat Carson (Dr. John), Don Williams (The Revealers), Susan Cowsill, Russ Broussard, Abby Travis (The Bangles), Dave Clements (Plowboys), Joey Torrez (Clockwork Elvis), and as many as we could fit on the balcony.

To keep the help rolling, you'll soon be able to bid on items including an autographed Dream Girls poster by Jamie Foxx; cast-signed script to Criminal Minds; 40th anniversary strat signed by Little Steven; and signed, numbered museum quality prints by legendary rock photographers William Coupon and Curtis Knapp including the Marsalis family, and an original book print of REM.

With a new cd and tour in the works, REM has supported New Orleans musicians by releasing an Entertainment Weekly video at the Katrina anniversary, donating a live South Central Rain track from Dublin to ReDefine 8/29, signing the lyrics to Everybody Hurts for auction, and Mills playing at our Dr. John benefit for Wardell Quezergue.

A series of Rock Tree posters signed by Little Steven (E-street Band), Mills, Dr. John, Susan Cowsill, John Sinclair (MC5, now with Radio Free Amsterdam) and Jeff Beninato (the dB's), will be available soon. William Coupon's museum quality Dr. John print (below), embellished by the Good Doctor, is the first photo up for auction at (www.nomrf.org)

This trip home, we were able to help a musician out with medical bills, and donate replacement instruments. NOMRF has been blessed with some of the best friends New Orleans musicians could have, and they still need all the friends they can get.

'Lies' by Abby Travis and The Bangles to Benefit Displaced Musicians

2008-01-26T22:06:00.000-06:00

Check out the brand new track: "Lies" at: i-tunes.

“Lies” by Abby Travis with The Bangles to Benefit New Orleans Musicians:

Abby Travis featuring the Bangles I tunes exclusive track “Lies” ramps up for the Primaries and Carnival Season, and will benefit the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. Travis' amazing track has a sparkling contribution from the Bangles for a punk/cabaret style feel. "Lies" has elements of classic Queen, Camper von Beethoven and the Ronettes if they were all very, very pissed off about the state of things in New Orleans and the level of corruption. Lyrics include “We’re making progress, everything’s under control . . . “

In addition to writing, performing, recording and producing “Lies,” Travis’ is known for her previous three releases "GlitterMouth", "Cutthroat Standards & Black Pop" and "The Abby Travis Foundation" The Washington Post described Travis as “ … a Brecht-Weill epiphany.” and The Los Angeles Times calls Abby “ … alternately brainy and sensual, and consistently engaging.”

Travis' collaboration with The Bangles on "Lies" resulted from her career as touring bassist for the band.

"I sang the song for them on the tour bus last year and they were all happy to jump on board the back up vocal train! Kristian Hoffman (Travis' longtime keyboardist who was songwriter for Klaus Nomi and The Mumps) and I had a great time arranging the vocals for such wonderful voices. We're all stoked to have them involved in the track. " Travis says.

In addition to playing bass in The Bangles, Travis has filled bass duties for a wide array of acts including Beck, Elastica, KMFDM, Exene Cervenka's The Original Sinners, Michael Penn, and Gibby Haines, to name a few. Travis also comes from a politics/ news background: her mother, Alice Germond, is secretary of The DNC and her father, Larry Travis, was an Emmy Award winning documentary cinematographer.

All of the artist’s proceeds from the “Lies” download will be donated to The New Orleans Musician’s Relief Fund, Inc. After the levee break, thousands of musicians lost instruments, gear, home studios, merchandise and their homes, and t he grass roots certified 501c(3), provides direct financial assistance. The Fund was started by displaced musicians post-Katrina, and grant recipients are spread throughout the country. Along with grants, NOMRF has offered housing, furniture, instruments and transportation. MySpace has nominated the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund twice for its Community Building Impact Award.

Dr. John told Entertainment Weekly he was grateful to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, and added that “Small organizations — they've done more than these big organizations with a lot of money. Everything is f---ed up with the politicians and all. There's nobody taking care of business but the people.'

The progress of rebuilding has been slow and difficult, but it is happening. By downloading this .99 track on i-tunes, you'll be helping displaced New Orleans musicians keep receiving the help they need.

BCS

2007-12-29T16:02:00.000-06:00

Sport Your Support With BCS Tix and Gear

Calling Sportsfans: Grewvia Productions not only made NOMRF's great Ian Hunter (HOW'S YOUR HOUSE VIDEO) they've donated two Sugar Bowl tickets for auction HERE

AND this just in, NOMRF is offering Two BCS Championship Tickets on the 20 Yard Line, 8 rows off the field: (BID FOR BCS HERE). Help us ring in a Happy New Year, and support the music.

You can also visit our online (SHOP) for Dennis Procopio's Fleur de Mains and Time to Face the Music. And stop in at the new Saving NOLA Store in Jax Brewery for more merch.

The Doctor Is In

2007-12-29T14:35:00.000-06:00

You know you've been to a great show when the drummer introduces the headliner for his encore as "One pissed off mother------."

At a hometown show last night, Dr. John summed up the conditions that the city's traditional culture is still reeling from. On his list of what's wrong? A squad of police cars showing up for a second line to arrest musicians. "They have to understand that this is a spiritual city," he said. Tootie Montana died at City Hall trying to get that across.

Big Chief Montana was complaining about the arrests of Mardi Gras Indians at the annual St. Joseph's Day gathering. He said "This has Got to Stop," had a heart attack and passed away. The Indians carried him out of City Hall singing Indian Red.

Classics like Indian Red, Iko Iko, and the great Wardell Quezergue's It Ain't My Fault do something to your molecular structure when you've lived here long enough. All it takes is a few bars of:

Come kitty kitty come come, walk on gilded splinters . . .

And there you are in another trance staring at the skeleton on the piano.

Last night, Dr. John expounded for a good five minutes at the end of his show and noted that so many people, audience members included, were screwed over after the levee failure. He preaches it everywhere. Every show, every town.

How every level of government failed Katrina survivors, and the help still coming is from individuals. When he's talking to his hometown it's preaching to the choir, but it helps at least this choir member's healing.

A tireless supporter of the Gulf Coast, Dr. John has lent his voice to causes including restoring the wetlands, New Orleans Musicians Clinic and the (New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund). He's become a friend.

In fine form, the Rev. Goat Carson played jawbone and at times waved his raven's wing over the crowd as a powerful symbol because, as he says, in the end the buzzard gets us all.

Dr. John and Goat wrote the new song, My People Need a Second Line that closed the show. If Dr. John's upcoming CD is as good as this song, he should have another Grammy coming.

A second concert is set for tonight (Saturday), 8 p.m. House of Blues, if you'd like to share in the pissedoffedness. Jon Cleary opens on solo piano.

Great Sugar Bowl Benefit Tickets

2007-12-24T15:10:00.001-06:00

In keeping with a Happy New Year, the same producer who made Ian Hunter's How's Your House Video has donated Sugar Bowl tickets to benefit the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. Really good tickets. Plaza Level, 41 Yard Line, 31 rows up from the field. The ebay auction just kicked off and wraps up Friday. Thanks Gary at Grewvia!

The video is a reminder of what many New Orleaneans are on the long road back from:

CLICK HYH IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW IAN HUNTER's ROCKING HOW'S YOUR HOUSE:

.

CLICK TICKETS TO BID ON EBAY: Jacquimo's funky dining establishment is kindly kicking in dinner for two, so come experience some football and make time for live local music as long as you're here.

Travelogue

2007-12-23T22:31:00.000-06:00

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is home, distributing instruments and catching up with loved ones for the holidays. Here are photos from the last 24 hours to let you know how the city, its music, the food and culture can embrace you:

* * * * *

Evenings at Snake & Jake's Christmas Club Lounge, voted Sexiest Bar in America by Details Magazine, it's lit only by flattering Christmas lights all year long. This is your bartender, Miss Elaine. Snake's is the bar of choice for Anthony Bourdain, and Bourdain knows bars.

* * * * *

The French Quarter is never not beautiful.

* * * * *

The Lights. Red Light Districts, Green Light Districts, if you've got a light, we've got a district.

* * * * *

Lucky Dogs. Or as the vendor was shouting, 'Genuine Katrina Hot Dogs!' It didn't sound appetizing but drew an interested crowd.

* * * * *

Hotel Monteleone's Carousel Bar. It's a Bar. It's a Ride. You drink and slowly spin around the room, which enchanted Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote enough to make it into their literary work.

* * * * *

Chef Paul Prudhomme blackened some of the first seafood, and is still creating masterpieces at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen.

* * * * *

Back at Snake's, Santanista Offers You His Protection.

* * * * *

You never know who will show up. This is guitar hero Jimmy Robinson of Twangorama, singer/songwriter Susan Cowsill, and a Cajun Santa at Carrolton Station.

* * * * *

A Hip Daily Newspaper. New Orleans Times Picayune's nola.com selection for photo of the day isn't a cute kid holding a puppy under the tree. It's the Christmas Club Lounge.

* * * * *

The Latter Public Library on historic St. Charles Avenue hosted an Irwin Mayfield benefit with teen sensation Amanda Shaw, free and open to the public. Preservance Hall will be completed in 08, adding an expanded jazz district to our National Park System.

* * * * *

Unlimited Opportunities to Do Good. This is the tent village under the interstate, as thousands of residents are now homeless. One of many shelters just outside the city houses dozens of families and half the residents are children. Their wish lists are modest, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have just held a press conference on the condition of displaced children.

* * * * *

More Ways to Help. Carnival Season, Festival Season, Midsummer Mardi Gras - each is a good reason to gear up at the French Quarter Save NOLA Shop. Merchandise benefits nonprofits including the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Global Green and Make it Right. So come down and shop, gut, build, tip, spend, dance, eat and live.

Green Shirt and Tiny Carbon Footprint

2007-12-14T14:48:00.001-06:00

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is a green Fund with green gear, if that's your color.

We don't fly to benefits - our donations are more likely to come from lemonade stands or neighborhood fairs. The Fund prints as little as possible, works by energy efficient light and has never mailed out glossy brochures to solicit donors.

Dr. John told Entertainment Weekly that "Small organizations -- they've done more than these big organizations with a lot of money. Everything is f---ed up with the politicians and all. There's nobody taking care of business but the people.''

MySpace has nominated NOMRF twice for its Community Building Impact Award, and we're waiting to see if the third time's the charm.

One amazing supporter is Jake, who has again collected 500 toys to distribute including BluzKat books. Jake is 11 and lost everything to Katrina but still works to help kids who have it worse, which shows the emerging spirit of New Orleans.

Right before he reserved the right to run for president someday, Jake said in a speech at Jackson Square on the anniversary of 8/29: "We're not Katrina victims. We're Katrina survivors."

Thanks again to Dennis Procopio for the popular Fleur de Mains image above (ONLINE SHOP) - it perfectly represents the city's renewal. There's still time for standard shipping gifts to arrive before the holidays if you've got stockings to stuff.

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Has Been There, Done That, Sells the Tee Shirt

2007-12-12T14:21:00.000-06:00

Two thirds of America is wary of where their New Orleans charity donations have gone, according to a new UNO survey, so this is some basic information on what the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has done during last two years:

None of your Tax Dollars have gone into the funding of this nonprofit.

Our staff has never bought airline tickets to attend a benefit. We rarely even get to drive to them. Amazing volunteer efforts have led to events around the world, and the Fund distributes those proceeds to hundreds of displaced musicians.

NOMRF is a very green charity. We have never mailed out glossy brochures to solicit donors, but have asked musician friends to support us. Thanks to founder Jeff Beninato's dB's background, those friends include Wilco and REM. We're also blessed to have new musician friends like Dr. John and Jake, who has again collected 500 toys to distribute including BluzKat books. Jake is 11 and lost everything to Katrina, which shows the indominable spirit of New Orleans.

After starting NOMRF while being displaced, we learned it does not take renting an office to mail checks to displaced musicians. Our volunteer tech support team created the database and our staff of two screens applications. Volunteer publicist Urban Panda helps spread the word, and a team of volunteer accountants keep our corporate filings in order. Volunteer attorneys helped process the title of the donated New Birth Brass band, which sadly was just stolen.

Our Fund focuses on direct relief to professional musicians who are displaced because of Hurricane Katrina, not on event production or referrals. This is how we've stretched over a quarter million in individual donations as far as it could go. MySpace has nominated NOMRF twice for its prestigious Community Building Impact Award, and we're waiting to see if the third time's the charm.

The new Saving NOLA Store in downtown New Orleans (First floor, Jax Brewery) has started selling gear to benefit NOMRF. Last year they raised enough to build a Habitat for Humanity home, so our nonprofit is in good company with Drew Dat, Make it Right, Musicians Village and Global Green merchandise.

Speaking of merch, New Orleans artist Dennis Procopio has just donated his Fleur de Mains image (click tee shirt above to browse), and it perfectly represents the city's renewal. There are two days left for standard shipping gifts to arrive before the holidays. Donations have naturally slowed down as public awareness subsides, so if you like how NOMRF rolls, renewed support would be very, very welcome.

Brass Band Van Donated And Gone Again

2007-12-05T16:11:00.000-06:00

When Cayetano (Tanio) Hingle applied for transportation from the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, a family in Baton Rouge had just decided to donate their used minivan so the timing was perfect.

The family gave the brass and drummer their Ford Winstar through NOMRF, and it helped get him to gigs in the French Quarter from his post-Katrina location an hour outside of the city. It also helped transport his two children where they needed to go. On Sunday, the van was stolen from in front of his home.

It was hard enough for our small, grass roots nonprofit to be able to provide a van to a brass band drummer. Doing it twice is going to be daunting. If you're shooting for that warm holiday feeling, skip to the next blog.

"With the music, we're getting by but you know it's the housing and paying the bills that's real, real hard right now," Tanio said about the current economic climate.

Traditional brass bands survive on French Quarter tourism, which is down 40 percent at last estimate, and locals are supporting the music scene as well as they can given their ongoing Road Home challenges.

Tanio's New Birth Brass Band recently lost founding member Kerwin James. After suffering a stroke, Kerwin was in a coma for months out of state. He never was able to move back permanently. At his memorial second line in New Orleans, brass band musicians were arrested for marching without a permit and disturbing the peace.

There are positive stories like 11 year old friend Jake who lost everything to Katrina but still collects toys for his fellow young musicians. As he says, "We're not Katrina victims, we're Katrina survivors."

But overall the economic condition is desperate on this third post-disaster holiday season. Our Fund has been able to send out hundreds of grants, and has helped out with housing, transportation and instruments. Friends like Dr. John, the dB's (Jeff's former band), REM, Ian Hunter and many others provide benefit download tunes and moral support, since it takes someone in the public eye to keep this ball in the air. Case in point, Brad Pitt with his pink houses on Larry King tonight.

Even with all that help, awareness is rapidly dying down. Two steps forward and one step back is the best description for many in the Crescent City right now. Leah Chase, Jr.'s first FEMA trailer was stolen from the front of the historic restaurant Dooky Chase's. It was home away from home for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Freedom Fighters.

Leah sang a stunning "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" at our first Anti-Versary Commemoration, and sings The Kindness of Strangers Has Been My Salvation in Harry Shearer's MyDamnChannel Crescent City Stories linked below.

New Orleans musicians are some of the strongest people you'll ever met. The hardest part of interviewing many of them is knowing it's an uphill climb. Musician Timothea Beckerman made it to the Northeast and used to call to talk about a film score she hoped to finish. "I've been an independent woman all my life and I want to continue it. But you can't if you have 10 dozen worries on your mind. I'm homesick like everybody else, but I can't go home. I've got to stay inside. And I don't have portable oxygen anyway."

