Tracklist
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Long Black Line |
7:23 |
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Canned Heat |
3:31 |
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Full Moon |
3:47 |
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Iowa Night |
4:22 |
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Ode To Billy Jo |
7:53 |
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Deportees |
5:36 |
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Sand To Sand |
5:10 |
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Cairo Blues |
3:32 |
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Another Day |
4:02 |
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Somebody On Your Bond |
4:45 |
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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. A year 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. |
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