Whether returning quickly to the city or scattered far and wide for months, or even years, after Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures, New Orleans musicians processed the devastating event the best way they could: They made music.
Benefits to raise money for relief and recovery efforts emerged from locals — like the “Our New Orleans” album with Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and Dr. John — and mainstream artists like Green Day, U2, Prince and Stevie Wonder. And steadily, New Orleans musicians released new music documenting their frustrations and anxieties after the floodwaters receded. Documentaries following acts like Fats Domino and Rebirth Brass Band also told the stories of New Orleans music bouncing back.
Twenty years on, there’s a trove of songs documenting the ordeal, and while much of it was recorded in the immediate years after, there’s still new music reflecting on the hurricane and its long-felt aftermath. The reality is New Orleans musicians have been making art in a city forever changed, and their songs, whether explicitly or subtly, reflect a post-Katrina world.
Below are 10 songs by New Orleans musicians, just a small sample, that reflect on the storm and life in its aftermath. You also can find a Spotify playlist with these songs and more below.
“The Long Black Line” by Spencer Bohren — Over a haunting slide guitar, Spencer Bohren paints a vivid picture of post-Katrina New Orleans, a landscape marred by the high water mark left across the city. Simple and powerful, the song “could serve as a soundtrack to a Katrina documentary, but video footage would be redundant,” The Times-Picayune’s Keith Spera wrote. While the song hasn’t been used on a documentary, Bohren did perform it on HBO’s “Treme.” Bohren died in June 2019 at the age of 69.
“In the Middle of It All” by Irma Thomas — Irma Thomas, whose home was flooded, recorded her 2006 album “After the Rain” just a few months after the storm. And although most of the songs were chosen before Katrina, the storm and its aftermath naturally hang heavy over the album, imbuing many of the songs, like the opener “In the Middle of It All,” with new meaning for listeners. Thomas went on to win her first Grammy Award for the album.
“Georgia… Bush” by Lil Wayne — With a feature by Robin Thicke and its placement on “Tha Carter III,” Lil Wayne’s delicate track “Tie My Hands” may be his best-known response to Katrina, but “Georgia … Bush” is Wayne at his most fierce. The raw track on 2006’s “Dedication 2” is a 7-plus-minute hellfire judgement on Bush, FEMA and the federal failures to help the Black community in the weeks after the storm. Also, don’t forget about Tunechi’s verse on Outkast’s track “Hollywood Divorce.”
“Made It Through That Water” by Free Agents Brass Band — Free Agents Brass Band formed in the months after Katrina by musicians who had been displaced from the city and their home brass bands. Once they were back in New Orleans, the band gigged as much as they could and wrote the album “Made It Through That Water.” The title track draws from the spiritual “Wade in the Water” and celebrates being on the other side of the storm — although rapper Snoop reflects on the troubles many people went through in his verse. Free Agents recently re-released this album.
“What’s Going On” by Dirty Dozen Brass Band — In 2006, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band set out to re-create Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album “What’s Going On.” The soul classic captured Gaye’s reaction to the Vietnam War and the poverty and oppression happening in American cities. For the Dirty Dozen, post-Katrina New Orleans and the U.S. in 2006 — mired in war and with a reactionary government — was reason enough to again ask “What’s going on?”
“Levees” by Terence Blanchard — After writing the score for Spike Lee’s four-part doc “When the Levees Broke,” New Orleans native, trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard expanded the work for his Grammy-winning album “A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina).” Blanchard drew on the stories people had shared with him about living through the hurricane and the aftermath — and the album, particularly the second track “Levees,” is heartbreaking and powerful.
“Crescent City Sneaux” by Susan Cowsill — Singer-songwriter Susan Cowsill contrasts the sweet memory of the 2004 Christmas snowfall with the tumult of displacement on her song “Crescent City Sneaux.” Written just a few days after the storm, Cowsill begins soft and adrift before building to a brass band beat, shout-outs to great local bars and Who Dat chants — a reminder of why New Orleans is worth missing.
“City That Care Forgot” by Dr. John — Dr. John didn’t waste much time after Katrina struck. He quickly produced the seven-track record “Sippiana Hericane” in late 2005 to raise money for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic and other organizations. But of course, he had a lot more to say and in 2008 released “City That Care Forgot” with his Lower 911 band. On the Grammy-winning album, Dr. John decries the federal government, local red tape, opportunists and the way the wider world quickly moved on, as can be heard on the title track featuring Ani DiFranco and Eric Clapton.
“Gentri Fire in the City” by Flagboy Giz — A generation of New Orleans musicians are now making music in a city permanently changed by Katrina, and on “Gentri Fire in the City,” Flagboy Giz of the Wild Tchoupitoulas takes direct aim at the gentrification that has accompanied the city’s recovery. “That Hurricane Katrina / Sped up the plan / Push the Black people out / Like them Indians,” Giz chants on the song, one of his first singles and a track that immediately caught fire with New Orleanians who have watched the city change in unequal ways.