ReDefine 8/29
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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 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. David Fricke
Rolling Stone Magazine
NOMRF's ReDefine 8/29 Download Platform
Get All 20 Songs For $18.29 or .99 Per Track
Through these amazing songs, the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc. can help displaced musicians from the city where jazz and rock and roll were was born. NOMRF is honored to have our friends REM; Dr. John, Ian Hunter, the Late Barry Cowsill, The Kaiser Chiefs, Johnny Sansone, The Subdudes, 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 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.
Upon purchase, you will receive a note on your screen with the link to all the tracks, and your confirmation email will follow. NOMRF respects your privacy and will not sell or distribute your contact information. Verisign is a secure merchant checkout. We now accept PayPal on the checkout platform, and your PayPal download link will be emailed within 24 hours of purchase.
Thank you to the artists and their management teams for allowing us to benefit from these wonderful tracks.
For 8/29, in commemoration of the Katrina Anniversary, we're offering these 20 songs for $18.29 to help New Orleans musicians. An email with download link will be sent upon purchase, and an automated comfirmation will come up if you can't wait and want to type in the download platform address. Thanks for your Support!
The amazingly versitile guitarist John Rankin offers this classic New Orleans tune, which he explains was first performed in New Orleans the 1870's for a visiting Russian prince whose love interest made it her signature song. John's instrumental version starts sedately and ends in a dance, much like the transition of a second line.
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 song, so it's like you made it to Dublin for one of the worlds' best sets.
About the Wade: Hurricane Suite - IV The Aftermath Off of “Sippiana Hericane” Courtesy of Blue Note Records
This anthem is off the four-part “Wade: Hurricane Suite” written post-Katrina. Dr. John explains in the liner notes, “I love New Orleans. I love the people, its food, its culture, the music and the lifestyle. New Orleans is the best of everything. I’m saddened and angered by what has happened. If anybody in the government would’ve done something about the disappearing wetlands for the past fifty years, then this probably wouldn’t have been as bad . . . now a high price will be paid for neglecting the needs of the city and its people."
Sounding out like the best possible Jimmy Buffett festival song, Johnny segues into lyrics like: "It's your choice if you want to stay, that's the price you're going to have to pay. The little people suffer, big shots don't compromise. That's the cost of living in a poor man's paradise.
In his hometown of Newport Rhode Island, Barry recorded "Kid" in 2005. He employed a fake trumpet effect with vocals that NOMRF's Jeff Beninato remembers from his Straggler days with Barry. The song is ragtime, haunting, and a description of the post-Katrina life Barry never got the chance to enjoy. Proceeds from this track will benefit his children.
About Out of My Depth Courtesy of Universal Motown
In an astounding act of support for New Orleans musicians, the red-hot Kaiser Chiefs have donated their previously unreleased "Out of My Depth" download to help The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund in its continuing efforts.
About Crescent City Snow Courtesy of CoCo Bunny Music, administered by Bug Music
Susan describes Christmas Day 2004, the first Christmas snow in half a century, and the polarity of that beautiful experience with Hurricane Katrina and the levees breaking. The song is even more poignant with the knowledge that her brother, the amazingly talented Barry Cowsill, was lost to Katrina. NOMRF sponsored a second line the first Mardi Gras after Katrina for Barry, Founder Jeff Beninato's former bandmate and friend.
"Rains Around Here" was an unreleased track recorded at The Sound of Music sessions in 1987. It didn't seem to fit in on the album, and there was never a second single released for it to be a B-side on. It's one of the hardest rock tracks The dB's ever recorded, and features perhaps Gene Holder's wildest guitar solo ever, and bass riffs from Beninato. Written about environmental hazards, the song is spot on for New Orleans these days.
With Littlefeet-style vibe, Eddie Eckert of Beatin Path writes about the compassion New Orleans musicians received while they were out on the road, and how it feels to go finally home. He spent months in St. Louis post-Katrina, breaking his arm along the way. He writes:
"Goodbye brand new old friends leaving is tough. You took me in when life was beating me up. You're the kindest sort of people that I ever saw. And you can stay at my brand new old house at Mardi Gras."
About "How's Your House" Courtesy of Yep Roc Records
As the voice, sunglasses and songwriting conscience of Mott, Ian Hunter was the smartest guy in British glam, slicing through the spangles with the razor-blade language and moral wrath of mid-Sixties Bob Dylan.
