musical jumbalaya

It would be pretty cool if you ask me (and since you are reading my blog, I guess you kind of did) if some really neat new creative musical experiments come out of the hurricane aftermath. Not that the New Orleans musicians were likely unaware of what goes down in Austin, or vise versa - but being forced into the same confines could change their outlook somewhat. Lord knows the players from New Orleans, no matter what their life story has been thus far, have a new outlook on singin the blues. Being thrust into a city that was already crowded with musicians also means ther is more opportunity etc for spontaneous, and in some ways forced, collabration between people that otherwise would have been cities apart.

It would be neat to look back in 50 years and trace a line of musical influence that is directly attributable to hurricane. Doubtless there is at least one musical genuis-to-be in Austin who is sneaking in the back door of clubs because she is underage and will become enthrawled by this new sound that would otherwise have been left undiscovered...and somewhere down the line upon receipt of her first Grammy, or in an interview on Fresh Air, she will be able to recount these experiences that never would have happened if it werent for such a huge disaster.

Big Easy's Musicians Move Their Acts to Austin
Lively Arts Scene In Texas Capital Suits Evacuees

By Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 30, 2005; A03

AUSTIN -- The self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, the place that gave rock-and-roll superstar Janis Joplin her start in the 1960s, is sounding a little funkier these days. The chili, as one of the famed Neville Brothers sings in his new regular gig, has met the gumbo.

Among the estimated 1 million Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina are musicians trying to reestablish New Orleans's distinct second-line beat in a city better known for folk and roots, rhythm and blues, indie rock and country rock.

The city's population of more than 8,700 musicians has not only grown a bit but also diversified racially and ethnically. Relocated here indefinitely, among others, are Cyril Neville and Tribe 13, Ivan Neville and Dumpsta Funk, the Hot Eight Brass Band, the Iguanas, the Caesar Brothers Funk Box, the Radiators, and Big Chief Kevin Goodman of the Flaming Arrows Mardi Gras Indian tribe. Some of them have even created an ad hoc band with a name that sums up who they are today, post-Katrina: "The Texiles."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901383.html