We tried to reassure her, but she died in 2006 at the age of 55. We are losing too many from the birthplace of jazz. On the surface the causes are medical, but it's important to factor in the heartbreak of waiting too long to come home. It is still possible to help these musicians any way you choose. Just please help them soon.

(Write the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund (nomrf.org) if you have a good used van you're tired of.)

Harry Shearer's My Damn Channel Crescent City Stories:

Santa Looks for Louie - Reposting for New Orleans

2007-12-02T19:32:00.000-06:00

This is a post from Last December, and NOMRF Founder Jeff Beninato's Santa Looks for Louie illustration is from last year, too. The saddest part of the post is that Freddie "Shep" Sheppard never did make it home from Phoenix. He died not long after the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit.

It's strange to revisit a post from last year. Since then, more Road Home Grants have gone out, but not enough. More tourists are back, but not enough. More assistance is available to musicians, but not enough. Our grass roots Foundation is doing what it can thanks to music lovers who still care enough to donate.

Thank you for that.

A NEW SUIT

(Reprinted From December, 2006)

Last night a New Orleans musician friend got so disgusted after a disappointing gig he threw his suit in the garbage. We can't disclose his name, or at future shows fans would be wondering if he's wearing the garbage suit.

His wife fished it out before any real damage was done, but it's an example of the lids about to blow for many musicians struggling to get by during the holidays.

Promises dangle but are not fulfilled. Most international news agencies have closed their local bureaus. The Road Home Program has now distributed a whopping 65 grants out of 88,000 applicants. Many national assistance groups have moved away from giving grants and have moved on to raising awareness.

You can't eat awareness.

Some gigs are sparsely attended as 60 percent of evacuees (depending on which survey you give credence to) are still not back and a third of the returnees are considering moving away. It's almost as if the (_________) is trying to (__________) the city -- insert theory of choice because there are too many to sort through and most of them are probably true.

Not exactly a party atmosphere if you go by the numbers, but the party is still lurking in New Orleans. We just got to town and in late December friends are already talking about Mardi Gras costumes, concerts, and carnival cd releases.

The musicians who have made it home are trying to hang in there until the world's biggest free party comes back to town. And their out-of-town brethren write us about wanting to come back home if rents start to drop.

A.J. Piron's was one of the many jazz greats who made his way from New Orleans to the north in the 1920s. When his band members got tired of the cold and the changes in lifestyle, they voted on whether to go back home.

Piron lost the vote and his band left Harlem in the heyday of jazz. New Orleans music has that kind of pull. And it hasn't thrown away its gig suit just yet.

To help keep the music rolling tonight in Boulder, his friends are hosting a NOmrf benefit for Freddie "Shep "Sheppard" of recent Studio 60 fame. Shep started playing music while still a junior high student in the late 1950s.

He bought his first saxophone coin by coin, with his mother who then worked as a maid, chipping in a dollar for every quarter he earned. The result was a $200 horn from Werlein's Music Store on Canal Street. "It was old and raggedy," he says, "but I didn't know it. It looked so good to me." Shep now lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Since the year is winding down, we would like to pay tribute to legends we have lost recently including Timothea Beckerman who I wish I had met sooner, Warren Bell, Sr., Charlie Brent, Marshall Seahorn and Mike Frey, Jr. - the 28 year old bass player killed in the French Quarter on the way home from a gig.

All are gone too soon.

Doc Paulin, New Orleans Jazz Patriarch, Passes at 100

2007-11-21T02:16:00.000-06:00

Doc Paulin, patriarch of the Paulin Family Band and traditional jazz legend, died this morning at 100. He moved to New Orleans in 1928, the same year St. James Infirmary was written.

Of Doc's 13 children, many were in the Paulin Brothers band and had been mentored by their father. Details on a memorial are pending, but his son, clarinetist Rickey Paulin, told the Times Picayune he hopes for a Gallier Hall gathering.

This summer, Geraldine Wyckoff of Louisiana Weekly described Doc Paulin's 100th birthday celebration. "Paulin married his wife Betty in 1949 and they raised 13 children in their modest Seventh Street home, which is now in the process of renovation. At the party, over 40 members of the Paulin clan surrounded the man of the hour who sat beaming in a wheelchair next to his lovely wife for a photo that would document the day. A deejay appropriately spun "Family Reunion."

Rest in Peace Doc Paulin. Our hearts go out to the family.

Impact Awards- New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is Community Building

2007-11-18T15:14:00.000-06:00

We're bonafide for a second time! Vote for NOMRF as a MySpace Impact Awards finalist (click badge for Impact site), because the $10,000 grant will make a difference to displaced musicians.

You can vote every day, and it would be cool if you did. Thank you in advance for helping make this happen for New Orleans.

Second Chance! MySpace Nominates New Orleans Musicians

2007-11-13T19:41:00.000-06:00

We're aware that you all voted like champs this summer, and that we were competing with a group 100,000 strong, but the MySpace Impact Awards have again nominated the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc. for Community Building. We deeply appreciate you doing anything you can to help us win.

The $10,000 grant the Fund receives will directly help New Orleans musicians where they are now. Thanks for your consideration.

(Click Icon Below to Vote)

http://myspace.com/impactawards

After voting, a $5 PayPal Badge donation would be very much appreciated - it's our holiday fund drive, totally green since you'll never get a glossy brochure followup. Every little bit counts and it's how our grass roots nonprofit has stayed alive for two years now.

Finally, this is our new video featuring the late Barry Cowsill's "Kid" and REM's "South Central Rain". It kicks off with Barry jugging bubbles, a very Barry thing to do if you knew him. The New Wave Brass Band second lined at his memorial and our Fund was glad to be able to replace the band's instruments after the storm. Songs are available on our download at www.NOMRF.org.

Kid: The Legend of Barry Cowsill (With REM Track) by NOMRF.org

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Spoon and Sony Playstation Dig in to Help New Orleans

2007-10-26T19:49:00.000-05:00

Fresh off the cover of Spin Magazine and Saturday Night Live, Spoon (click photo for NOMRF.org) will be featured at the Sony Playstation NOMRF Benefit at One Eyed Jacks on Oct. 27th after performing at the Sony Playstation Stage at Voodoo Music Experience, with the late night show to benefit the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund.

And NOMRF is looking forward to NOLAFest at Fat Harry's in New Orleans with Ingrid Lucia on Oct. 26th, with part of the drink proceeds to benefit the Fund. It wasn't long after Katrina when the Times Picayune's NOLA.com, having just returned to its building on Poydras, decided to host a party at Fat Harry's Bar and Grill on St. Charles and webcast it to the world, letting folks know that New Orleanians were back home to stay, says entertainment editor Keith Marszalek.

The night took on a whole new meaning shortly after Kermit Ruffins' first set when the N.O.P.D. was forced to shut down St. Charles Avenue due to the 1000+ locals who had come to hear the trumpeter's first set back in New Orleans. This year NOLA and Fat Harry's welcome back the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, whose return to Uptown is just weeks away. Music will be provided by local vocalist Ingrid Lucia who's amassed an all-star lineup of area musicians ready to swing-out, New Orleans style.

NOMRF and some special guests are glad to be back this weekend, in the city that throws the greatest concerts in the world.

Keep watching for a new Save NOLA Store with merchandise to benefit Global Green, Habitat for Humanity and the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. Every contribution and instrument donation has made a difference. We could not do any of this without your continued support.

Streetcars to Roll Soon After NOLA Fest Benefit on Friday

2007-10-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

How does the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund love the Times Picayune's NOLA.com? Lots of ways. We love that at Fat Harry's NOLA Fest on Friday you can come hear Ingrid Lucia for FREE just before the streetcars begin to roll down Carrolton again. And we love that part of Friday's bar proceeds will help the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund keep helping musicians.

At this time last year, NOMRF was welcoming Liverpool's Joe Topping who walked across the country in support of our city's music, with the Voodoo Vixens and New Wave Brass Band on hand to welcome him.

At this time two years ago, Voodoo and NOLA Fest were the first-post Katrina signs of music in the city and friends who had made it home or never left called with dispatches from the stage.

For those of us still displaced from New Orleans, NOLA is the first place we look for weather updates to check on family and friends. And in reverse, NOLA lets the Fund post its own updates on Exiled on Main Street.

This year, as our hearts are heavy for the million of evacuees in California, it's time to go home again.

The Best Campaign Speech You Will Never Get to Hear

2007-10-17T13:54:00.001-05:00

Today's Campaigns and Lincoln's Lost Speech

read more | digg story

As A Katrina Evacuee, I'm Too Lazy to Fini . . .

2007-10-16T17:59:00.000-05:00

. . . sh this Headline (click here for Post, click Piano to visit NOMRF.

New Orleans Musicians Start Your Jingles - Eric Hill Nissan Offering Car

2007-10-06T01:19:00.000-05:00

Time to name that tune. And start your engines.

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is grateful to Eric Hill Nissan for offering local musicians the chance to win a new car fo a year in their Jingle Jam. The dealership is also collecting instruments for NOMRF to pass along to professional and student musicians.

Details are available at: (ehilljinglejam.com) and NOMRF.org.

New Orleans Musicians Benefit from MySpace and PayPal Project

2007-10-03T20:06:00.001-05:00

Badges? The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Has Badges!!

2007-10-03T14:01:00.000-05:00

We're thrilled to announce that the Impact Channel, PayPal and MySpace have chosen the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund as one of the charities to benefit from a brand new fund-raising badge. NOMRF is in good company with worthy causes including OxFam and One.org.

The PayPal contributions start with $5, because we believe that every dollar counts. As a green charity we have never sent out glossy brochures, so this is as close as our grass-roots fund will get to making a major impact for the musicians of New Orleans.

The Fund started by and for displaced musicians still rents no office space to help each donor dollar stretch further. Hundreds of grants have gone out thanks to supporters like Dr. John and REM, as well as caring individuals from around the world.

After two years of doing their best to rebuild their lives, many musicians are still in Houston, Dallas or much further away. And we're losing them too soon. Your donation can make a direct difference in the life of a displaced New Orleans musician.

Please email questions or comments on your PayPal Badge experience and we'll forward the feedback to MySpace. Thanks, as always, for supporting the music.

- The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund
(http://myspace.com/nomrf)

In Which a Disaster is Swallowed Whole and Set to Music

2007-09-27T15:49:00.000-05:00

John Swenson of New Orleans magazine Offbeat writes that "There has been plenty of rhetoric about New Orleans music post-Katrina, but just as 9-11 didn't produce a wellspring of inspired popular music, Katrina has failed to inspire the bumper crop of musical observations that many predicted. There have been a few good songs written about the event and its aftermath to be sure, but the disaster is too large scale to be swallowed whole in a song."

He's right about 9-11, we couldn't find a single song, but not only does the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund's benefit download - Re-Define 8/29 - offer 20 original download songs about the loss, it has been given a four star review in Rolling Stone Magazine and met with fanfare from international music lovers.

In these songs curated by NOMRF Chairman Jeff Beninato formerly of the dB's, the disaster is not only swallowed, it is digested and translated from some of the best artists around. Song samples are available on the page as well, so you'll be the kind of informed consumer musicians depend on. REM, Craig Klein, Ewin McCain, The Subdudes, Dr. John (pictured above) – you're invited to log on and see what they've come up with regarding New Orleans recovery.

Swenson goes on to review music by the wonderful Anders Osborne, who has played NOMRF benefits around the country that help us help other displaced musicians. He concludes that, "The spectral presence of the dead in our lives, beckoning mutely for us to join them in whatever afterlife they inhabit while they haunt us in this one, is one of the uneasy legacies of Katrina, one which mocks the empty bravado of recovery rhetoric suggested by the song's title."

Empty bravado of recovery rhetoric indeed, without support from music lovers around the world. You're what we depend on.

(DOWNLOADS HERE)

Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray

2007-09-24T01:53:00.000-05:00

“I couldn’t hear nobody pray.

I couldn’t hear nobody pray.

Way down yonder and by myself, I couldn’t hear nobody pray.”

When George French, Deacon John and Irma Thomas are in the choir and your priest can sing a song like that, you must have been living right. Willie Tee’s tribute yesterday at Our Lady Star of the Sea was a memorial to a loving, funny and brilliant New Orleans legend.

Something that impressed me was how much Rev. Tony Richard talked about the heartbreak of being displaced, as Willie Tee had been, and coming home, as some of the congregation has managed to do.

Coming from 12 hours away, nobody talks about it enough for me. It was so inspirational I found myself remembering the Pentecostal roots of a religious childhood. We were more likely to be in a rickety building in the next town than a brick and mortar church. You had to drive 20 miles to find poor people but my dad managed to find them and build a modest church. Thankfully lighting passed us over, since Pentecostals have an affinity for aluminum structures.

We sang a small, sad version of “I’ll Fly Away” this spring - my husband, by brothers and myself. I remember insisting Dad would have wanted a jazz funeral. If he’d ever seen one I’m sure he would have, but the grieving don’t think straight and it wasn’t practical to fly a brass band up to our little town.

Yesterday, the maidens in Our Lady Star of the Sea floated above us in their dreamlike mural, The Dance of Innocence, and the priest described how he snuck back into the city to check on his church two years ago. He admitted to fibbing as monitors at the checkpoints asked where he was headed. “To the suburbs.” Then he talked about how Willie Tee’s brother Earl passed away a month ago, and he never expected to lose Willie so soon.

During the service, the priest played a recording of a piano solo Willie wrote for his grandson. You know how there’s a certain curve an instrumental can take, right after the verse but before the chorus when the hook can break your heart? This whole song was like that. If I were a music reviewer this would be a more lucid description, but it was right up there with what you’d hear if sunrise had a sound.

The crowd marched out to a second line of “I’ll Fly Away,” the way it’s supposed to be played. We saw some friends, paid our respects and watched the second line march on as the weather gathered toward Sunday’s storm. I grieve for this community’s loss of a man who I only know from his music and his tribute.

Based on that alone, he must have been living right.

Helping New Orleans With a Little Help From Our Friends

2007-09-19T19:07:00.000-05:00

"Without a concerted effort by the city government to address their needs, there will continue to be a slow bleed of musicians to cities where they feel they will be more appreciated," writes Richard Webster of City Business in New Orleans

A concerted effort by the state and federal government is needed as well, especially since most of the slow bleed is going out of state and could use social services in their new towns as well.

The inimitable Scott Aiges, director of programs for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, "said four new festivals — the Crescent City Blues Festival, the Louisiana Cajun Zydeco Festival, the Congo Square Rhythm Festival and Fiesta Latina — have been created since Katrina to attract tourists and keep musicians employed." writes Webster. He adds that the Foundation has set aside $90,000 to help musicians clear their credit so they can apply for home mortgages. Some of these mortgages may be in the burgeoning Musicians Village which just broke ground on the Ellis Marsalis Educational Center.

Music education is a primary focus for Jazzfest, too. "One of its successes is a community partnership grant program that has set aside $350,000 for artistic and educational programs within the community," Webster says. All that and Crawfish Monica.

Legal aid is part of the package too. "Ashlye Keaton is the supervising attorney with the Entertainment Law Legal Assistance Project, a joint initiative of Tulane Law School, Tipitina's Foundation and the Arts Council of New Orleans. The law clinic started in January 2005, has counseled more than 200 clients and boasts a case resolution rate of 85 percent."

