Greetings from New Orleans, where the city is at once mourning and celebrating the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I wasn't here for the storm, but I'm joining my neighbors in quiet reflection today. I'm sitting in the Watermelon, listening to WWNO's beautiful musical tribute to the millions affected by the storm (listen at http://wwno.org/).

This week, I've been digging through my past 3-4 years of demos, looking for "orphans and extras" that we might want to have in our back pockets as we enter the studio in January. I stumbled across a song I wrote back in 2011 and promptly forgot existed. I wrote this as I was falling hard for New Orleans, flushed with the fever of new love. This demo's a bit rough, but it's got that feverish feeling that you just can't fake.

New Orleans has a three-hundred year history of corruption, calamity, poverty, wickedness, decadence, kindness, collaboration, musical verve, loss and redemption. You can feel and smell and see it all, throughout the city, plain as day. I feel honored to live among these spirits, and humbled by the sheer overwhelming vibrance and strangeness and funk of the damn place. 

I'll be donating the proceeds from this post to Roots of Music, one of my favorite New Orleans nonprofits. Roots of Music provides free musical and cultural education to local kids from low-income households (a service that was once provided by city schools, but discontinued for a great number of kids as schools closed in the wake of the storm).

Roots of Music is doing a lot to keep the musical and cultural traditions of New Orleans alive and well, which makes us all richer. If you'd like to send them a few extra bucks, go to http://therootsofmusic.org/.

New Orleans, I love you. Here's to another three hundred years.

Carsie

I'm posting this now cus I want it to be the theme song for my thirties. My teens were full of heartache and drama, my twenties were good hard struggle and work. I'm ready to live the good life.

This is another studio demo, put together with the help and talent of Pete Donnelly and Joe Plowman, as a study for the upcoming album. Stay tuned for more album-related news in the coming weeks!

Love from my internet-free birthday party in the woods of northern Vermont,

Carsie