One of the interesting side-effects of Hurricane Katrina for me has been the outpouring of music born of the hurricane and its aftermath. Not all that surprising actually, given the rich musical history of New Orleans and the surrounding area. But this past weekend I heard the music from New Orleans tack in a different direction. I heard a song that deserves to be the title track for any eventual documentary on BP's gulf oil gusher - John Boutte singing Nobody Knows Nothing.
I've long said that if any of several musicians from New Orleans and Louisiana ever tour within 500 miles of Seattle I'd be there. Then a couple of months ago I found out the Zachary Richard and John Boutte were going to be appearing at the Canmore Folk Festival in Canmore, Alberta. That was the perfect excuse for a road trip through the Canadian Rockies and a weekend of music.
The Saturday evening lineup was a mixture of old favorites such as Zachary Richard and new discoveries (for me at least) such as Dala, Te Vaka and Vieux Farka Toure. Zachary Richard's set was everything I was hoping it would be and as I stood in line waiting for him to autograph a CD or two I thought about how I wanted to thank him for his song The Levee Broke and how important it was that people keep being reminded of what happened in New Orleans. When I got to the head of the line, I started to say just that but before I could get anything out some of those old Katrina memories snuck up on me and I stood there for a moment trying to push them back. I finally managed to croak out that I used to live in New Orleans and the first time I heard The Levee Broke it just made me cry. Zachary thanked me for the compliment and then he said something that I didn't expect, something along the lines of "You know man, that Katrina thing is just about over but the Gulf is just starting." We talked for a moment more about the fishermen that he had talked to and others whose lives have been disrupted by the spill and then he shook my hand and wished me well.
The next day saw me at one of the secondary stages for a song workshop titled "We're Changing The World" with Buffy Saint-Marie, Zachary Richard and Opetaia Foa’i of Te Vaka sharing the stage. They each spoke about music intended to effect change, either for an individual or for the world at large. Zachary Richard sang a song written for a young girl going through hard times titled Ekuan Ishpesh (I'm not 100% certain on the title) and Petit Codiac, with a refrain consisting of the names of resistance fighters "Crazy Horse, Beausoleil, Louis Riel, Jackie Vautour" and the phrase "Asteur c’est mon tour" (in English, "now it's my turn"). Buffy Saint Marie sang her classic Universal Soldier and Floyd Red Crow Westerman's Boarding School Blues about the Residential Boarding Schools where Native American children were sent to "civilize" them, the last of which was closed only in the 1980's. Opetaia Foa’i sang about the machinations of the whaling industry to gain favor in the Polynesian islands. When Richard asked about the meaning of a Polynesian phrase that was repeated several times in the song the answer was naturally, "open your eyes".
But the high point of the festival for me was John Boutte's performance that evening. With just a tambourine in hand and backed by a single guitarist, he gave a performance that would have been just as home in your living room as it was in front of four or five thousand people. He was a jazz singer in his element - he sang Louis Armstrong songs, he sang about growing up in the 7th Ward in New Orleans, he sang a song for his six sisters (he explained "I'm one of ten children - my parents were Catholic and didn't have a TV"), and he sang The Treme Song, the theme song of HBO's series Treme.
And he spoke about how New Orleans had suffered "two man-made disasters in five years". He taught us the refrain of a song he called "a work in progress", joking about how his guitarist was still learning the song and having us sing the words "nobody knows nothing", drawing them out so they were slow and sad and angry all at the same time. Then he launched into this song:
Eleven people dead, and
Nobody knows nothing!
...
We asked Halliburton what happened
And they said one thing's for certain
Nobody knows nothing
...
We asked TransOcean what went wrong
And they just lied again
Nobody knows nothing
...
I wish I could remember all of the words and I can't wait until he releases it on CD. It's a perfect example of the type of song that Buffy and Zachary and Opetaia were talking about, one that I believe has the power to change how people see things. As I said earlier, when someone does make a documentary about BP's greed and malfeasance in the Gulf of Mexico Nobody Knows Nothing deserves to be the title track.
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A few pictures from the festival...
The line at opening day.
Settling in.
The music starts and this little girl can't stop dancing.
The sun beginning to set on the beautiful mountain surroundings.
Zachary Richard on stage:
Unfortunately I don't have any pics of John Boutte on stage. It was raining that day and I didn't take my camera.
Leaving Canmore on a rainy day in the mountains.
How did we ever manage before gadgets?