Our New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund hearts friends like Scott, Ashlye, WWOZ's Bob French in his new Musicians Village home, Eric at the Carrolton Station Foundation, Marc at Tipitina's Foundation and a town full of musician / philanthropists including the Marsalis family, Dr. John and Craig Klein - all true friends of New Orleans music.

It takes a village and we're happy to be the grass roots NOMRF village people.

Moment of Truth - The Passing of Willie Tee

2007-09-19T00:59:00.000-05:00

“This is the moment of truth and you know it. We got to think about out kids and what’s coming behind them. I don’t know what this world is coming to. But we’ve got to straighten it out, we’ve got to face the truth.”

Moment of Truth
- Willie Tee

Wardell Quezergue, Willie Tee and Chief Danny Montana

We will always associate Willie Tee with staying out too late over Jazzfest. Dr. John brought froglegs and blue catfish roe back from the bayou, and Jaeger’s cooked it all up in a feast of Roman proportions. In fact, we're in trouble with Wardell Quezergue for mentioning how many froglegs he put away in one sitting. To clear that up, he’s no glutton, just a man who loves seafood very, very much.

After dinner we told Wardell there was a Mardi Gras Indian summit at Rosie’s Jazz Hall. I was already fading, but he asked to come and you don’t keep Wardell from the Indians. We got to the show and there was Willie Tee to the left of the stage, the musical architect of The Wild Magnolias and producer of “They Call Us Wild,” which Peter Watrous of The New York Times called “one of the funkiest albums ever.” He wrote “Smoke My Peace Pipe”, so that sounds about right. Willie Tee has passed away at 63, and his memorial is Saturday.

That night at Rosie’s, Wardell and Willie Tee sat at the side of the stage for an hour, catching up and greeting Mardi Gras Indians including Danny Montana, Big Chief Tootie’s son. Wardell produced one of Willie Tee’s first singles, the top 20 hit “Teasin You.” He describes the sessions. “Willie Tee was a a professional in all respects. A nice fellow to work with - very cooperative even at that young age. No problems at all on the set.” Willie was a teenager at the time.

I asked who played on the session and Wardell said it was Smokey Johnson on drums, George Davis on guitar, George French bass, Willie Tee on piano and a local horn section with Carl Blouin baritone sax. “All younger than me. It was cut at Cosimo’s (Matassa) studio.”

That’s the beautiful thing about New Orleans music. You can pick up the phone and call a living encyclopedia.

Whether or not you’ve heard of their songs, New Orleans musicians are perpetually too cool for school. Alex Chilton ended up here, and got an A- from Robert Christgau for his cover of Willie Tee’s “Thank You John.” Wilson Turbinton (Willie Tee) songs have been sampled by rappers like P Diddy, for decades.

He released his first full album with the production company of Cannonball Adderly and his brother. A creator of early funk, Willie Tee influenced Joe Zawinul of Weather Report, and wrote “Can It Be Done” for the band. Joe died last week on the same day as Willie Tee. Weather Report’s fretless bass pioneer Jaco Pastorius passed decades before, and the band is known for the funk classic, ”Heavy Weather.” That album influenced my husband to pop the frets off his bass as a kid playing on Bourbon Street with Fats Domino’s sons.

Willie Tee also recorded “Brothers for Life,” with his brother Earl Turbinton who passed last month. Earl was known as the African Cowboy, a force of nature on the saxophone. Both grew up in the Calliope projects, near the Neville brothers. All of them found a way out with music.

New Orleans music is a family affair. Willie Tee had 39 years of marriage to his credit and a gifted musician as his daughter. He had a long-term gig at Sweet Lorraine’s but after 8/29/5, ended up an artist in residence at Princeton, performing and directing two bands. He also worked on “Sing Me Back Home” with the wonderful Leo Sacks. In November of 05, Willie Tee was inducted into the Carolina Beach Music Awards Hall of Fame and sang Teasing You for the crowd, along with his other hits.

He has also been recognized by the Governor of Louisiana for his contribution to Mardi Gras Indian music, and any entity who recognized these legends while they are still with us is thinking right. In 2002 he played for hours for London’s Music Café. Europe is still showing love to our legends and it’s impossible to estimate what that does for their spirit.

In 2004, Willie Tee was a featured guest on Dr. John's grammy-winning, N’Awlinz: Dis Dat or d’Udder. Wardell was also part of that project, and Dr. John replaced Wardell’s Grammy certificate lost to the levee break with his own at the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit for Wardell the following year. That’s about as full circle as it gets, except for the fact that Willie Tee and his brother are gone. And Willie Tee never made it home from Baton rouge.

With each musical loss, the world is in for some heavy weather.

“There is a chance that one day this world will be at peace. I truly hope that you and I will be around. There are so many beautiful places that are just waiting to be found. And if our kids are ever to learn to love, I sincerely wish that we will be the ones to turn all the hatred off. This world of ours is put here for every man to please, but selfish motivations have caused a lot of misery. So I hope that I can in some way touch and help someone in need. And cause a chain reaction. Freedom love and peace is all we’ll ever need.
- “Moment of Truth”
Willie Tee

I Remember the Gumbo Krewe

2007-09-10T23:55:00.001-05:00

We remember the gumbo krewe.

They brought pots of food up from Louisiana after the planes flew into the Twin Towers, because food is one way New Orleaneans show their love. There was a collection to purchase a firetruck for the first responders, and our hearts went out to them.

After 8/29, their hearts went out to us. A group of poets so esteemed it is nerve wracking even sending them an email came together this spring for a New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund benefit in New York (photo above).

In the last two years, the support has not stopped flowing back and forth between our two cities, and I commemorate their tragic anniversary today as they have honored ours.

Two coastal, vulnerable and culturally irreplacable cities. There is no learning curve on describing our loss to one another.

"We never felt more connected as a country," is Oprah's comment on her 9/11 Anniversary special. On 8/29, I never felt more disconnected as a person.

My husband's mother, up north for the first time in her life after two years without a permanent home, is heartbreaking to walk with through an antique store. It's a day of, "Maw had one of these." or "We lost this set at the bottom of the locker."

Just try not talking with a New Orleanean in a store. It's virtually impossible. She'll brightly wave a tapestry at a clerk and say, "I lost one of these in the city." For Miss Gloria, there is still only one city.

Oprah said she feels 9/11 should be a national holiday of remembering the tragic day that the country came together.

Not to get all Kid Rock and Tommy Lee at the Video Music Awards, but I feel that 8/29 should also eventually be officially recognized.

It's the day the country, for so many of us, split in two.

Two Years Ago Today: Jazz Musicians Ask if Their Scene Will Survive

2007-09-08T12:03:00.001-05:00

These are the true Anniversary stories from two years ago, when we first began questioning who would be able to come back and under what conditions. Jazzfest rolls on, the Indians still march, and many New Orleans musicians still live in Texas.

Best quote? Mr. Boudreaux, now safe with his daughter in Mesquite, Tex., stayed put through the storm at his house in the Uptown neighborhood; when he left last week, he said, the water was waist-high. He chuckled when asked if the Mardi Gras Indian tradition could survive in exile. "I don't know of any other Mardi Gras outside of New Orleans," he said.

Jazz Musicians Ask if Their Scene Will Survive

By BEN RATLIFF
The New York Times
Published: September 8, 2005

New Orleans is a jazz town, but also a funk town, a brass-band town, a hip-hop town and a jam-band town. It has international jazz musicians and hip-hop superstars, but also a true, subsistence-level street culture. Much of its music is tied to geography and neighborhoods, and crowds.

All that was incontrovertibly true until a week ago Monday. Now the future for brass bands and Mardi Gras Indians, to cite two examples, looks particularly bleak if their neighborhoods are destroyed by flooding, and bleaker still with the prospect of no new tourists coming to town soon to infuse their traditions with new money. Although the full extent of damage is still unknown, there is little doubt that it has been severe - to families, to instruments, to historical records, to clubs, to costumes. "Who knows if there exists a Mardi Gras Indian costume anymore in New Orleans?" wondered Don Marshall, director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Foundation.

"A lot of the great musicians came right out of the Treme neighborhood and the Lower Ninth Ward," said the trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, temporarily speaking in the past tense, by phone from Houston yesterday. Mr. Ruffins, one of the most popular jazz musicians in New Orleans, made his name there partly through his regular Thursday-night gig over the last 12 years at Vaughan's, a bar in the Bywater neighborhood, where red beans and rice were served at midnight. Now Vaughn's may be destroyed, and so may his new house, which is not too far from the bar.

On Saturday evening Mr. Ruffins flew back to New Orleans from a gig in San Diego, having heard the first of the dire storm warnings. He stopped at a lumberyard to buy wood planks, boarded up 25 windows on his house, then went bar-hopping and joked with his friends that where they were standing might be under water the next day.

The next morning he fled to Baton Rouge with his family, and now he is in Houston, about to settle into apartments, along with more than 30 relatives. He is being offered plenty of work in Houston, and is already thinking ahead to what he calls "the new New Orleans."

"I think the city is going to wind up being a smaller area," he said. "They'll have to build some super levees.

"I think this will never happen again once they get finished," Mr. Ruffins added. "We're going to get those musicians back, the brass bands, the jazz funerals, everything."

Brass bands function through the year - not only through the annual Jazzfest, where many outsiders see them, and jazz funerals, but at the approximately 55 social aid and pleasure clubs, each of which holds a parade once a year. It is an intensely local culture, and has been thriving in recent years. Brass-band music, funky and hard-hitting, can easily be transformed from the neighborhood social to a club gig; brass bands like Rebirth, Dirty Dozen and the Soul Rebels have done well by touring as commercial entities. Members of Stooges Brass Band have ended up in Atlanta, and of Li'l Rascals in Houston; there could be a significant brass-band diaspora before musicians find a way to get home to New Orleans. (Rebirth's Web site, www.rebirthbrassband.com, has been keeping a count of brass-band musicians who have been heard from.)

The Mardi Gras Indian tradition is more fragile. Monk Boudreaux is chief of the Golden Eagles, one of the 40 or so secretive Mardi Gras tribes, who are known not just for their flamboyant feathered costumes but for their competitive parades through neighborhoods at Mardi Gras time. (Mardi Gras Indians are not American Indians but New Orleanians from the city's working-class black neighborhoods.) Mr. Boudreaux, now safe with his daughter in Mesquite, Tex., stayed put through the storm at his house in the Uptown neighborhood; when he left last week, he said, the water was waist-high. He chuckled when asked if the Mardi Gras Indian tradition could survive in exile. "I don't know of any other Mardi Gras outside of New Orleans," he said.

These days a city is often considered a jazz town to the extent that its resident musicians have international careers. The bulk of New Orleans jazz musicians have shown a knack for staying local. (Twenty or so in the last two decades, including several Marsalises, are obvious exceptions.)

But as everyone knows, jazz is crucial to New Orleans, and New Orleans was crucial in combining jazz's constituent parts, its Spanish, French, Caribbean and West African influences. The fact that so many musicians are related to one or another of the city's great music families - Lastie, Brunious, Neville, Jordan, Marsalis - still gives much of the music scene a built-in sense of nobility. "Whereas New York has a jazz industry," said Quint Davis, director of Jazzfest, "New Orleans has a jazz culture." (Speaking of Jazzfest, Mr. Davis was not ready to discuss whether there will be a festival next April. "First I'm dealing with the lives and subsistence of the people who produce it," he said.)

And most jazz in New Orleans has a directness about it. "Everyone isn't searching for the hottest, newest lick," said Maurice Brown, a young trumpeter from Chicago who had been rising through the ranks of the New Orleans jazz scene for the last four years before the storm took his house and car. "People are trying to stay true to the melody."

Gregory Davis, the trumpeter and vocalist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, one of the city's most successful groups, said the typical New Orleans musician was vulnerable because of how he lives and works. (Mr. Davis's house is in the Gentilly neighborhood; he spoke last week from his brother's home in Dallas.)

"A lot of these guys who are playing out there in the clubs are not home owners," he said. "They're going to be at the mercy of the owners of those properties. For some of them, playing in the clubs was the only means of earning any money. If those musicians come back and don't have an affordable home, that's a big blow."

Louis Edwards, a New Orleans novelist and an associate producer of the Jazz and Heritage Festival, said, "No other city is so equipped to deal with this." A French Quarter resident, Mr. Edwards was taking refuge last week at his mother's house in Lake Charles, La.

"Think of the jazz funeral," he said. "In New Orleans we respond to the concept of following tragedy with joy. That's a powerful philosophy to have as the underpinning of your culture."

In the meantime, Mr. Boudreaux, chief of the Golden Eagles, has a feeling his own Mardi Gras Indian costume is intact. He was careful to put it in a dry place before he left home. "I just need to get home and get that Indian suit from on top of that closet," he said.

Outrageous and Kinky in New Orleans

2007-09-07T22:56:00.001-05:00

Rev. Goat Carson holds up his and Kinky Friedman's Texas Monthly article during the Krewe of O.A.K.'s Midsummer Mardi Gras. Last week I missed his Shallow Graves signing, as every New Orleans obligation seems to end in a series of detours, but wish Goat and Kinky well on their upcoming book tour.

O.A.K., appropriately enough, stands for Outrageous and Kinky.

Goat's the first person who put me up in a cot on my first visit to New Orleans, and he's been staying on and off at Kinky's ranch, Levon Helms' cabin and points unknown ever since evacuating.

In a perfect example of the chaos in communicating two summers ago, when Kinky told Rev. Goat there were 24 greyhounds coming to the rescue ranch, he thought that meant a convoy of Greyhound Buses instead of dogs and wanted to round up riders.

Goat's "Lost You In the Waterfall" is one of the poignant tunes on the (DOWNLOADS)

Click on his image below for our photo page with more from the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund's Carrolton Station Download Celebration, Midsummer Mardi Gras, Jake's 8/29 Speech, the Fords' Open House with food from Bacco, and a donated brass band van.

http://web.mac.com/nomrf/iWeb/NOMRF/NOMRF%20Redefine829.html

Fun REM Facts: New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund and the Twisted Kites

2007-09-07T13:05:00.001-05:00

From The Production Side - Acostill
FYI: REM

The Athens, GA natives will release a live album from their recent Dublin performances on October 16 and they just donated a track for the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. ((DOWNLOADS)

The band made their first public performance in April of 1980 at a friend’s birthday party.

Before settling on R.E.M., the band considered the names Twisted Kites and Can of Piss.

In May of 1980 R.E.M. headlined their first show at Tyrone’s Club in Athens, GA.

The band open up for The Police in Atlanta in December, 1980.

By April of 1981 they have recorded their first demo.

May, 1982 their debut EP, Chronic Town, is released. Around this time, the band also signs with I.R.S. Records.

R.E.M.’s first full debut, Murmur, is released in April, 1983.

In 1983, the band opens up The Police at Shea Stadium and make their national televsion debut on The Late Show With David Letterman.

Reckoning, the band’s second album, is released on April 16, 1984.

In 1985 the band’s “Preconstruction” college tour previewed songs from their third album, Fables of the Reconstruction.

1986’s Lifes Rich Pageant extended to a wider audience.

1987 was a big year for R.E.M.; they began a U.S. tour in January, a compilation of rarities, Dead Letter Office, is released, as well as, their breakthrough album document·

“The One I Love” reaches #9 on the Billboard charts by December of 1987.

R.E.M. signs with Warner Bros. in June of 1988.

I.R.S. releases the compilation Eponymous in 1988.

Green, the band’s 1988 debut with Warner Bros., would go on to double platinum status.

