Of, by and for the musicians

Not long after they got back from evacuation, Eric Orlando and Marc Belloni, local singers and songwriters, listened with mutual admiration to each other's songs written about Katrina. They had heard that a few other area songwriters had written storm-related songs as well, and an idea was born: record a CD to help fellow musicians who had suffered losses.

One day Susan Cowsill came in and sang backup for Orlando's song. Asked if she would be interested in contributing a song of her own to the CD, she said yes, and all of a sudden, the list of people interested in contributing grew.

Entertainers such as Anders Osborne, Fred LeBlanc and Paul Sanchez of Cowboy Mouth, John "Papa" Gros of Papa Grows Funk, Mark Adam Miller and Caleb Guillotte of Deadeye Dick, Marc Carson of Murmurs, to name a few, got on board.

"We didn't know if we asked 20 people, we'd get 20 songs," said Orlando. But they did.

Both Orlando, owner of the Carrollton Station bar, and Belloni, a lawyer by day, were among Orleanians who received minimal or no storm damage to their homes. But most of the entertainers who combined to record the recently released CD "Feeder Bands on the Run" were not as fortunate.

Beyond their material losses, Cowsill suffered the loss of a brother.

"Most everyone lost a home or a studio or a business," said Belloni. "Maybe you already got your guitar or amp back, but what if your car breaks down," said Orlando. "We're trying to get these guys back in their normal routine. A lot of them are gigging now; before, they weren't."

The twosome, plus Tucker Crawford, founded the nonprofit Carrollton Station Foundation to help out such musicians through sales of the CD, which can be purchased at Louisiana Music Factory on Decatur Street, Carrollton Station on Willow, online at www.carrolltonstationfoundation.com and, they hope, at the Jazzfest.

The music on the CD runs the gamut, said Belloni, explaining that although there is despair and sadness, there is also hope and faith, endurance and resilience. If there is one way to describe it, he said, the message is this: "It's why we live in the city -- that's what this album is about."

"My hope is that we can raise money to help musicians and that people can find some healing in this music," Orlando said.

Fred LeBlanc's song "New Orleans," which was recorded live at Carrollton Station on Christmas night 2005, closes out the album. In between verses, he says, "If the people we elected can't get the job done, we'll do it ourselves."

"That's what we all ought to be doing anyway," Belloni said. "Don't think the politics are going to be better because the hurricane hit. The writers and artists are themselves -- with or without the politicians. That's why they're here, because they love this place."

The songs, said Randall Couch, a Tulane University music history professor, "are a comfort, even if some of them move us to tears. Tears, after all, are cathartic and healing. We've learned that, too."

Orlando, who played for years with Barstool Logic, has a song called "Home":

Where you gonna go, whatcha gonna do now

However far you may roam

I'm going back to New Orleans, there ain't no doubt about it

She's my city . . . and my home.

Belloni, who has been involved with local theater since he was a teenager, teams up with Theresa Andersson in "The Suitcase I Left Behind." His song was inspired by a longtime acting teacher at Loyola University, Don Brady, and basically sends the message that "Now I get a chance to reinvent myself."

Belloni had been toying with the idea of moving to California and pursuing an acting career, but the sirens from the storm pulled him back, and now he feels closer to home than ever.

The title of the song came about this way: When he evacuated, he had to leave behind some things because he needed room in his car for a friend and her 9-month-old daughter. On a marathon ride to Lafayette, a joke was made that his patience and sanity were in the suitcase he left behind.

He says in the song that it is not "stuff" that defines us. Or loss. With the catastrophe came hope for new beginnings:

I spent a lifetime

Having the time of my life

Always trying to prove I was right and fight the noble fight

I get a brand-new lifetime

Free from the burdens and mistakes

Like the ones I made along the way that made me stronger every day.

"We just hope," Belloni said of the CD, "that it's the musical Band-Aid the city's been waiting for. There's a whole lot of positive messages in every song."

. . . . . . .

Columnist Angus Lind can be reached at alind@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3449.