Tuesday, August 19, 2014

High Water Friends CD - Track One: The New Ninth Ward

          Way back in 2011 when this blog began, one of the first features was about the crawfish boil and its accompanying CD. Well, we’ve decided to revive this idea for the upcoming release of the CD of the 6th Annual DGA Crawfish Boil. This CD, titled High Water Friends, features songs from boil staple Davis Rogan and Warren Prejean and the Zydeco Rhythm and Blues Band. For more information about that crawfish boil, revisit our posts, here and here. As we did in the past, we’ll handle each song a post at a time, beginning with Davis Rogan’s The New Ninth Ward.

The Ninth Ward After Katrina 
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the Ninth Ward absorbed some of the worst damage the storm had to offer. The storm surge overwhelmed the levees in multiple places, leaving the entire ward and most of the city under water. The water not only destroyed many homes, but swept them right off their foundations. The surge was so powerful that a two hundred foot barge tied up along the Industrial Canal broke free from its moorings. It eventually settled on top of several destroyed homes (a Federal Judge later ruled that the company was not responsible for any barge-related damage). Meanwhile, around Louisiana and the world images of destruction from the Ninth Ward revealed the horrifying extent of the damage.

barge.jpg
The Barge in the Ninth Ward. Times-Picayune

Recovery has come slowly to the Lower Ninth. As state and federal officials bungled the initial recovery efforts, the residents of the Ninth Ward, mostly poor and African American remained homeless. Without the resources to return home, the population scattered across the United States. Reconstruction proceeded at a snail’s pace.  FEMA restricted access to the area for nearly a year after the storm. Residents of the Ward and outside charities, like Brad Pitt’s Make it Right Foundation, have rebuilt some parts of the Ninth, but other areas remain desolate. The population has shrunk from 14,000 before the storm to only 3,000 according to the latest census. Ineffective management, the slow recovery, and the impoverished nature of the residents led many in the aftermath of the storm to question the usefulness of reconstructing the Ninth at all. These views, propagated by incompetent government officials and other white non-residents of the Ninth Ward, carried a strong racial connotation—white businessmen and politicians denying help and homes to poor African Americans.

Times-Picayune Graphic of the Storm Damage 
Davis Rogan’s The New Ninth Ward savagely satirizes this mentality. He first targets his ire at leading members of the Bush administration, especially FEMA director Michael Brown—best known for heading the International Arabian Horse Association. Rogan lampoons the idea that New Orleans’s social and political issues can be solved by traffic cameras and schools. The paternalism of outsiders who sought to remake New Orleans into a cleaner and therefore better city also warrants scorn: “And every day we pray they would do less misbehavin’/ So they’d deserve all this saving.” As if the behavior of New Orleanians should have any impact on helping them have places to live. Finally, Rogan identifies the true desire of those seeking to transform the city into something respectable. By locking up criminals, planting vegetable gardens, and rebuilding the ward, Rogan argues that “This time around we’re making it white.” Rogan’s lyrics and music cut to the core of the issue, lambasting the idea that gentrification will solve all of New Orleans’s problems.



The New Ninth Ward

I’ll meet you on Dick Cheney Street, at Rumsfeld Boulevard
Right next to the statue of Michael Brown
In the new ninth ward
Folks are living so easy there, times used to be so hard
Chicken in every pot, oh, and they dance a lot         
In the new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
Times are easy there, they used to be so hard
      
Well we kicked out all the criminals
Got rid of the blight
Put a little camera on the traffic light
The kids they come to school, they come to learn and not fight
This time around we’re making it right

In the new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward

These lovely little musicians, got them a place to stay
Even set them up a concert hall so they have a place to play
New construction, state of the art, nothing could be finer
All the modern conveniences and the best dry wall from China
In the new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
Times are easy there, they used to be so hard

Musicians in one area, yeah that’s what’s up
In one place just in case we need to round them up
We think it’s best to know where they all stay at night
This time around we’re making it right
In the new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward

SOLO

Yeah, the new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
Times are easy there, they used to be so hard
We’re taking up the burden, we are the ones
Who came to save New Orleans from New Orlenians
And every day we pray they would do less misbehavin’
So they’d deserve all this saving

Sister Bessie used to drink a lot, on her porch all day
Now we set her up a vegetable plot, ain’t that some productivity
And Brother John he’s got that ice cream truck
Such an enterprising little fellah, selling cones in the working zones
Where he moves a lot of vanilla
In the new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
The new ninth ward
Times are easy there, they used to be so hard

Well we kicked out all the criminals
Got rid of the blight
It works a little better now we made it uptight
And best of all it’s safe to walk the streets at night

This time around we’re making it white

Friday, August 8, 2014

New Crawfish Boil CD!

Posted by Doug


Whew!  It’s been busy ya’ll!  Our clients have been throwing work at us at a pretty brisk pace and that has diverted our attention from more interesting pursuits like posting blog content and sending these emails that at least a few of you read.  But, a couple of things have happened recently that merit my personally drafting an email to our friends.  So, what’s the haps?

Well, we finally completed production of the CD from the 6th Annual DGA Family and Friends Crawfish Boil and it will be arriving in your snail mail box soon.  If you don’t get it, please let me know.  Now, this is the CD from 2013, not the boil we just had in March of this year – that’s how far behind we are.  But this one was worth the wait.  The title is High Water Friends, which derives from the fact that our traditional venue, Friends Coastal Restaurant, became a little less “coastal” and a little more “off shore” when a hurricane blew through in 2012.  Friends is no more, literally, although we expect it to rise again in more elegant form someday. 

A high water friend is someone who picks you in their pirogue when the water rises and takes you to dry land, so we celebrated the boil last year at an alternative location – a barge on the Tchefuncte River.  The food was good as always and the music was great.  The weather was not so good and the venue was a little dreary.  But, in The Big Easy the party never ends.  On the CD you will find a track by David Rogan entitled “Hurricane” that explains it all.


Speaking of my good friend Davis Rogan, he has a KICKSTARTER campaign up right now that I would like to encourage all of you to consider sponsoring.  Davis has become the house band for the DGA crawfish boil and always hangs around after his set, sucking (crawfish) heads, telling lies and drinking whiskey.  Believe me when I tell you it’s worth the trip to the crawfish boil just to meet Davis. 


Davis is a New Orleans native and has been playing music locally and worldwide for over twenty years.  Would you believe he was once artist in residence in the Loire valley in France?  It’s true!  Since 2001, he’s been performing under the band name DAVIS.  From 2006 to 2013, Davis worked with David Simon on the HBO series Treme.  The lead character, Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn), better known as DJ Davis, was based pretty much entirely on Davis Rogan.  What most people don’t know is that all of the songs DJ Davis performed on Treme were written by Davis Rogan and performed by his band, with Steve Zahn murdering the lyrics.  As Davis put it to me, “my songs are my children and Steve Zahn is a child molester.”  Davis is raising money to produce his 6th record and I know you are going to want one.  I will be an Executive Producer on the record and you, too, can help.  If you sponsor his KICKSTARTER you can get the full version of all of the Treme songs DJ Davis performed in Treme!  And, of course, there is a lot more bling you can get for the right price.  So come on and pull a $20 out of your wallet. The KICKSTARTER ends soon, so act NOW



The other really important news about the crawfish boil CD is a bit sad.  Most of the songs on the CD were performed by Warren Prejean and the Zydeco Rhythm and Blues Band.  The set starts with an amazing cover of the famous B.B. King hit, The Thrill is Gone with electric guitar riffs you won’t believe happened on a barge down by the river.  It goes on to a funky version of Money (That’s What I Want) that will make you smile and ends with a Warren Prejean original, Somebody Told Me.  It was a great performance and you will really enjoy it, but the sad news is that Warren Prejean died several months after the boil.  The CD is dedicated to his memory and I promise the last track will bring tears to your eyes at the loss of a great musician and a better person.