The single “Shiny Happy People” features Kate Pierson of the B-52’s.
R.E.M. releases their eighth studio album, Automatic for the People on October 6, 1992.

Former Led Zeppelin bassist, John Paul Jones, composed the string arrangements for “Drive”, “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite”, “Everybody Hurts” and “Nightswimming”.

In the Kurt Cobain biography, Heavier Than Heaven, it states that Cobain was listening to Automatic for the People before his suicide.
Monster released on September 27, 1994.

“Let Me In” was written about Kurt Cobain, in fact, Cobain;s guitar (a Fender Jag-Stang) was given to Peter Buck and used on this song. The guitar can also be seen in the “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” video.

In 1995 R.E.M. embarks on their first tour in six years.

R.E.M. re-signs with Warner Bros. for a reported $80 million contract in 1996.

New Adventues in Hi-Fi is released on September 10, 1986.

Patti Smith appears on the single “E-Bow the Letter”.

Drummer Bill Berry leaves the band in October of 1997.

1998’s Up was the first album without Bill Berry and the first album to come with lyrics.

Up featured drummer Barrett Martin from the Screaming Trees and Beck’s touring drummer Joey Waronker.

The band contributes “The Great Beyond” and wrote the instrumental score for the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon.

Reveal is released on May 15, 2001.

Warner Bros. releases In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 in October of 2003.

Around the Sun is released on October 5, 2004.

R.E.M. is part of the Vote for Change Tour, touring with Bright Eyes, John Fogerty and Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band.

2005 marked the band’s first full length world tour in ten years.

In 2006 And I Feel Fine…The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 is released.

On March 12, 2007 the band is inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Eddie Vedder.

The band is currently working on their fourteenth album. (NOMRF Note: to be released in October)

Unleash Your Inner Rock Critic For New Orleans

2007-09-06T21:41:00.000-05:00

Nice news for New Orleans - in an article by Steve Hochman of the L.A. Times, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund’s ReDefine 8/29 Download track “Poor Man’s Paradise” is picked as one of the best post-Katrina songs about social change by New Orleans critic Alex Rawls.

Hochman writes that Rawls has listened to Katrina songs and finds “the vast majority well-meaning . . . but, in his view, missing the mark.” But Rawls does enjoy “"Poor Man's Paradise," the title track of a new album by local roots-rocker Johnny Sansone.”

Rawls said, "The ones that don't work try to dramatize it, and it was already incomprehensible and dramatic beyond belief. Trying to frame Katrina in poetic language makes the language look poor. Trying to fit a hurricane in the rhyme scheme makes the whole experience seem small. These songs, the best of them, catch the details of how someone's life changed."

Here’s your chance to unleash your inner rock critic for $19.29 (DOWNLOADS). The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has selected 20 Katrina-related songs by local and international artists, and proceeds benefit our city’s displaced musicians.

Rolling Stone Magazine’s David Fricke gave the ReDefine 8/29 download four stars as “topically acute mp3s by Crescent City stars and out-of-town friends. Kaiser Chiefs donate "Out of My Depth, a fine new stomp that sounds like a pissed-off Badfinger, and Doctor John is among the locals singing for his neighbors. Ian Hunter's "How's Your House" comes in video form; grim newsreels of the devastation that show why projects like this are still necessary, two years after the flood.

Let us know which songs you like, and let your local radio station know, too. From REM’s new live Dublin track of “South Central Rain” to James Andrews “Sixth Ward Soul,” every style of music is represented, and many of the tracks are exclusive to NOMRF.

We have Ian Hunter; the late Barry Cowsill; Dr. John; The Kaiser Chiefs; The Subdudes; Bryan Lee; Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp; Backyard Tire Fire; Craig Klein; the dB's; Chicago Farmer; Susan Cowsill; James Andrews; The Rev. Goat Carson; John Rankin; Beatin Path; Spencer Bohren; and Joe Topping.

These songs are helping spread the story of the largest cultural diaspora since the dust bowl.

WWOZ’s David Freedman explains in the Hochman article, “ "People live the music." Key, he adds, is that many people are gone. “We're still missing 200,000, minimum. It's hard for people to really grasp how important this neighborhood business is in the city of New Orleans. Every high school marching band has its own sound and rhythms. You can tell where Mardi Gras Indians come from if you have the knowledge of the geography that's expressed in their chants.

“The problem is we don't have neighborhoods.” ”

http://www.nomrf.org/Redefine829Download.html

A Good New Orleans Note to Come Home To

2007-09-06T17:01:00.000-05:00

Music is an irreplacable part of of New Orleans and depending on which Anniversary headline you read last week, the music is dying or it’s coming back better than ever. As could only happen in New Orleans, both are true.

First are the statistics. The local musicians union says New Orleans housed more than 3,000 musicians before Katrina, and about 1,800 are back. Some estimates are twice as high, depending on who you consider a full time musician, but there are no official tallies from the city. And “coming back” is an amorphous term among musicians who worked full time before the storm.

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund just donated a van to help New Birth Brass Band’s Tanio Hingle out with transportation. He drives in for gigs, but is a commuting musician home?

NOMRF also offers an apartment for musicians like Jerome Jones of the Hot 8 who lives too far away to drive home after gigs. But is a musician home when he stays in a charity apartment while his family still lives out of state?

For those who did come back over the last two years, we’ve noticed a boomerang effect. Musicians like Dave Malone of The Radiators have come home only to have to leave again. It stands to reason that a town barely over half its original size can only support half as many musicians, but it hurts to be one of them.

In a New York Journal News article he says, "I really, really, really, really applaud musicians and others from there who are able to say: 'Oh yeah, we're coming back,' with this completely annoying, glass-half-full attitude," says Malone. "I'm bitter. I'm really heartbroken, and I'm bitter about it. I never thought in a million years I'd ever say the sentence, 'I don't live in New Orleans anymore.'”

The article concludes with Malone explaining why the groove of New Orleans is unlike anywhere else. "(There) is not only the ability, but the likelihood, of any person in the city to throw a party or have a parade at the drop of a hat," says Malone. "It's really true. It's like, 'Oh my god, the world's (screwed) up.' Pardon my French. 'Let's have a parade.' It's really probably the most laid-back city, certainly in the country, maybe in the world. It's not like any other U.S. city. It's more like kind of a Caribbean town with U.S. laws. ...There's something about the town. All of that adds to this laid back kind of feeling. I think that somehow transfers somehow into the rhythmic feel of the music."

Magdalene Kellett of the Columbia City Paper describes this rhythm in “Crescent City Rising”:

For generations, New Orleans has captivated writers, musicians, artists and everyday people all over the world with its rhythm, its beat, the music floating out of every barroom door. Or maybe it’s the smell of hibiscus and night blooming Jasmine in the early mornings on Barracks Street, the romance of a history drenched in pirates, kings and blood. It’s the sexy laissez faire attitude. It’s the coffee. It’s the way people pass you on the street and say “alright” or the way you get called “baby.” It is everything that strikes a note in the heart of people when they visit The City that Care Forgot.

Hometown hero Harry Shearer recently explained why he stays. "I had no damage to my home and I felt that when you love a city, you don't walk away from it at a time when it's battered and bruised; you help to bring it back to good shape."

That’s a good note to come home to.

Slideshow: ReDefine 8/29 and a Brass Band Van

2007-09-04T22:34:00.000-05:00

The fastest way to describe the last week in New Orleans is with a slideshow. Our New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Download Celebration at the Station, Mike Mills of REM summoning the Rolling Elvi, Krewe of Oak's Same Old Thong and Dance, ReDefine 8/29 Open House and Jake's Speech in Jackson Square.

And most exciting of all, NOMRF was able to donate a used van to a brass band leader in need of transportation.

So put on your favorite ReDefine 8/29 (DOWNLOADS) tune for 99 cents and watch the slideshow to keep up with our Fund. And keep bidding on that (Cowbell)!

Thank You. Thank You Very Much!

(New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Anti-Versary Slideshow)

American Idol has a Fever and the Only Perscription is More Cowbell!

2007-08-31T15:11:00.001-05:00

American Idol Taylor Hicks has a fever and the only RX is more cowbell. He's graciously signed the cowbell he used on this year's tour, and a tee shirt with the cowbell phrase above to benefit the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. Click on the classic SNL cowbell studio shot for a link to the ebay auction. Bidding is already hopping, and BluzKat is coordinating the benefit.

So cure that fever and play along to this year's American Idol contestants with your very own Taylor Hicks-signed cowbell and tee shirt.

The Kids are Alright - Jake Speaks in Jackson Square

2007-08-30T15:06:00.000-05:00

Jake's ReDefine 8/29 Speech - New Orleans Kids Helping Kids

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This is Jake Lewis, an 11-year-old who wrote this speech Tuesday night and delivered it on Wednesday in front of St. Louis Cathedral. Disregard the buses going by, the ups and downs of the amp and the wind blowing in before yesterday's torrential rain.

Jake is one of the best reminders that the city's children have a better grasp on what needs to be done than any armchair adviser.

He collects toys for kids in children's hospitals. He's boycotting Lionel Trains because they didn't replace his train set after Katrina and he had a money back guarantee. And he reserves the right to run for office in 20 years.

He just sent me a copy of the speech:

Hello Fellow New Orleanians!
Thank you!

" all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again." Those were the words of President Bush as he spoke to the nation Sept 2005. While many of us feel that our leaders could have and should have done more - now is the time to be Katrina survivors instead of Katrina victims!

Now is the time to move forward on sheer determination and the spirit that we all have in our hearts to do what we can to help each other, to make things better and to not rely on promises but the strong wills of our people to bring New Orleans back to where it needs to be.

My name is Jacob Lewis and I am an 11 year old native of New Orleans. I am not running for office (but I retain to the right to do so in about 20 years - haha) I am here to remind you all that we appreciate the wonderful people who have worked so hard to help us.
While we have come a long way since Katrina - we still have a long way to go!
I am here to let President Bush know that there are weapons of mass distraction here in New Orleans. Just to be clear, I said weapons of mass DISTRACTION.

The distraction of STILL living in fema trailers and waiting to rebuild homes. The distraction of too much crime for me and my friends to feel safe playing outside. The distraction of worrying about another hurricane hitting the area when we are not protected and losing everything that we have AGAIN. The distraction of too many people still dying from suicide, not enough health care and too much crime. We have allot of problems, and still, in all of this, have a undying love of this city and a fierce heart to make sure that we deliver for ourselves on the promises that were made to us.

I want to thank all of the heroes, the regular people, the military, the NOPD, NOMRF, the moms and dads and yes, the kids who have worked so hard to bring this place back together and who keep trying every day in spite of the distractions and challenges that we face!

Thank you America for all of the volunteers and for the love that you sent our way. Thanks to all of the people of New Orleans for not giving up!

Let' s Redefine 8 - 29! My name is Jacob Lewis and I approve this message!
Please visit jakes friends . org on the internet to find out how you can help some of us kids help each other.

New Orleans on the Katrina Anniversary (Video!)

2007-08-29T00:38:00.000-05:00

Thanks for finding the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund on the Katrina Anniversary. This is Ian Hunter's New Orleans video to share:

Here is our Huffington Post Blog for the Anti-Versary (click logo):

And we appreciate all ReDefine Downloads:

ReDefine 8/29 This Time

2007-08-28T23:27:00.000-05:00

We're through the looking glass for another one. Every news network getting its devastation photo op, every special interest elbowing for part of the coverage, and half of New Orleans watching the footage from where they live now.

For this week at least, I'm not an expatriate and watch as Southern Decadence shapes up downstairs. There's not a whole lot of fabulous in the midwest.

Speaking of someone who lived with flair, NOMRF just posted the song "Kid" by Barry Cowsill on our
(MySpace). It's one of the ReDefine 8/29 download tracks, with proceeds benefiting Barry's family.

We lost him post-Katrina two years ago. A former child star and my husband’s Stragglers bandmate, Barry was last shown on Entertainment Tonight at the Convention Center chaos. He had been scheduled to go to rehab if he had made it out of the city. “Kid” is the most accurate description of a country without pity that I have ever heard.

I hope one of the dignitaries mentions Barry in a speech today. In fact, I hope they mention everyone we lost by name. It's getting less likely to happen with every passing 8/29.

The Beautiful Unlikeliness of New Orleans

2007-08-28T13:25:00.001-05:00

Two Years after Katrina

read more | digg story

Thanks for the Impact

2007-08-27T23:09:00.001-05:00

Thanks for hanging in there for the MySpace Impact Awards. At 3,000 friends v. 150,000 we gave it the old college try.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund still helps musicians – in great part thanks to our MySpace exposure. Along with grants, NOMRF has offered housing, furniture, transportation and instruments. We founded NOMRF in internet cafes and FEMA rooms while out on the road post-Katrina, and hundreds of grant recipients are still spread throughout the country.

With volunteer graphic designers, publicists and video producers, everything you see on our MySpace is a labor of love. NOMRF would not exist without help from our friends. Musicians are truly the soul of New Orleans, and with help from this MySpace Impact Award Nomination, NOMRF can continue to reach out to them as they play their way home.

-- Jeff and Karen Beninato, co-founders, NOMRF.org

Love Is All Around Us. So is Elvis.

2007-08-25T13:02:00.000-05:00

It was great coming home to see John Rankin, Susan Cowsill, Johnny Sansone, Beatin Path, Joe Topping, Mike Mills, Spencer Bohren, Rickie Castrillo, Alfred "Uganda" Roberts, Craig Klein, We Are the Pretenders, Rev. Goat Carson and the Rolling Elvi at the NOMRF Carrolton Station Download Celebration last night. Musicains shared their download songs and we all pitched in for Barry Cowsill's Kid. Susan and Mills did a beautiful version of 'Love is All Around."

Later, Mills stood in the center of Willow Street saluting the Elvis Krewe, proving that members of REM are impervious to Flying Elvi and their smoking engines.

"South Central Rain" on the ReDefine 8/29 Platform is flying off NOMRF's virtual shelves, so love is all around us thanks to lots of musical support.

REM Donates Live Track from Dublin - Amazing New South Central Rain Version

2007-08-23T15:53:00.000-05:00

"South Central Rain Live in Dublin" - REM

This exclusive track, available only at NOMRF, is unforgettable. South Central Rain was recorded by REM live in Dublin this summer. and is still appropriate for the aftermath of 8/29 for displaced New Orleans musicians.

The band delivers an unforgettable rendition of the song they debuted on their first David Letterman show appearance, early in the band's career. In fact, they introduced it as "A song too new to be named."

On this track, Michael Stipe chats with the audience after the track, so it's like you made it to Dublin for one of the worlds' best sets ever this summer.

(DOWNLOADS)

Thanks!!

It's The Katrina Anniversary Week. Do You Really Want to Be Around NOMRF If We Lose Impact?

2007-08-22T00:40:00.000-05:00

So the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is at 4 percent in the MySpace Impact Awards, and voting is open through Friday.

That's respectable because NOMRF is 96 percent smaller than the other nominee, but for the love of god IT'S THE KATRINA ANNIVERSARY WEEK. Do you really want to be around us if we lose? It's too sad to contemplate.

NOMRF is aware that means everyone has to make a lot more friends and all of those friends have to vote, but we deeply appreciate you doing anything you can. It's pretty much going to require half a million votes a day.

The $10,000 grant we receive will directly help New Orleans musicians. Recent studies show 70 percent are still gone. NOMRF.org helps them where they are now.

Thanks for your consideration,

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc.

