Messageboard for Musicians on the Road

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

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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

Free at Last: Second Line Released from Charges

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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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

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:


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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.




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The French Quarter is never not beautiful.




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




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




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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.




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




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




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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.




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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.




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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.




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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.





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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

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

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

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

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.