No city in the country should have such bad luck as New Orleans. First Katrina and then the oil spill. Even though both can be traced to human incompetence and greed, tragedies such as these tend to be compartmentalized if not downright forgotten as they cease to be headline news. New Orleans five years later has still just barely recovered from the hurricane and the recent devastation to the wetlands and to the Gulf from oil and dispersants will be felt for years. Thankfully there are artists, such as Spike Lee (his documentaries When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and “If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise”) and numerous musicians who will not let us place New Orleans in the scrapheap of forgotten historical disasters. The album Dear New Orleans has just been released (produced by Air Traffic Control, a nonprofit organization that works with Future of Music Coalition for social change and artist activism) to benefit the region’s unique musical heritage and to protect and restore the environment. With 31 New Orleans-inspired tracks from a very diverse range of musicians from Mike Mills and Wayne Kramer to My Morning Jacket and OK Go, from Jill Sobule and Tom Morello to Steve Earle and Laura Veirs, these artists express their gratitude to the city and make certain that we will never forget. From that album here is song “NOLA” performed by Mirah featuring Thao Nguyen and a poem from 2nd Chief David Montana entitled “The Change of Heart Man”.
Mirah featuring Thao Nguyen-“NOLA”
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2nd Chief David Montana-“The Change of Heart Man”
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