(Click Icon Below to Vote)

http://myspace.com/impactawards

The Amp Is Up - Start Bidding Now for This Vintage Style Beauty Signed By Rock Stars for a Good Cause

2007-08-20T01:09:00.000-05:00

Rock stars Little Steven, Ian Hunter, Mike Mills, Dr. John and Kenny Wayne Shepard are signing this hand-built Headstrong Amps vintage style Prima BL 112 donated by CEO Wayne Jones as we speak for the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. How can you own it? Bid by 8:29 on 8/29 for this very functional piece of rock and roll history and support New Orleans musicians (CLICK AMP TO BID).

Proceeds will help displaced New Orleans musicians.

Amp Auction and New Orleans Concert and MySpace Awards Oh My! (Now With More Little Steven)

2007-08-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

(Sylvio Says VOTE)

MySpace "Community Building" Impact Award Voting is through Friday and the winner will be announced soon after, we hope, the suspense is killing us. With help from volunteer graphic designers, publicists, video producers, REM, Dr John, Little Steven, Kenny Wayne Shepard and Ian Hunter plus all the amazing local musicians on the ReDefine 8/29 Download, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is feeling outnumbered but optimistic.

You too can help by casting a vote at the Myspace Impact Awards official site: http://www.myspace.com/impactawards.

(Click Icon Below to Vote)

You can vote once a day, so keep visiting the site until the deadline on Friday. Each vote counts, and it's a simple way to show support.

We're also still rolling out "The ReDefine 8/29 Download Platform" recently given a 4 star review by Rolling Stone Magazine which features seventeen songs by Dr. John, Ian Hunter, The Kaiser Chiefs, Johnny Sansone, Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp, Backyard Tire Fire, Craig Klein, Chicago Farmer, Susan Cowsill, James Andrews, The Rev. Goat Carson, the dB's, John Rankin, Beatin Path, Bryan Lee, Spencer Bohren and Joe Topping. As many of the above artists as we can get will be performing their songs at The Carrolton Station Download Celebration on Friday. Featuring special guests. Come be one of them.

And starting today, Headstrong Amps is auctioning a retro style hand-built amp signed by Dr. John, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Little Steven, Mike Mills and Ian Hunter. This piece of rock and roll history will be auctioned until 8:29 pm on August 29. Get your respective bidding finger and voting fingers ready.

NOMRF's 4 Star Download Review On The Inside of the Rolling Stone!

2007-08-17T01:49:00.000-05:00

New Orleans Musician's Relief Fund

ReDefine 8/29
nomrf.org

YOU KNOW THAT NINETY NINE cents you were about to blow on i-tunes? The nonprofit New Orleans Musician's Relief Fund, which help the city's players rebuild livelihoods destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, has a better idea; seventeen topically accurate mp3s by Crescent City stars and out-of-town friends. Kaiser Chiefs donate "Out of My Depth, a fine new stomp that sounds like a pissed-off Badfinger, and Doctor John is among the locals singing for his neighbors. Ian Hunter's "How's Your House" comes in video form; grim newsreels of the devastation that show why projects like this are still necessary, two years after the flood.

David Fricke
Rolling Stone Magazine

Long Shot Gets Second Chance. Note from Founder

2007-08-16T01:55:00.000-05:00

To make up for technical difficulties, which works out great for us (The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is the underdog), MySpace is extending voting for the Impact Awards to Friday, Aug. 24th. That's time for us to find 96,500 more friends.

A little more about the Fund? We just passed along a donated van and found ourselves apologing that it's a '98. The brass band leader corrected us. "It's not just a van, it's a ride." A ride that will help get his kid to camp.

Imagine waking up tomorrow and packing up everything you can fit in the car. Your guitar, home studio, merchandise - everything you leave behind is lost. Two years after Hurricane Katrina, NOMRF tries to help still-displaced musicians survive. Along with grants, the Fund has offered housing, furniture, transportation and instruments.

My wife and I founded this nonprofit in internet cafes and FEMA rooms while out on the road post-Katrina, and hundreds of grant recipients are still spread throughout the country. We are still displaced, and still pay no office rent to help donations go further.

With volunteer graphic designers, publicists and video producers, everything you see on our MySpace is a labor of love. Ian Hunter's "How's Your House" streams on MySpace Television, and visitors can sample the ReDefine 8/29 Download Project. Our blogs and bulletins also help promote fund-raisers like the amp being signed by Mike Mills of REM, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Ian Hunter and Dr. John. Musicians are truly the soul of New Orleans, and with help from this MySpace Impact Award Nomination, we can continue to reach out to them as they play their way home.

Some have made it back, some are still evacuated and some are fatalities of the storm. I lost two old friends and bandmates, Barry Cowsill (photo at right) and Scott Sherman, to Katrina. Like many other New Orleans musicians, everyone in my family lost everything.

As the years pass, more and more of our legends are passing away without ever making it home. Thanks to REM, Wilco, Dr. John, Ian Hunter and every band on our ReDefine 8/29 Download, displaced New Orleans musicians know the rest of the world still cares enough to give them a hand up instead of a handout. Thousands of MySpace friends care. Thanks to the MySpace Impact Awards Nomination, millions can.

Jeff Beninato
Founder
NOMRF.org

Huge Extension - MySpace Impact Award Finals Now Open to the 24th, So Vote Often!!!!

2007-08-15T22:45:00.000-05:00

MySpace has just extended its Community Building Impact Awards voting to Aug. 24 at midnight due to technical difficulties the first two days. That could make all the difference. The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is at 3,000 friends and is LA group is 100,000 so it's your classic long shot.

REM Loves New Orleans Music (Vote Pleeez)

2007-08-15T13:39:00.000-05:00

Photo By Ino Hillert

REM has put the word out (ARTICLE HERE) that by voting for the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund in the MySpace Community Building Impact Awards, you’ll be voting like a rock star (Click Icon Below to Vote) to help NOMRF receive the grant. You can vote every day through Friday and we find out who wins in a week! Reposting this badge and the blurb would be a great help.

Friends of New Orleans music have helped keep our grass roots Fund alive for almost two years now.

Vote Early, Vote Often for New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund

2007-08-14T22:17:00.000-05:00

We're in the final three! You can vote daily from now though Friday for the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund in the MySpace Impact Awards, Community Building category. Reposting this badge and the blurb on MySpace would be a great help. The other two finalists have hundreds of thousands of myspace friends so NOMRF is a long shot but hopeful.

Individuals have helped keep this grass roots Fund alive for almost two years, and that has helped displaced New Orleans musicians.

(Click Icon Below to Vote)

Entertainment Weekly and its Weeks in New Orleans

2007-08-13T21:07:00.000-05:00

(EW.com)

Finally got an online copy - EW does an amazing job of telling the story in quotes, and trusting New Orleans and its musicians to speak for themselves. Here are some of them:

Dr. John, singer-pianist, New Orleans legend ''I was on tour when Katrina hit. Playing while all that was going down was the worst feeling in the world.''

Irma Thomas, Grammy-winning ''Soul Queen of New Orleans'' ''We left that Saturday to go to a job in Austin. We played the gig Sunday night and said, 'Okay, when we get up Monday morning we'll see what's left of the city.' When we saw the news after breakfast, I turned to my husband and said, 'Baby, we don't have a home to go to.'''

Cyril Neville, the Neville Brothers ''We lost everything. Twenty-five years of reel-to-reel tapes, home movies, writings, my book collection -- all of that's gone. Aaron [Neville, Cyril's brother] lost everything. I lost everything.''

Spencer Bohren ''The musicians came back, but they didn't have gigs, exactly. Johnny Sansone found places for them to play.''

Johnny Sansone, blues harmonica player ''There was a restaurant that wasn't quite open yet. So we started to give shows there. We might take somebody that was a jazz player and have him play with a blues guy. We had Cajun musicians playing with country guys. Just to cheer some people up.''

Robin Chambless, production manager and board member of the New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund ''I was calling people all over the country saying, I have so-and-so in this town, can you get them a gig? Because nobody wants handouts. Like my mama says, We don't want no handout, we want a hand up!''

Dr. John ''I'm very grateful to the New Orleans Clinic and the New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund. Small organizations — they've done more than these big organizations with a lot of money. Everything is f---ed up with the politicians and all. There's nobody taking care of business but the people.''

Mitch Landrieu, lieutenant governor of Louisiana ''They basically did Voodoo as a gift to the recovery workers. A lot of the National Guard came.''

Stephen Rehage ''I remember joking, 'I think we can let security go. The audience has machine guns.' Behind the New Orleans stage, I ran out of booze every 15 minutes. Kermit Ruffins, who had to go on at the end of the day -- we found him dancing in the audience. We had to grab him and go, You're up next. Come on!''

Kermit Ruffins, jazz trumpeter ''Yeah, I was hanging out [laughs]. It was a hell of a thing. Just for that little while all the people in the audience forgot what happened, you know.''

Spencer Bohren ''There were a lot of us that had a boycott attitude toward Mardi Gras. I thought, Maybe this once we could suspend the party. And I love Mardi Gras! Finally my son woke up on Saturday morning and said, 'Let's go to Toth, Dad.' Toth is one of the parades. It goes by all the hospitals -- the children's hospital, the insane asylum, all these places where people normally wouldn't see Mardi Gras. So I went, and I was so glad I did. There were more people than I have ever seen. Everyone was just so happy to see each other. I stood corrected.''

Ivan Neville, funk band Dumpstaphunk ''It was perfect that they had Jazz Fest, to make a statement that we're trying to rebuild this place. Obviously, it's not rebuilt physically. I don't know what they've done to the levees [laughs]. Nobody knows about that.''

Quint Davis ''Fats was closing the festival. I got the call [that he couldn't perform] at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I couldn't believe it. And then we started scrambling, because we had Lionel Richie there but we had to move him from the other end of the field.''

Robin Chambless ''There were a lot of people upset that Lionel Richie closed our Jazz Fest. God love Lionel Richie, but that's not the person we would have chosen.''

Irma Thomas ''I could have closed out the festival, but instead they used Lionel Richie. That's okay [laughs]. I'm sure they've given some thought to that since.''

Trevor Neilson, philanthropic adviser to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ''The New Orleans project with Global Green started with Brad watching the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and wanting to do something to help. The project is an effort to build green, affordable housing in the Lower Ninth Ward. Brad was very upset that the government seemed to be just letting an American city die.''

Mitch Landrieu ''So many entertainers have lent a helping hand. George Clooney was down a couple of months ago in Cameron Parish. Dan Aykroyd has been down to help. Harry Connick's been down here with Branford Marsalis to do Musicians' Village [another housing initiative]. Brad and Angelina have moved here.''

Jason Patterson, talent buyer, Snug Harbor jazz club ''They used to call this the Big Easy. I don't think that's an appropriate word anymore.''

Glen David Andrews, leader of traditional jazz band Glen David Andrews and the Lazy 6 ''I'm living in a FEMA trailer. F--- that bulls---. I hate the trailer. I hate it, I hate it. They got big plans for the Ninth Ward and they don't include black people, that's for sure.''

Fats Domino ''People all over the world love New Orleans. I love New Orleans. I'm still alive and kicking. I ain't intending to leave.''

Glen gets the "tell us what you really think award," with Robin running a close second. You can download original songs for recovery including Johnny Sansone's "Poor Man's Paradise" and Spencer Bohren's "Long Black Line" at (New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund DOWNLOADS).

Amazing BluzKat Whomps for New Orleans

2007-08-11T13:13:00.000-05:00

This is the new BluzKat coloring and activity book. Whomp for New Orleans. Presales will help NOMRF help displaced musicians, thanks to Whompin Pawz Productions.

We love that harmonica playing cat, and the little cat friend behind him. (BluzKat Here).

www.bluzkat.com/NOMRFCB.htm

And you can still visit our New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund (DOWNLOADS)

Dr. John Entertainment Weekly Quote - Mac's Got Our Back!

2007-08-10T17:15:00.001-05:00

"I'm very grateful to the people at the New Orleans Clinic and the New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund. It's small organizations - they've done more than these big organizations with a lot of money."

Thanks Dr. John! You can see what all the fuss is about because the new Entertainment Weekly issue has hit the stands.

We offer his "Wade IV - The Aftermath" as a (Download) at (NOMRF.org) for .99 to help musicians still far from home.

Earl Turbinton, Eluard Burke; John Thompson, Oliver Morgan, and Issachar Gordon Rest in Peace

2007-08-08T17:26:00.000-05:00

A woman gave her baby away near New Orleans last week. She handed it over to an officer in a fast food restaurant and walked away crying. That's legal now. We're becoming more Moses than Job.

Earl Turbinton, Eluard Burke; John Thompson, Oliver Morgan, and Issachar Gordon all died this week. Look them up. New Orleans legends are slipping away like mercury, and many still not home.

Jazz singer Timothea Beckerman used to call me from Long Island and not just ask for help, she needed a companion on the phone. Dr. John's phone number had washed away in the storm. Timothea was worried that friends would think she didn't want to go back. She died before getting the chance to prove how badly she missed home. I told her she would be okay . . .

Full Blog At: (Huffington Post)

* NOMRF (LINK)

New Orleans Music and the Impact Awards

2007-08-07T13:44:00.000-05:00

This just in - the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is a MySpace Impact Award finalist. What's exciting is the potential to have New Orleans front and center on the MySpace banner for music lovers around the world. 75 million to be exact.

New Orleans music has had Rolling Stone, New York Times, The Economist, Entertainment Weekly and others covering displaced musicians this month alone, so maybe the steamroller will continue into the fall.

Winning an Impact Award would involve a featured placement on MySpace for a month, reaching its millions of members with the message that displaced musicians need help. Thanks for asking.

Last month, an environmental charity won out over Save the Dolphins and Erin Brockovich. Not that charity's a competition, but a banner with New Orleans in its name would be very nice.

Voting starts on Aug. 14th and ends on Aug. 24th - just in time for the Anti-versary commemoration at Carrolton Station.

If NOMRF doesn't win, at least we'll be back home and in the middle of some great music and all our friends. Thanks for the downloads at nomrf.org. Susan Cowsill, Johnny Sansone, Spencer Bohren, Craig Klein, Backyard Tire Fire and Ian Hunter are the popular hits this week. Catch Susan and Johnny at the Carrolton show.

In other charity news, the Fund is donating a used van to a brass band this week.

Nothing else on that until we're sure it starts.

Sunday Sampler - Stream New Orleans Songs!

2007-08-05T14:20:00.000-05:00

If you want the whole song, the Kaiser Chiefs, Beatin Path and the dB's tracks are available for the first time ever on the planet at NOMRF.org.

Let us know your favorites!

New York Times And The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund - It's Mainstream Media Month

2007-08-04T19:46:00.001-05:00

Below are excerpts from Sunday's New York Times Article which the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc. was interviewed for, as well as Hot 8 Brass Band trombonist Jerome Jones. Jerome is one of the dozens of musicians who stays in the NOMRF Apartment when he comes back to town to gig. This is Jerome with Joe Topping (right) who walked across America for New Orleans and has a song on our download page ("Lord Willing") and NOMRF Founder Jeff Beninato (left) of the dB's, who also has a song on the download project ("Rains Around Here').

NOMRF thanks the New York Times for pointing out that, as we discussed with them, tourism is down, locals can't always afford cover charges anymore and musicians like Jerome are choosing to relocate to Houston for safety reasons.

Want to know how to help?

