This week, it’s hard not to think about Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf areas destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Here’s a few songs that I’ll be playing on my stereo:
“The City of New Orleans” – Steve Goodman, Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Cash
“House of the Rising Sun” – Eric Burdon & Animals, Lead Belly, Nina Simone
“Louisiana” – Randy Newman (as well the entire “Good Old Boys” album)
“Louisiana Blues” – Muddy Waters
“Mother Earth” – Dave Alvin
“Mississippi Mud” – Hank Williams III
“Total Destruction to Your Mind” – Swamp Dogg
“Louie Louie”- Michel Doucet & Cajun Brew (the best French Cajun version of THE SONG ever!)
“What’s Going On” – Marvin Gaye
“I Wish I Was In New Orleans” – Tom Waits
…as well as lots of records by R. L. Burnside, Gatemouth Brown, Woody Guthrie, BeauSoleil, the Meters, Dr. John, Clifton Chenier, Queen Ida and a lot of blues….
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Here’s a few weblinks that I found worthwhile when it comes to discussing the terrible disaster of this past week:
Habitat for Humanity has a webpage specifically set up to accept donations to build homes for poor people left homeless by the Hurricane Katrina disaster
Ross Gelbspan of the Boston Globe writes about the REAL Name of Katrina, a thesis I tend to believe in.
On a similar note, an article in a National Geographic magazine dated July 2001 discusses how weather patterns have changed dramatically in the past five nine years
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My sympathies for anyone with the name of Katrina.