Video Premiere: Little Feat Observe 20th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with New “New Orleans Cries When She Sings” Video
Little Feat, photo by Fletcher Moore
On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Coast, bringing unprecedented and unforgettable destruction to New Orleans. In the wake of the devastation that took countless homes and an unimaginable loss of life, the city banded together to recover in a hard-fought and awe-inspiring display of resilience. In times of strife, the Crescent City has always fallen back on the deep roots of its heritage, drawing support from the legacy of arts and culture that have made it a singularly vibrant beacon of creativity since its founding. Today, on the 20th anniversary of the storm, Little Feat have honored that history with a new music video for “New Orleans Cries When She Sings.”
“New Orleans Cries When She Sings” was originally released in May as the closing track of Strike Up the Band, Little Feat’s 18th studio album. The legendary Southern rock, funk and proto-jam ensemble’s new visual accompaniment for the soul-stirring track highlights their strong connections to New Orleans, which, beyond its crucial sonic influence, is the home of percussionist and vocalist Sam Clayton and bassist Kenny Gradney, who have held down the band’s backbeat since 1972.
Beginning in a contempative, intimate solo piano ballad from co-founder Bill Payne, “New Orleans Cries When She Sings” follows the same arc of resurgence from sorrow that’s buoyed The Big Easy’s spirits through its most intense hardship. After Payne sings, “I’ve seen your dark side/ I’ve seen your sunrise/ It’s been a long, long ride,” his bandmates charge in with a bouncing drum line rhythm and bright eruptions of brass. Payne’s heavy chords swing into a tangle of bawdy boogie lines for a swaggering jam, interspersed with shots of New Orleans’ historic French Quarter, as a resonant gospel chores insists, “This city is rising/ Ain’t nobody gonna keep it down.”
By peeling back to the tender piano reflection in its final passage, “New Orleans Cries When She Sings” resounds as an infectious, exuberant and thoughtful ode to the inextinguishable spirit of the city that’s been Little Feat’s second home for more than five decades.
“The night before Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, Sonny Landreth and I were in Philadelphia together for a gig we were playing with Jimmy Buffett,”Payne reflected. “Sonny, a resident of Baton Rouge, told me if the levees couldn’t hold it was all over. They didn’t, and what the world was shown in horrific soundbites and images in the days that followed was wholesale chaos and a mounting moral meltdown of a political infrastructure without a compass. What the community endured would have been intolerable anywhere else in the United States.
“Twenty years later to the day, New Orleans continues as it always has, with defiance and grit and a deep-seated, well-worn vulnerability. The combination gives the city its unique blend of nonchalance and a layer of danger visible just above the surface. New Orleans understands the tenets of survival. Vince Herman’s lyrics ‘New Orleans Cries When She Sings,’ along with my music, provide accommodation to the notion of a city that cannot be held under for long. It is at once celebratory, with a sadness born of grief and neglect. Its spirit always rises above it all, which is the true testament to how life should be lived. May New Orleans live forever.”
Watch the new music video for “New Orleans Cries When She Sings” below. Listen to Strike Up the Band here, and find tickets for Little Feat’s upcoming fall tour at littlefeat.net. This weekend, the band will pull into Woodstock, N.Y. for Feat Fest, three nights of intimate performances featuring support from Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Charlie Starr and Robert Randolph at the Bearsville Theater; learn more at bearsvilletheater.com.
Read more about Little Feat’s latest album and new era in the band’s recent Relix feature.