Your ReDefine 8/29 Music Download will directly aid NOMRF's efforts. Our 17 songs include Dr. John's "Wade in the Water"' The Kaiser Chief's brand new "Out of My Depth" and Ian Hunter's "How's Your House". It's the perfect Katrina Anniversary present to New Orleans musicians.

downloads:
http://www.nomrf.org/Redefine829Download.htm

video:

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=14237881

The Katrina Effect, Measured in Gigs
The New York Times Money Section
By ANDREW PARK
Published: August 5, 2007

ON a recent sultry afternoon here, Tipitina's — arguably the most famous musical haunt in a city famous for its music — is eerily quiet. This ramshackle, two-story yellow joint at the corner of Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas won't start jumping until after dark, when Ivan Neville and his band, Dumpstaphunk, take center stage.

But upstairs, past balconies smelling of stale beer and cigarettes, past walls plastered with yellowed concert posters, musicians are working. Some edit concert fliers, tweak Web sites or research overseas jazz festivals; others get legal advice or mix audio and video; others simply chatter about who has found gigs and who is still struggling.

Since late 2005, just a few months after Hurricane Katrina tore through this city, more than 1,000 New Orleans musicians have become members of Tipitina's three cooperative music offices. "I go in sometimes and all I'm doing is checking my e-mails," says Margie Perez, an effervescent blues singer.

For Ms. Perez and others trying to rebuild fragile livelihoods as artists, grass-roots efforts like the co-ops have been a boon, helping them to replace lost or damaged instruments and sound equipment, arranging and subsidizing gigs and providing transportation, health care and housing. The Tipitina's Foundation, the club's charitable arm, has distributed about $1.5 million in aid; in all, Tipitina's and other nonprofit groups have marshaled tens of millions of dollars in relief from around the world to help bolster the music business here.

But it remains to be seen how long a loose-knit band of charities can stand in for coordinated economic development in one of New Orleans's most important business sectors. Although New Orleans is one of the country's most culturally distinct cities, a large-scale recording industry never took root here, even before Katrina. Yet the informal music sector, the kind visitors find in clubs and bars, and large-scale musical events like Jazz Fest, is a mainstay of the city's tourism business.

In fact, local authorities say, music and cuisine are the twin pillars of the tourism industry here; the leisure and hospitality businesses account for almost 63,000 jobs in the city and for about 35 percent of the sales taxes. Both of those figures are larger than those of any other business sector, including the energy industry.

Still, nearly two years after Katrina, there are fewer restaurants and bars offering live music, and the ones that do are paying less, musicians say. As the reality of the slow recovery has set in, fewer locals feel that they can afford cover charges or even tips, so clubs that used to have live music four or five nights a week have cut back to two or three.

Conventions, typically a strong source of music gigs, are running at 70 percent of 2004 levels, but leisure travel remains far below pre-Katrina levels, according to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. Over all, visitors generated $2.9 billion in spending in 2006, down from $4.9 billion in 2004, according to the bureau. About 3.7 million people visited the city in 2006, compared with more than 10 million in 2004.

Compounding the music scene's slow revival is the challenge of tracking musicians — who are typically paid in cash and often hold down other jobs — in order to get them financial support. Habitat for Humanity, which is building what it describes as a "musicians' village" in the Ninth Ward, initially struggled to find creditworthy applicants — just one instance of relief for artists failing to meet its mark.

Other organizations also tried to put some financial muscle behind the local music business. The New Orleans Musicians Clinic paid musicians to play at the airport and offered $100 guarantees to musicians who could find gigs for themselves elsewhere. The Jazz Foundation of America also subsidized performances. The New Orleans Musician's Relief Fund, a charity started by the former dB's bassist Jeff Beninato, offered a temporary apartment to musicians.

For artists dependent on support, such backing was invaluable.

Indeed, even as crowds come back, littering Bourbon Street with beer cans and daiquiri cups, musicians say they're not seeing their incomes rebound. Wil Kennedy, a guitarist and singer who plays for passers-by in Jackson Square, says the situation is still "as bad as it was after 9/11," with his tips down as much as 75 percent from the peak period before 9/11. In the clubs, guarantees of a minimum payout are now less common; many clubs offer musicians just the take at the door or a percentage of drink sales.

"They've kind of gotten used to getting the music cheap when people were so desperate they'd play for a sandwich and a $20 bill," says Kim Foreman, secretary and treasurer of a local branch of the American Federation of Musicians, which has lost about 120 of its 800 dues-paying members. Poverty keeps many musicians living with substandard housing and health care, Mr. Foreman says.

Others are scared off by the rampant crime and lack of basic services here, despite an economic need to be back in the Big Easy's cultural stew. "Right now, New Orleans is not fit for my family," says the Hot 8 Brass Band trombonist Jerome Jones, who has relocated to Houston with his wife and four of his five children. Mr. Jones, whose bandmate Dinerral Shavers was murdered here last December, says he plans to commute to New Orleans for gigs and band business.

It's an article of faith among New Orleanians that the music scene is an indelible part of the city's appeal. But the city and state historically haven't recognized the role that musicians and other creative workers play in driving tourism and improving the quality of life, advocates say. As a result, they say, the city and state have underinvested in the cultural sector of the economy.

"People don't think of artists as a category of workers," says Maria-Rosario Jackson, director of the Urban Institute's Culture, Creativity, and Communities Program, which found that the city's infrastructure for "cultural vitality" even before Katrina rated in the bottom half of the country's metropolitan areas.

Figuring how "to translate that authenticity to economic development has been the challenge for all these years," says Scott Aiges, who headed the city's music office before Katrina and is now director of marketing and communications for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation, which owns Jazz Fest.

Just weeks before the storm, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu unveiled a new strategy for developing what was described as the "cultural economy." Since then, the state has pushed through tax breaks for arts districts, musical and theatrical productions and sound recordings and made sure that events like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, which provide work for many musicians, survived.

But a separate individual tax break for artistic earnings failed in the State Legislature because of concerns that it wasn't fair to other working people, and other large-scale attempts have languished because of a lack of financing. In May 2006, the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, which was formed by Mayor C. Ray Nagin, recommended plowing $648 million into the cultural sector to create jobs, rebuild damaged facilities and open a national jazz center. But those ideas were shelved with the rest of the commission's work, and subsequent, scaled-back proposals still await financing.

New Orleans "needs some anchors around which the economy can begin to rebuild, and arts and culture are an obvious one," says Holly Sidford, a principal at AEA Consulting in New York, which developed the recommendations for the commission's cultural subcommittee at the request of the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. "But without investment, really deliberate and coherent investment, that won't happen."

Ernest Collins, the city's executive director for arts and entertainment, says of the commission's recommendations, which Mr. Nagin endorsed: "That was a very large price tag. And needless to say, we don't have that money."

Leaders of nonprofit groups and organizations like Tipitina's say they are resigned to filling the void left by the public and private sectors as long as they can. Mr. Aiges, whose group owns Jazz Fest, is using receipts from the event to add new festivals, build an Internet-based system that will allow musicians to connect with talent coordinators and potential licensees, and put on a networking event for musicians during next year's festival.

But musicians say they wonder if New Orleans will ever nurture their careers the way it once did. The Hot 8 Brass Band, which was featured prominently in Spike Lee's documentary film "When the Levees Broke," is concentrating on touring elsewhere in the United States and abroad — even if that might mean missing Mardi Gras — so it can play for outsiders. Outsiders, say band members, seem to value them more than their hometown.

"They make you feel how valuable you are to New Orleans," says Raymond Williams, a trumpeter for the band. "I feel like maybe the city should treat musicians in the same way.

REM's Entertainment Weekly Video for New Orleans

2007-08-03T14:58:00.001-05:00

We’re proud to be featured in the Entertainment Weekly and REM Video for Mercy Corps and New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund (NOMRF).

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20049857,00.html

Please check out our (DOWNLOADS)

http://www.nomrf.org/Redefine829Download.html

Dr. John, Ian Hunter, the Kaiser chiefs, Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp Downloads!!!

2007-08-02T16:40:00.001-05:00

NOMRF.org is Offering Donated Downloads to Help New Orleans Musicians
- Let's Get This Viral!

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund
(http://www.nomrf.org/index.html)

(NOMRF Downloads)
(http://www.nomrf.org/Redefine829Download.html)

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc. is helping displaced musicians from the city where jazz and rock and roll were was born. NOMRF is honored to have our friends Dr. John, Ian Hunter, The Kaiser Chiefs, Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp, Johnny Sansone, Backyard Tire Fire, Craig Klein, Chicago Farmer, Susan Cowsill, James Andrews, The Rev. Goat Carson, the dB's, John Rankin, Beatin Path, Bryan Lee, Spencer Bohren and Joe Topping reaching out to still-displaced musicians. Founded by and for displaced New Orleans musicians, the Fund works to stretch each donor dollar. Brand new releases, exclusive to NOMRF, are the Kaiser Chiefs, Beatin Path and the dB's.

Welcome to the NOMRF.org New Music Tuesday

2007-07-31T14:51:00.000-05:00

Our grass roots nonprofit founded by and for displaced musicians now offers the best hour of music relating to New Orleans available, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting NOMRF's efforts. Hundreds of NOMRF grants have gone out thanks to international individual contributions. This download will help that continue. Feel free to repost this blog, with the Katrina Anniversary media focus coming around again.

International rock stars and brilliant New Orleans musicians have all come together to help save the music. This download compilation combines national and local acts because not only is New Orleans the birthplace of jazz, in the 1950's it was the rock and roll hitmaker of the world. The talent is all still there, after two years of struggling to make their way back.

Little Steven's Underground Garage is helping kick off the ReDefine 8/29 Campaign, and YepRoc Records is offering Ian Hunter's signed lyric sheet with email registration. Come on down for our 8/24 New Orleans Party next month. NOMRF will be auctioning off a Headstrong amp with guitar monsters signing it.

NOMRF.org proudly presents the following ReDefine 8/29 Download Compilation at:

(DOWNLOADS HERE)

The Anthems

Ian Hunter 'How's Your House" (With Video)
Kaiser Chiefs "Out of My Depth" (Previously Unreleased)
The dB's "Rains Around Here (Previously Unreleased)
Beatin Path "Brand New Old House (Previously Unreleased)
James Andrews "Sixth Ward Soul"
Dr. John "Wade IV - The Aftermath"
Johnny Sansone "Poor Man's Paradise"
Chicago Farmer "The Village"

The Ballads

Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp "Hold Out a Hand"
Backyard Tire Fire "Wrong Hand"
Susan Cowsill "Crescent City Snow"
Joe Topping "Lord Willing"
John Rankin "If Ever I Cease to Love"
Bryan Lee "Katrina Was Her Name"
Craig Klein "Dad's Dilemma"
Rev. Goat Carson "Waterfall"

Songs are .99 apiece and downloadable on any platform. Thanks for helping us ReDefine 8/29!

How's Your House by Ian Hunter (Song at NOMRF.org)

Add to My Profile | More Videos

"How's Your House" - New Orleans Benefit Video with Rock Star Lyric Contest!

2007-07-30T20:09:00.000-05:00

The Mott the Hoople "All the Young Dudes" and "Cleveland Rocks," artist Ian Hunter has written the ultimate anthem for two years post-Katrina. Log in here to win a signed lyric sheet to this amazing video by Grewvia for the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund.

We also offer downloads from Dr. John to Johnny Sansone to an unreleased Kaiser Chiefs song, "Out of My Depth," all NOMRF for .99. Little Steven's Underground Garage is hosting the contest link, too, so the rockers are out in force. Mike Mills of REM has been promoting the Fund with Little Steven all summer.

Yep Roc Contest Login LINK

Little Steven's Underground Garage

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund ReDefine 8/29 Download Project at: (NOMRF.org).

How's Your House by Ian Hunter (Download Available at NOMRF)

How's Your House by Ian Hunter (Song at NOMRF.org)

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Get Your Wierd Ass Down to New Orleans

2007-07-15T12:19:00.000-05:00

As the years pass, we think about adding a clause to the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund's original mission statement. But nothing has changed. Our social workers are still volunteers who would be helping New Orleans musicians anyway, and we still give grants to displaced musicians. We could add that the Fund promotes the culture of New Orleans, but New Orleans culture speaks for itself.

You just have to get yourself down there to see it.

And if you haven't been down to the Crescent City, nothing anyone could say or do would explain this culture to you. As a sometime artist (blocked since Katrina), the thing that struck me on my first visit was that you cannot be too weird for New Orleans. My best friend not only talked me into moving down, she talked me into singing my goofy songs acapella.

The shocker was when two women stopped me on the street and complimented that week’s set. It was 10 years ago, but when you write your song on a napkin, it's the kind of thing you remember. Acapella napkin songs are not the kind of thing that would get you two fans in most towns. The songs also introduced me to my husband, a producer who suggested I add at least one musical instrument

So get your weird self down to New Orleans with whatever you do or do not play. You will get encouragement, probably sympathy, and life will go on no matter how much baggage you think you drag into your performances.

Tennessee Williams, Ellen Gilchrist, more Midwesterners than I can name have floated downstream and thrived. And it flows both ways. Louis Armstrong was his exact self every day of his life and Chicago fell in love with him. Then the universe did.

New Orleans singer and bandleader James Andrews is known as "The Satchmo of the Ghetto," and James puts more into a live performance than any entertainer I've seen since Neil Diamond on his rotating stage. Hanging out with him is not unlike being on a rotating stage, or a blender - but in the good way.

Pre-Katrina the town did not need to solicit newcomers. One time Laurence Ferlenghetti was at a Hotel Monteleone writers convention and there was an unrelated sex worker convention the same night. We stood by the front door and tried to guess. Poetry. Porn. Poetry. Poetry. It would have made a good drinking game. That night I met Ferlenghetti, but the Andre Codrescu crowd was headed for the Carousel Bar downstairs and, well, it spins.

The Monteleone Carousel is still spinning, and it has inspired generations of artists.

So get your weird ass down there.

Going Green, Purple and Gold

2007-07-11T22:02:00.000-05:00

This Runner Up thing is getting old. Springfield, Illinois, just lost out to some other Springfield that’s not nearly as goofy. And the Saints lost the playoff game which I had to watch in Chicago. In the snow. Near Bears fans.

So I’m getting down to New Orleans for this year’s playoffs if it’s the last thing I do. To see Holy Moses blessing the team, and Saints fans in a sea of black and gold fleur de lis. In New Orleans these days, Crescent City imagery is everywhere. We considered Fleur de Lis tattoos while first displaced, but couldn’t afford them. I now need one to match all my friends’ arms. Just like I need an evacuee-issue “Ask Me About Katrina” shirt.

You could stamp anything with a Fleur De Lis and it would fly out of New Orleans craft fair booths these days. "Third World and Proud of It” and Crescent City Water Meter tee shirts are on sale all over. Residents are fiercely holding onto their culture in case no one else does.

New Orleans not only needs tourists and volunteers, it needs converts. And it's starting to get more of them. People who come to Jazz Fest every year to hear Dr. John, who march with the Mardi Gras Indians on their Super Sunday gathering, have been writing the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund and telling us they plan to move to New Orleans to teach in her schools, or build new houses for the hundreds of thousands of residents waiting to come home.

So much waiting is still ahead. I had to miss a good friend’s wedding last year and tell her that Katrina is my busy season. That’s an odd RSVP but it’s true again this year. There will be a brief window when the focus on going green will shift to going purple, gold and green. And maybe on August 30th this year, the camera crews’ lights will stay on for an extended story.

One of my pet peeves is when people don’t tell you their kid’s age, just that he’s 23 months old and you have to mentally divide by 12 to figure it out.

