Say goodbye to New Orleans...

[Swish]

or maybe not? I've been keeping my eye on Fox News with my favorite meteorologist, Joe Bastardi, based in State College, PA, and he's been giving some pretty grim forecasts (hasn't everybody?). He's talking about 25-30 feet of water flooding the city, and I can't imagine how the city will survive as we know it. Joe just said it's the third largest storm they've ever tracked, and there have been thousands, so Katrina is going to be bad...really bad.

I met a couple of nice people down there at the Jazz Fest last year, and a couple back in 2001 as well, and I really hope they all got out of there in time. All the highways are shut down now, so it's too late if they didn't. I guess we'll have to wait and see once this bad girl hits the coast in the morning. In the meantime, I'll just keep a good thought for the people who are stranded there and the others in harm's way along the gulf coast.

Swish

[Davey]

Yeah, looks pretty dire. Used to live down on the Mississippi coast and went through a big one, but this looks like an awful one of historic proportions. Hope it dies out at least a little bit tonight. Hope everybody stays safe.

Two big ones for me right now in rotation are The National Alligator and Richmond Fontaine The Fitzgerald. The National comes off their great EP from last year that I love, and the new one is very good too, and Richmond Fontaine now has a string of very good CDs to their name. This new one is really special though. Willy Vlautin wrote these stark tunes while tucked away in the Fitzgerald Casino Hotel in Reno for a few weeks, and it's pretty vivid and powerful stuff. Inevitably it has been, and probably will continue to be, compared to Springsteen's legendary Nebraska, but in this case with a more local scope since the characters all have lives revolving that central location. To me, it's also got a sound somewhat reminiscent of the sad tunes on that first Steve Earle album after he got out of jail. With maybe some help from Damien Jurado. And that weedy voice, similar to the much more popular Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame. With maybe a touch of his ex-Tupelo partner, Jay Farrar, in the lower registers. One of those dusty, lived-in, stripped-down productions that is guaranteed to alienate some fans looking for the more up-beat and rocking alt-country they've come to expect from Richmond Fontaine, but I can't stop listening to it. If you haven't heard this one yet Swish Daddy, well, maybe you won't like it. But one of the very top dawgs for me this year. Puts me in a bit of a melancholy mood, kind of like all those poor souls cramming into the Superdome right now.

[tentoze]

Yeah, looks pretty dire. Used to live down on the Mississippi coast and went through a big one, but this looks like an awful one of historic proportions. Hope it dies out at least a little bit tonight. Hope everybody stays safe.

Two big ones for me right now in rotation are The National Alligator and Richmond Fontaine The Fitzgerald. The National comes off their great EP from last year that I love, and the new one is very good too, and Richmond Fontaine now has a string of very good CDs to their name. This new one is really special though. Willy Vlautin wrote these stark tunes while tucked away in the Fitzgerald Casino Hotel in Reno for a few weeks, and it's pretty vivid and powerful stuff. Inevitably it has been, and probably will continue to be, compared to Springsteen's legendary Nebraska, but in this case with a more local scope since the characters all have lives revolving that central location. To me, it's also got a sound somewhat reminiscent of the sad tunes on that first Steve Earle album after he got out of jail. With maybe some help from Damien Jurado. And that weedy voice, similar to the much more popular Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame. With maybe a touch of his ex-Tupelo partner, Jay Farrar, in the lower registers. One of those dusty, lived-in, stripped-down productions that is guaranteed to alienate some fans looking for the more up-beat and rocking alt-country they've come to expect from Richmond Fontaine, but I can't stop listening to it. If you haven't heard this one yet Swish Daddy, well, maybe you won't like it. But one of the very top dawgs for me this year. Puts me in a bit of a melancholy mood, kind of like all those poor souls cramming into the Superdome right now.
I've heard a couple from The National, and they both smelled bad. The Richmond Fontaine I'm looking forward to. And yr post, as always, is topical nd cogent.

[Davey]

I've heard a couple from The National, and they both smelled bad. The Richmond Fontaine I'm looking forward to. And yr post, as always, is topical nd cogent.
Hehehe, you may recall that when I first listened to some of the National album streaming at their site, I wasn't too impressed. But JC convinced me that I needed to give it a real chance, so I bought it and it blossomed pretty quickly for me too. But ya gotta be a fan of that type sound and that type singer, and it definitely doesn't have universal appeal judging by some of the reviews either. Probably the same for the new Richmond Fontaine, but I imagine much closer to your pleasure zone. He does remind me of Steve Earle on this one much more than in the past. But only the folky one, not the pop one. And even priced right at under $10 at amazon ... what a deal! I'm working with a demo copy from our good buddy Mike, but will surely get a legit copy soon.

[Swish]

By all accounts that I've been watching on the news, the floodwaters will continue to rise and basically wipe out the entire city, or most of it anyhow. This is absolute devastation. I guess I need to send my donation to the Red Cross ASAP. They're going to need it.

What a sad night.

Swish