“Thorn in Her Side’ is one of their few specific protest songs; and a strong one: The lyrics touch on everything from immigration to the Iraq war, before going for the knockout punch with the line, “How about taking care of our own / like the people down south drownin’ in their homes?” Tommy Malone’s closing slide solo has a clenched-teeth quality that sounds just right. “Brother Man” and “I’m Your Town” address condition s in New Orleans, but it’s easy to suppose that “Stranger” and “Fair Weather Friend”—both ostensibly about personal relationships—are thinly veiled protest songs as well. Certainly, the line “Why do you treat me like a stranger / like somebody that you never knew?” has wider implications nowadays.
The NOMRF Founders met songwriter Ed Anderson in their evacuation city, and he's become more and more involved in helping New Orleans. On the road with his popular touring band, Anderson wrote "The Wrong Hand" while watching the Katrina Aftermath on television
Sixth Ward Soul is a solid funk anthem in the grandest New Orleans tradition. James' heritage includes grandfather Jesse Hill, his cousin Prince La La and his great uncle Papoose Nelson. His early instruction as a pupil of the famous guitarist and Jazz historian Danny Barker shaped him into a solid Jazz player and he's continually evolving.
Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp, describes the chance to make a difference with:
"I'm as flawed as any man could ever be
There were chances to be kind that slipped by me
When I finally drop my claims of innocence and face the blame
I can rise to my responsibility to
Hold out a hand til it finds another and we begin to repair
Don't believe there's too much pain to ever recover
Just take care of each other"
Joe Topping wrote "Lord Willing" about a bereaved loved one. Joe also happened to walk 1400 miles from Chicago to New Orleans in support of NOMRF. He has donated this beautiful track as a fitting memorial to the musicians we lost to Katrina (Barry Cowsill, Scott Sherman, both former bandmates of NOMRF Founder Jeff Beninato), and since the storm - Freddie "Shep" Sheppard, Timothea Beckerman, Dinerral Shavers, Charlie Brent, Oliver Morgan and many other brilliant souls gone too soon.
Bonerama member Craig wrote this classic New Orleans style instrumental, played every part on the track and conveyed the true New Orleans brass experience. The challenge of providing for our families post-Katrina is subtly captured in this masterpiece. Craig was kind enough to play NOMRF's Wilco and Dr. John benefits.
Cody is a folk-singer’s folk-singer and a poet’s poet. The Village starts as a folk romp andturns into an entirely different song halfway through with: "You Better Save Up Your Voices People By and By - They're All We've Got to Keep This Village Alive."
About "Waterfall" Courtesy of the Dukes of Haphazard
Goat's post-8/29 journey has taken him from Levon Helms' cabin in Woodstock to the NOMRF Apartment to Kinky Friedman's ranch in Austin. Goat sings about displacement with "Lost You in The Waterfall, Lost You in the Mist," while playing his traditional bone harp. He joined us for Dr. John's benefit for Wardell Quezerge and almost stole the show.
About Katrina Was Her Name Courtesy of Justin Time Records
Bryan writes a scorching blues song about the storm's aftermath. Hurricane Katrina displaced Bryan, and the New Orleans Muscians Relief Fund was proud to pass along a Headstrong Amp donated by Public Broadcasting station WGLT. He's now on the road with Kenny Wayne Shepard who was kind enough to sign NOMRF's Headstrong auction amp.
Spencer writes: "New Orleans' history is traced by scores of significant dates, but August 29, 2005, stands above all others as her darkest day. Even before Hurricane Katrina's tempestuous winds visited their full force on this historic city, the surge generated by its fury had begun pouring water from surrounding lakes and estuaries into many of her celebrated neighborhoods. As the storm progressed, protective levees continued to fail, and by day's end, 80% of New Orleans filled with water, by now a toxic stew of chemicals, sewage, gasoline, garbage, dead animals and human corpses. Fueled by ineptitude and inertia at every level of government, the situation quickly slid into an apocalyptic chaos from which New Orleans will never fully recover. Two years later, more than 50% of the city is uninhabited and dark. There is an inescapable black line visible on every broken house tying it with every other broken house in every other devastated neighborhood. This omnipresent line marks the level the floodwaters reached, and in many cases, remained, following Hurricane Katrina's terrible visit. It is this long black line that informs my commentary on the storm and its aftermath and provides a title for both the song and this album. The lyrics, for the most part, simply recall personal discussions or conversations overheard in the broken streets of our beleaguered city. Its approach is journalistic. There is no single point of view.
It’s an unusual theme, to be sure, and it ain’t exactly a party record. But then, as so many of us learned lately, life is not always a party, is it?"
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When the Saints Go Marching Out
From The Economist: "The New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund 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."
The New York Times interviewed NOMRF Founders for its Katrina musician article, along with Hot 8 trombonist Jerome Jones who has stayed in the NOMRF Apartment when he comes home for gigs. Entertainment Weekly has also covered the Fund with an REM Video, and we're nominanted for this month's MySpace Impact Award.