But New Orleans has been ready for its extended closeup for 23 months now.

Raising Awareness vs. Razing Houses

2007-07-09T20:58:00.000-05:00

It's not sour grapes, just a question on global awareness and if the spotlight can get to New Orleans before 8/29 this year. Extra factoid - an ISU artist baked that cake for our NOMRF poster project last year.

(Blog Post).

Amber Waves of Grain

2007-07-04T15:58:00.000-05:00

Holidays are strange now. Aside from Halloween, costumes of any sort are very limited out here in America.

There's nothing like New Orleans Fourth of July with the bicycle crew. Everyone wears their vintage cowboy regalia - I used to borrow Jeff's hippie vest and we would follow Bicycle Phil around town with friends like Rocketman Jimmy Descant. He's now in Colorado making rocket apartments. Deb and Gary from the Sophisticats have opened Sputnick Ranch on Magazine if anyone needs get cowboyed out in time for the next ride. Katrina ate our vintage bikes.

The first year after the Twin Towers fell there was talk of increased security in New Orleans' Fourth of July Parade. It was a somber feeling and we lined up to watch the floats start rolling with flags and ribbons on our bikes. A cop turned and blew his whistle, which we thought was a signal to back away from the lineup.

"Get in there," he said, waving the bicycle crew to the start of the parade. So we rolled down Decatur with crowds lined up waving little flags, and I was mortified to only have one pair of beads to throw. A feeling of inadequate beads known only to New Orleaneans.

Dressing up for Midsummer Mardi Gras as the Olympic Drinking Team

complete with routines . . .

dressing up for the inauguration, thousands marched . . .

dressing up at the drop of a hat - it's important and I miss it.

Now we're out here in the amber waves of grain, with wind farms popping up across all the local fields. Energy independence is the only local theme I can think of this Independence Day. We've taken to dressing up the Lincoln statue. If there was a parade, I would try to come up with a wind turbine costume. If it was New Orleans I would work on a clogged up MR GO Canal costume. We saved our old costumes, just in case.

Last night was a fireworks show on a new friend's farm. It eventually turned into a kazoo, guitar and bongo jam so that helped me feel a little more at home. We talked a lot about New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund because we're now that couple at the party. And everyone's outfit was perfectly normal.

New Orleans' United Orphans of America

2007-07-03T17:59:00.000-05:00

Reprinted from the Huffington Post

"O-r-p-h-a-n-s Orphans, Orphans we're the best. Go Orphans!"

That was my high school basketball team's cheer. We were the Orphans. To prove it, here's Lincoln dressed in festive Orphan gear for the Fourth of July. As legend goes, during the Depression our mining town's basketball team made do with donated uniforms, mismatched and ill fitting. Someone said we looked like a bunch of orphans and it stuck. redhat.jpg

Growing up an Orphan may have made me less reticent about asking for the refugee rate. In the early days after the levees blew, my husband was playing a benefit for his bandmates displaced in Boston -- they have two teenage boys with muscular dystrophy and were trying to survive after evacuating across the country. We drove from Illinois to help.

With time on my hands during his rehearsal, I called Martha's Vineyard which on the map seemed like a short drive from Boston, and asked for the refugee discount. After the resort owner considered what that would be, she offered two nights at no charge and we headed down to the island after the benefit. Plum TV invited us to go on the air and talk about the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. It seemed like a reasonable place for fund-raising so we headed south with my husband's replacement guitar.

I sang "It's Raining," not nearly as well as Irma Thomas, showed photos of the city and when the cable show's host asked when we were going home, Jeff and I looked at each other on camera and started discussing it. We still don't know. Musicians call to talk about the factors involved in going home, and the ones who are back call to talk about what's involved in staying. Rising rent, safety, education, whether the rest of the band is back, a spouse's job, tourism, Road Home grants, insurance settlements, the factors are constantly evolving. NOMRF has given out hundreds of grants, but donor fatigue is obvious and we're shaking the same old bucket as the two-year Anti-Versary of 8/29 approaches.

As far as saving the city's culture, ". . . It is not permissible to watch its destruction, and to replace it with nothing, or by so little that a whole people deteriorates, physically and morally," Alan Paton wrote in Cry the Beloved Country. He wrote it about changing Johannesburg and having seen both cities, the book resonates.

The 100th murder this year has been committed. Drummer Dinerral Shaver's alleged killer was set free when no one would testify against the teenage boy who was accused of shooting into his car, killing Dinerral as his family watched him die. His young son sometimes sits in with the Hot 8, and his generation of New Orleans musicians are the last best hope of our city. The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music is coming along, and will be part of helping children learn about their musical heritage. Efforts like that are inspiring.

For every rumor that Jazz is dying, the answer is that the city where Jazz was born is still alive. In the early days of Jazz it was considered a scandalous word and the music was sometimes advertised as Jos, but everyone knew what they were talking about. As an orphan of New Orleans, I invite you to take a belated 4th of July vacation and go hear our music. Overtip the bands. You can look back and tell your children you helped save Jazz or Jos or whatever it's called by then because there is always a chance to turn things around.

After all, the Orphans have won more games than any other high school team in the history of the United States.

There is one only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has no power. I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men desiring neither power nor money but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it.

- Alan Paton
Cry the Beloved Country

Happy Fourth of July.

Say You're a New Orleans Musician

2007-07-02T19:44:00.000-05:00

Say you're a New Orleans musician. You haven't been able to move back to the city where you had a fan base built up for years before the levees broke. For almost two years your return has been delayed as your family debates your children's education, safety, health care, the rising cost of rent, whether your bandmates are back, how much of your equipment you've been able to replace – the list is endless.

Donor fatigue is setting in, Americans gave $7 billion in 2005 and $1 billion in 2006. You're not home so you qualify for help from fewer agencies. You come for weekend gigs when the car is in good shape, you can afford the gas and there's a friend's couch to stay on. Half the couches in New Orleans are still gone. You're trying to get to know the new music scene from halfway across the country. You're not a kid anymore and it's hard to establish a second life.

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has a special understanding of displaced musicians, being founded by and for displaced musicians. These are stories we hear every day. Our board member Rickie Castrillo, voice of Tipitina's for decades, evacuated to Birmingham and sometimes plays with Taylor Hicks' old band. He's now moving on to North Carolina and is looking for a permanent home, like the rest of us.

NOMRF.ORG is an independent nonprofit, not a referral agency, so your donation will go to a displaced New Orleans musician instead of going to another fund or business. Most musicians have waited long enough for the help. We welcome yours.

When the Saints Go Marchin' Out

2007-06-28T17:41:00.000-05:00

From The Economist
June 28th

As gigs have become more frequent, musicians have begun trickling back, but many still have mailing addresses elsewhere; the clubs have been rebuilt, but their houses remain ruined. The Soul Rebels Brass Band, a younger ensemble that incorporates funk, R&B and hip-hop into the Dixieland tradition, is now based in Houston. Only two of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band's eight members have returned to the Gentilly neighbourhood, where most of the band lived before the hurricane.

And two years after the hurricane, donor fatigue is setting in. The New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund (NOMRF), another organisation that helps displaced musicians, is preparing to release an album for the two-year “anti-versary” in August. The album will be called “Redefine 8/29”, referring to the day New Orleans was evacuated. Jeff Beninato, the musician who founded NOMRF, says that the title could not refer directly to the hurricane. “If they hear Katrina, they'll think, ‘I don't want to hear that; that's old news.’”

But spare a thought for that most iconic of New Orleans institutions, the funeral with music. A brass band playing sombre dirges leads the mourners and the body tearfully through the streets, from church to cemetery. The body goes into the ground, and the tone changes: the music becomes upbeat, and the mourners turn to revellers, celebrating the life of the departed. Neither Dixieland nor New Orleans is yet a corpse, of course, but nowhere else is quite as adept at wringing joy from tragedy.

Where You At Mule?

2007-06-20T14:10:00.001-05:00

New Orleans’ own Al “Carnival Time” Johnson’s birthday is today, as well as World Refugee Day, and Al has achieved the ultimate musical coup - his song title in his name. New Orleans has its own set of anthems, with “Carnival Time“ as the pinnacle. Al is now an evacuee, (refugee if we take the word at its most literal meaning), among thousands labeled Katricians by Houston’s mayor. As nicknames go, that one is lousy. New Orleans is a town of quality nicknames. Griper, Barbecue Dave, Afro, and Rev. Goat.

Rev. Goat’s name stands for Go On And Try, and he once nicknamed me Foxy Lady. It involved a stalled car, a white shirt and some ass walking by in a thunderstorm yelling, “Hey, Foxy Lady!” Thankfully it never caught on, although he kept it up for 10 years. Goatey is now displaced at Kinky Friedman’s ranch in Austin after staying at Levon Helm’s place in Woodstock. A man of many talents, he just finished writing the mystery novel, “Shallow Graves.”

In 1992, Goat ran for President with the slogan “Vote Goat – We Want Our Money Back.” Joe Walsh was his running mate, and 100,000 citizens did vote Goat. His post-hurricane description of the levee failure, quoted by Dr. John, was “New Orleans didn’t die a natural death, she was murdered.”

Dr. John’s MySpace site says, "I am heartbroken over all of the displaced people from the hurricanes and the NEW ORLEANS disaster. If you wanna help send assistance to the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, or the Voice of the Wetlands."

The Nite Tripper’s continued dedication to New Orleans is a wonder. His blog also includes a link to “Where You At Mule,” which I will go out on a limb and describe as the most unique New Orleans music video of all time. Everything about it makes me homesick, especially that hat.

“Where You At Mule”’s answering refrain is: “I tell you I’m coming home.” It’s something hundreds of thousands of us would love to say before long. So buy a New Orleans evacuee a beverage today – it’s our holiday.

NOMRF Kicks Off Its Summer of Love Campaign

2007-06-18T19:02:00.001-05:00

Our New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is kicking off its Summer of Love Campaign. All summer long, bands are invited to pass the bucket, contribute a buck a ticket, whatever they can spare for displaced New Orleans musicians.

Forty years after the original Summer of Love, NOMRF.org's pledge drive is helping displaced New Orleans musicians around the country.

The top band supporting New Orleans Musicians will have a song added to the NOMRF Download Project, and will be invited to our Anti-Versary commemoration in New Orleans on 8/29. The NOMRF Download Project, almost ready for release, includes "How's Your House" by Ian Hunter ("All The Young Dudes"), and other amazing tunes.

NOMRF operates with no rental overhead, and keeps expenses to a bare minimum to stretch each donor's dollar. We've helped hundreds of displaced New Orleans musicians with cost of living grants since the levees broke with the 501c3 charity founded by and for displaced musicians.

Some recipients use their grants to get home, purchase instruments or replace recording equipment - others use the funds to survive wherever they are now. The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has been supported by Amos Lee, Wilco, the dB's (founder Jeff Beninato's former band), Dr. John, Jesus H. Christ and the 4 Hornsment of the Apocolypse, REM and many other New Orleans music lovers.

NOMRF benefits continue to come from locales including Helsinki, DC, L.A., NYC, Chicago, Baltimore and London. That's how the Fund continues to help hundreds of New Orleans musicians rebuild their lives.

So show New Orleans the love! Details on the NOMRF Summer of Love Campaign are available at nomrf.org, myspace.com/nomrf, neworleansmusiciansrelief.blogspot.com or by writing jeff@nomrf.org.

Time to Face the Music - Evacuee Scanning Headlines

2007-06-18T17:30:00.000-05:00

Reprinted from: the Huffington Post

Today's mainstream headlines are either feast or famine for evacuees. When they are bad, they are very, very bad, but when they are good, they help keep us above the bubble.

The Golden Beignet Of the Day goes to USA Today. One story was on the federal judge who told FEMA to stop trying to take evacuees' money back until the agency can clearly tell people why. FEMA is looking to recoup $485 million. I know people who got these letters. It's one more ingredient in the recipe for a nervous breakdown -- at best.

The other USA Today headline was on the fact that the National Guard is running low on local equipment and probably won't be able to help with hurricanes to the degree it did in 2005.

A third story, posted on NOLA.com, is the failing weather satellite. It means more evacuations with less certainty -- 110 degrees and 12 hours to drive 50 miles with a car full of pets and family photos, if any survived. I would like this story to bring the billionaires who fund weather satellites forward. We need a James Bond-type weather obsessed genius, but in a good way. Dr. Yes.

Fourth, and this headline is a heartbreaker for evacuees whipping out the paper in the coffeeshops of their new towns, "Katrina Evacuee from New Orleans Accused of Child Abuse." Between that and the 10 percent who practiced poor trailer maintenance, how demonized do we as a subgroup need to be by the wires?

Our New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund has received hundreds of applications from around the country, and it's sad to think that each of them is subjected to the increased climate of blaming the victim.

I wonder how residents of tornado alley would feel about "Woman Who Was Once in a Huge Tornado Accused of Something Horrible (AP) A woman, who moved away from an area which has been hit by huge tornadoes, was accused of horrible actions." As a whole, it feels like 8/29 evacuees are starting to be seen less as victims of a catastrophic levee failure and more as Katrina tax dollar talking points. The sad fact is that the Road Home Program has imploded. Thanks for sending down your money. We didn't get it.

The final headline, in Medical News Today, was that catastrophic events can affect the quality of a person's sleep. So watch for my local paper's headline, "Katrina Evacuee from New Orleans Still Having Trouble Sleeping."

In the event of a slow news day.

A Modern Stone Age Family

2007-06-17T13:05:00.001-05:00

A few months ago while my dad was still able to leave his nursing home, the family spent an afternoon in our apartment. As Jeff and I were describing our last trip home to New Orleans, Dad spoke up.

"In the south, if you just pull over for gas and they always say, 'Aahm Gawnna Kiillll Yeeeew,' " And he made the most menacing scowl, I had ever seen. For a non-scowler, it was epic. As the the warnings got more dire, we were eventually all in tears.

More tea dad? "Aahm Gawnna Kiillll Yeeeew." My gentle dad was sharing this final cautionary tale against stopping for gas in the south. There is nothing funny about the possibility of getting popped at a gas station. And yes, crime is on the upswing. Everyone I know has been affected in some way. It was just the randomness and the enthusiasm of my dad's final advice.

He slipped away over Mother's Day weekend. This Father's Day I have his legacy of giving to remember him by. It helps inspire us to keep the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund rolling when it seem like no one cares anymore. Dad sometimes offered Thanksgiving Day dinner for anyone in our small town in the lobby of his Christian bookstore. Generally he fed little old ladies who were happy for a day to socialize. He traveled the world with mission work, every continent but Antarctica.

And at the end he fought an admirable battle against the ravages of Alzheimer's Disease. As a doctor, he could figure out all-purpose social phrases like, "How are things at the office?" no matter who he thought you were. Wherever he was, he would tell you his office was in the basement.

In the last year, Dad was finally wheeled in front of enough nursing home television sets to absorb pop culture and it offered him more conversational shortcuts. After a lifetime of reading the Bible, I found him with a People Magazine and he waved it at me angrily muttering, "Celebrity Cellulite!" Then he came across the ultimate conversational shortcut. "How's dinner Dad, do you like the chicken tonight?"

"Yabba Dabba Doo," he answered with a grin.

When the wonderful New Orleans trumpeter James Andrews second lined to dedicate his grandfather's belated gravestone, the band marched behind him playing for no apparent reason, "Flintstones, Meet the Flintstones," as they entered the cemetary. That's when I knew I would probably never see Dad again. We made it back to Illinois too late to visit with him one last time, but he gave me the gift of a lifetime learning from the finest person I have ever known.

