Description
Release Date: 2006
Label: Mardi Gras Records
Track List
- It Ain’t My Fault – Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band
- I Ate Up The Apple Tree – Rebirth Brass Band
- Shake It And Break It – Magnificent Svenths
- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out – Big Al Carson
- Shake A Hand – Marva Wright
- Ruler Of My Heart – Irma Thomas
- Bald Head – Professor Longhair
- I’m A Girl Watcher – Beau Jocque
- Let Your Mind Be Free – Soul Rebels
- Just Chillin’ – Magnificent Sevenths
- Wade In The River – Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band
- Feel So Good – Magnificent Sevenths
Review
Beyond the obvious connection of the title, New Orleans: Rebuild Restore Rejoice doesn’t draw any direct lines to the devastation wrought by the landfall of Hurricane Katrina at summer’s close in 2005, which doesn’t mean that these tracks recorded by various artists on the Mardi Gras Records roster aren’t a reflection of life after the storm. Track after track reaches for joy and rebirth as if nothing else really mattered, and if Katrina as a benchmark is never mentioned, it probably doesn’t have to be. Highlights include a pair of wonderfully loose and joyous second-line pieces from Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band (“It Ain’t My Fault” and “Wade in the Water”), Irma Thomas’ elegant “Ruler of My Heart,” and Beau Jocque’s odd rockin’ zydeco version of “I’m a Girl Watcher.” Made especially poignant by the fallout from Katrina, this little sampler is made powerfully compelling by the sheer joy and hope for the future sketched out in these tracks.
