A concert to benefit Katrina vitims
I got off work early enough yesterday afternoon to head downtown to watch a few hours of the Sixth Street for Bourbon Street benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina victims.
The day-long event combined local Austin and displaced New Orleans musicians in a two-stage concert. A minimum $10 donation got you in the gate, while a $20 donation also got you a free concert t-shirt. Austin is the “Live Music Capitol of the World”, while New Orleans is the “Birthplace of Jazz”, so a shared musical event seemed like the most fitting fund raiser for Austin.
I showed up primarily to watch the first two acts, Austin’s own
Mingo Fishtrap, a New Orleans style funk band, and my long-time favorite musician, Trish Murphy
I was the first customer through the gates around 1:45. By the time Mingo Fishtrap took the stage at 2:30, there were about 100 people vying for spots of shade beneath the Bald Cyprus and Live Oak trees in Republic Square Park.
After watching Trish perfrom, I was heading towards the gates when I was drawn back to the New Orleans stage by the amazing sound of Theresa Andersson’s voice.
Theresa and her band are from New Orleans, but will be living in Austin for several more months until they can get back home. There was a lot of emotion on stage, and when she asked the audience, “How many of you are from New Orleans,” it looked like more than half the audience (by this time, several hundred people were watching) raised there hand. She then dedicated her next song to them, a cover of Anders Osborne’s “It’s Gonna be OK”.
Theresa is an amazing vocalist and violin player—All Music Guide described Andersson’s voice as “broken, resolve, loneliness, and redemption pour from the belly-deep grain in her voice”, made more so by the tragic events in her hometown
When she was finished performing, she mentioned that their record label, Basin Street Records, had been flooded and they had lost all but a single box of CDs, which they had with them. I was lucky enough to get one of the last copies — but it was heartening to watch people pay $20 or more for the $15 CD.
I caught a few songs from Austin’s Asleep at the Wheel before heading home. I would have liked to stayed longer to watch Jerry Jeff Walker, Marcia Ball with Delbert McClinton, and Cyril Neville & Friends perform, but I had a “date” with my wife that night.
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All proceeds from Sixth Street for Bourbon Street will be donated to the American Red Cross of Central Texas and to the Back Street Fund — dedicated to preserving the unique musical identity of New Orleans by assuring that the musical heritage of New Orleans is able to return to live in the city when the time comes to rebuild.
