When placed next to explicit songs of protest like 'Broken Promise Land,' such New Orleans R&B and soul staples as 'On Your Way Down,' 'Tears, Tears and More Tears,' 'Freedom for the Stallion,' and especially 'Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further' with its chorus of 'What happen to the Liberty Bell, I heard so much about?/Did it really ding-dong?/It must have dinged wrong/It didn't ding long' take on an entirely different, politically charged meaning. 'Broken Promise Land,' 'Ascension Day,' and 'International Echo' explore the aftermath of Katrina, while 'Six-Fingered Man' is a funny acerbic take on a sinful sloth who is 'always the first to blow his horn/His achievements multiply/Pity half of them seem to be lies.' 's presence on these five songs tempers but doesn't dilute the churning anger that roils underneath: 'Broken Promise Land' drives along on a swampy funk rhythm, the spare and laid-back 'Ascension Day' is a showcase for 's piano, 'International Echo' revives the rolling spirit of classic New Orleans R&B, while 'Six Finger Man' has a grinding, gritty blues backbeat.Īll five of these new songs are genuine collaborations, bearing the unmistakable stamp of both highly distinctive musicians, but the best compliment that can be paid to them is that they blend seamlessly with the classic songs that comprise the rest of the record. Alone wrote the title track, premiering at a benefit concert at Town Hall that September, and its angry account of the flood that wrecked New Orleans provides a touchstone for the other five new songs here, all co-written with. Initially, the plan was for the collaboration to be a songbook album, with and performing some highlights from 's rich songbook, and while the record bears some remnants of that blueprint - seven of its 13 songs were written by in the '60s and '70s - the finished work evolved into an elegant, eloquent protest album crafted out of old songs and new. They've collaborated before - wrote horn charts for 's 1989 album - but neither had plans to work together until they appeared together at several benefit concerts for the victims of Katrina in September of 2005.
Indeed, it's quite likely that this collaboration between and would not even have occurred if it weren't for that cataclysmic event. It's impossible to consider without taking the devastation Hurricane Katrina wreaked upon New Orleans into account.
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