So Happy Father's Day wherever you are, Dr. Ray. We were a modern stone age family.

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Suggests Direct Flight - Paris to New Orleans

2007-06-14T13:39:00.000-05:00

We're thinking Paris Hilton needs to get to New Orleans when they spring her and start giving back.

Huffington Post LINK

NOMRF Adds A Latte Link and Thanks Little Steven

2007-06-12T14:25:00.000-05:00

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is adding a latte link - because this summer every dollar counts. So if you're wired enough already, skip today's latte or tea and contribute $5 to a New Orleans musician who needs help getting through a long, slow summer. With half the population still gone, gigs are hard to come by and the rebuilding funds are slow in coming.

NOMRF Latte Link.

Also, thanks to our friend Mike Mills of REM, check out this week's New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund link on Little Steven's Underground Garage.

Feel free to repost this - the $5's could add up to a lot of help for New Orleans muscians.

Why I Won't Be Invited to the State Farm Pool Party

2007-06-07T17:24:00.000-05:00

Katrina Billboard Blasts Big Insurance in its Own Back Yard

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc., an independant grass roots nonprofit, has not taken donations from big insurance, big oil or big anything. Just amazing musicians and music lovers from around the world at NOMRF.org.

Remains of Barry Move Up the East Coast

2007-06-03T14:21:00.000-05:00

It’s a displacement thing, that NOLA.com can still get a spit take out of me before I read the story. “Five teens killed” was today’s story, but it was a recap from last summer. And “Remains of Barry Moving Up East Coast” was not about Barry Cowsill, found last winter in the Mississippi.

We watched Entertainment Tonight’s child star coverage when Barry first went missing, and tried to identify whether he was the blurred image from the Convention Center while evacuated to a stranger’s home in Milwaukee. We would have followed the search on CNN but the stranger offering her home for a month didn’t have cable. It saved us from staying glued to cable news which probably didn’t cover the story any more than Entertainment Tonight.

Found four months after the storm, Barry was brought up the East Coast to his family home in Rhode Island for a memorial. Accompanying him from New Orleans was his sister Susan Cowsill, Barry’s equal in turning any stage into a living room and making you want to get as close to that voice as possible. She describes the strong wind that blew just as they were scattering his ashes, and Barry blew back in everyone’s face. If you knew him, you would expect nothing less.

Barry has a Wikipedia entry and if I understood Wikipedia, I would add more about his humor to balance out the child star, sudden loss of fame, suicide attempts and pseudonyms. His occasional name change was the smartest thing any child star ever attempted and Barry Scott often pulled it off. It may have bought him a few more years on the planet.

The Partridge Family was originally going to be the Cowsill family but their father pulled the plug when Shirley Jones came on board instead of Mrs. Cowsill. So he sold the rights to their life story of a traveling band and Keith Partridge got Barry’s life. When David Cassidy came to town Barry had a head of steam and wanted to challenge Keith to a rumble. After all, “He thinks he’s me but he just played me on t.v.” A little more Danny than Keith, Barry challenged everyone who loved him. You had to work at it

Like most of the lost souls who find a landing in New Orleans, he would fade away when the town no longer offered a couch, and come back when it did. When it was your turn to put him up, you started to eye the next stopover wistfully. Anyone who has a larger than life Katrina friend on their couch knows what I’m talking about. My husband Jeff, Barry’s former bandmate from The Stragglers, heard the best of Barry if the stars aligned and he hadn’t partied his voice into dust the night before.

It was easy to forget Barry’s contribution to musical history until you saw him on stage, and he would jump any stage he got close enough to. “The Rain the Park and Other Things,” (or “I Love the Flower Girl” if you know it from the commercial), got to #2 on the Billboard charts. Sometimes when he needed money, Barry would sell family photos. One was of the Cowsills all walking up the Vatican steps in their matching outfits to meet the Pope. They are so young it’s heartbreaking. It was at about the time they were singing about long, beautiful hair.

Barry was trying to get sober when Katrina hit. I hoped that he was Barry Scott again, somewhere out on the road. He probably would have liked to fade away like that, but instead was found face down in the Mississippi. Sculptor Jimmy Descant made a beautiful rocketship urn and included things found in Barry’s pocket, like his peace dove. Barry’s death was ruled a drowning from the hurricane. A plaque was anonymously placed on the Tree of Life in New Orleans, “to a true legend who died on the levee.”

We’ve posted his song, “Old Timeless,” on myspace.com/nomrf, and a podcast on nomrf.org as a tribute as the remains of Barry move up the East Coast again.

Lost Lincoln - It Was 151 Years Ago Today

2007-05-29T15:43:00.000-05:00

"Generally, when he was speakin', he was cool and quiet and things all fit together, and when you come away you was calm - but your head was workin'; but that time up to Bloomington he was like - what's that the Bible calls it? - avengin fire" - yes, sir, that's it, he was like avengin fire." Roland W. Diller, witness to Lincoln's Lost Speech.

It was 151 years ago today in my evacuation location of Bloomington Illinois that Abraham Lincoln gave the best speech of his career and nobody took notes. I went to the museum and asked if they had a copy of Lincoln's Lost Speech. Never hurts to ask. They don't.

The speech has been credited for starting the catapulting him to the presidency and kicking off the Illinois Republican Party. We know Lincoln's flatboat trips to New Orleans were part of what influenced the speech.

During one of those trips, Lincoln ran aground in New Salem, Illinois and as he figured out a way to raise the flatboat and save his cargo, locals came out to watch. They invited him to stop by on his way back through, and he ended up moving there. Lincoln probably mentioned his patented invention to lift a barge that runs aground in his Bloomington speech "Discoveries and Inventions," but the wrong date was listed in the newspaper and the location was hard to find.

A plaque next to our local cafe says so. There's something inherently midwestern about not only commemorating the site of Lincoln's "Inventions" speech, but also why it was a flop. But there is also great encouragement to be found here.

After 10 years in New Orleans, I'm back in Illinois via Katrina. The courthouse museum hosted a costume gala for our musicians' nonprofit (NOMRF). Kelly's Bakery brought the food, A. Renee brought the wine, and we helped a displaced pianist who came down from Chicago. the Lincoln statue outside was resplendent with purple, gold and green balloons.

Lincoln was encouraged here, too. His friend Jesse Fell saw him walking on that same courthouse lawn and brought him into brother's office across the street to to request an autobiography for the campaign. Fell, the grandfather of Adlai Stevenson (who also ran for president from Bloomington because there's something in the water), had been hearing the excitement out East over the Lincoln wiping the floor with Douglas, the country's best known orator at the time.

Lincoln turned him down for a year, and when he changed his mind, he asked that, "If any thing be made out of it, I wish it to be modest."

It contained the following bit of his history, " If a straggler supposed to understand latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizzard-- . . . The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity--"

He downplayed his oratory skills. He once acquitted a New Salem friend's son from a murder charge in the "Almanac Case," using the height of the moon to challenge a witness. Then he refused payment out of friendship.

Lincoln told Fell as to the note's briefness, 'There is not much of it, because there is not much of me."

Fell's family's office was a wall away from our apartment, so we wake up to groups of tourists with headphones peering up at our second floor window on the new Lincoln tour. They also visit the site of the Lost Speech. Of the speech, John Wentworth of the Chicago Democrat said, "I shall not mar any of its fine proportions by attempting even a synopsis of it."

By all reports, the press was either too enthralled to cover the speech, or Lincoln was censored for his early and fiery rhetoric. Whatever the case, no authenticated copy of the speech exists. Bloomington author and Illinois Supreme Court Reporter Isaac Newton Phillips in 1901 discounted a version of the speech written decades after the fact and reiterates, "We do not know what he said."

Druggist Ronald W. Diller, describes it in "Lincoln's Lost Speech, by Elwell Crissey. "I never knew exactly what did happen there. All I recollect is that a the beginnin' of that speech I was settin in the back of the room and when I come to I was hanging' on to the front of the platform. I recollect I looked up and seen Joe Medill [Chicago publisher] standin on the reporters' table lookin foolish-like and heard him say, "Good Lord, boys! I ain't took a note!"

"He knew what he was doing' that night," said Diller. "He knew he was cuttin' loose. He knew them old Whigs was goin' to have it in for him for doin' it, and he meant to show 'em he didn't care a red cent what they thought. He knew there was always a lot of fools in that new party he was joining - the kind that's always takin' up with every new thing comes along to get something to orate about. He saw clear as day that if they got started right that night, he'd got to fire 'em up, so he threw back his shoulders and lit in."

This was table-jumping, string bean Lincoln. All cheekbones because he had not yet taken an 11-year old's advice to grow a beard to lend him gravitas. Possibly the first campaign image consultant, and she did a bang-up job. The Lost Speech did not survive to be dissected, and it could have referenced anything. The courthouse burned to the ground at the turn of the century, much of the Lincoln lore burning with it.

It probably wasn't a religious speech. Upon finding out most of Springfield ministers polled against his candidacy he once said, "I am not a Christian -- God knows I would be one but I have carefully read the Bible, and I do not understand this book. These men well know that I am for freedom in the territories, freedom everywhere as far as the Constitution and the laws will permit, and that my opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, with this book in their hands, in the light of which human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against me. I do not understand it at all.'

There isn't much Lincoln was afraid to talk about. He shared a bed with his friend for years, as he later commented on to Congress when nominating James Speed for Attorney General. Lincoln said he didn't know James as well as his brother. "That is not strange, for I slept with Joshua for four years, and I suppose I ought to know." Historians are still arm-wrestling over the significance of the general storekeeper inviting Lincoln to share his bed when he came in to buy bedding. Don't know, don't care, but Honest Abe indeed.

A 19th Century candidate could be an acknowledged agnostic with a long-term bunk buddy, turbulent marriage, well of genius, streak of melancholy and love of poetry. But when you first ignited a firestorm against slavery, the pencils fell silent.

Some clues to the Lost Speech content may be found in this earlier letter to Joshua. "How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor or degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes"

"When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy," the letter concludes.

These thoughts were rising to the surface the year before the speech. He was running against the Know-Nothings so that part of the speech probably wrote itself. I like to think that at some point he said, "Stop owning people now," but it's all pure conjecture.

"His speech was full of fire and energy and force. It was logic; it was pathos; it was enthusiasm; it was justice, equity, truth, and right set ablaze by the devine fires of a soul maddened by the wrong; it was hard, heavy, knotty, gnarly, backed with wrath," said Lincoln's last law partner William Herndon who described it as the best speech of Lincoln's career.

"In ten minutes he was about eight feet tall; his face was white, his eyes was blazin' fire, and he was thunderin, 'Kansas shall be free!' 'Ballots, not bullets!' 'We won't go out of the Union and you shan't.'" Diller described. That last line is the only part of the speech universally agreed upon.

"Generally, when he was speakin', he was cool and quiet and things all fit together, and when you come away you was calm - but your head was workin'; but that time up to Bloomington he was like - what's that the Bible calls it? - avengin fire" - yes, sir, that's it, he was like avengin fire," Diller added.

Slavery has long been abolished but every era has its elephant in the room. At the dawn of this year's hurricane season, New Orleans could use another great orator with the Mr. Go oil barge canal aimed like a bullet into the heart of our city. And hundreds of thousands of us are not home.

A New Hampshire music festival this fall benefiting the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund will be up the road from the Primaries No matter who makes the speeches this time, I promise to take notes.

Because we are long overdue for more avenging fire.

Jazzfest Pictures Worth 1000 Blogs

2007-05-26T00:08:00.000-05:00

It took a month of Sundays, we're slow unpackers, but here's our festival season photo series. NOMRF's Gambit Big Easy Award recognition, a Katrina-delated artist's wedding reception, Jessie Hill Day, Musician Open Houses, froglegs with Wardell, it's all in there.

We welcome any summer benefits you can dream up, but first put on a festive song, pop a cold Abita and play the slideshow. It is dedicated to Richard Spector, whose friends missed him at the Fest.

New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Slideshow.

Mother's Eye

2007-05-18T18:20:00.000-05:00

* Reprinted from the Huffington Post

I've been meaning to compile a Mother's Day tribute, and just pulled into my Midwest evacuation location after a productive New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund month back home at Jazzfest.

My mother has always been funny, odd, unpredictable - there aren't enough adjectives. She could kick a football across our half-acre front yard. She can still kick as high as a Rockette for no apparent reason. My husband points out that I do the same thing.

Last month when I was checking mom into an Alzheimer's ward, she thought it was a girls' dorm because my dad's Alzheimer's ward is on the other side of the hallway. "I'm a basket case," she whispered. "Then you're finally going to right place!" I said and it seemed to cheer her up. Before checking into the facility, she asked for a 5 minute head start to make a break for it and run for the woods. The woods wouldn't know what hit them.

Here are four things I'd like to thank Mom for. They've instilled my values, for better or worse.

Trips to the wars.

Johannesburg and Soweto as Apartheid was ending. Jerusalem and Beirut during the Arab Israeli conflict. Rhodesia and Zambezia when they were having the war over Victoria Falls. Now it's Zimbabwe.

Most of my childhood trips involved at least one moment of thinking, 'Now, this ain't right."

Thanks for the disaster evacuation preparation.

The roller rink.

Our small town rink closed in the summer and mom stored the candy and soda in a basement freezer. For the most part, snacks were fish from our pond or whatever the farmers were planting in the side field that year - rolled wheat, soybeans or raw sweet corn. But all summer long, I'd sneak down to the freezer which wasn't grounded and get a jolt of electricity every time I reached in for a Snicker's bar.

Thanks for the diet help.

A pony.

Her name was Pepper, my dad being a doctor and a would-be gentleman farmer with 40 acres and one horse. Not unlike kids who promise to take care of a dog but don't, the winters got longer and colder, and we hated the hike through the snow. A horse can probably tell when you're over it, and Pepper trotted over to the neighbor's field one day and they kept her. She got to hang out with other horses and we all got to wave when we drove by.

Thanks for the practice in letting go.

The Eye Thing.

Mom is unlucky in the kitchen. One time she sliced through her arm cutting frozen meat and drove to the doctor with the knife still in her arm. Another time our pressure cooker blew up and scalded her eye. The eye was red, oozy, crusted over, and Mom called me on the fact that I couldn't look at it. "It's not that bad," I lied while looking down at the tablecloth.

Later that night, I heard rustling at my window. At first I thought it was tree branches outside, but eventually opened the curtain to check. Pressed up against the window was my mother's hideous eye. I screamed jumped back from the curtain to lock my door.

All she said at breakfast the next day was, "Not that bad, huh?"

Thanks for preparing me for life's surprises.

Lord Willing

2007-05-15T16:22:00.000-05:00

Our friend Joe Topping has posted his beautiful song, "Lord Willing" on the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund MySpace.

For friends and family of musicians including Alvin Batiste, as well as anyone who lost a loved one to the storm, it is a comfort.

The Ocean Moving All Night

2007-05-12T02:29:00.000-05:00

Stay with us. Don't sink to the bottom like a fish going to sleep.
Be with the ocean moving steadily all night, not scattered like a rainstorm.
The spring we're looking for is somewhere in this murkiness

See the night-lights up there traveling together, the candle awake in its gold dish.

Don't slide into the cracks of the ground like spilled mercury.
When the full moon comes out, look around.

- Rumi

Rest In Peace, Dr. Ray Earl Dalton
4/8/26 - 5/12/07

I love you dad.