Soul-Churning Music

In high school, I had a bus driver named Mr. Chuck (in New Orleans, you always refer to an adult as Mister or Miss followed by their first name). I always sat behind him because I liked to hear his stories and listen to him drum on the dashboard. He had been a professional conga player back in the day for a few of the jazz greats, and he turned me on to some really good albums (like the feel-good jazz funk album Blackbyrd by Donald Byrd). Mr. Chuck and WWOZ (New Orleans Roots Radio, now streaming on the Web as WWOZ in Exile from Hoboken, New Jersey at www.wwoz.com) transformed my tastes in music and changed my life.

I moved to New Orleans as a barely adolescent girl from suburban Virginia where the radio played the likes of Paula Abdul and Vanilla Ice—top 100 pop fare that did nothing for the soul. New Orleans music stirred emotions I was too young and inexperienced to identify…until I lived in New Orleans for a few years.

Listening to that music floating out from WWOZ headquarters in Louis Armstrong Park to hang beneath the 300 year old live oak trees covered in Spanish moss was magic. I used to set my alarm to WWOZ and sometimes I'd jolt out of bed in the morning, so transfixed by the music that I had to call in to find out what it was. Slowly I bult up my record collection, which has kept my spirits high in the ten years since I left New Orleans.

You can purchase a fabulous 4-CD compilation of New Orleans music at www.shoutfactory.com. All profits go to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.