Chrysalid: Musicians for Katrina Relief CD is a project organized by coalition of international musicians using their art to raise funds in support of the victims of hurricane Katrina.
UK
Pat Simmons is a musician and songwriter, living in north-west England. His musical tastes are eclectic, ranging from traditional folk music to electronica and he plays with a couple of bands on the local music scene.
Pat has a wife and daughter and is currently in danger of being indicted for bigamy with his computer.
The inspirationfor the song came from an amalgam of two seperate scenes from New Orleans at the height of the storm damage. The first – a sole radio station played on, the song on repeat was When The Saints Go Marching In. The other image was of people on rooftops, looking over the flooded City.
News cameras zoom and pan
Across the rooftops where a man
Is sitting, looking over Ponchartrain.
Tight focus, now we see
The silver trumpet on his knee
Then he takes it to his lips
And starts to blow
When the Saints go marchin in
Nothing’s gonna be the same again
Except the trumpet’s liquid tones
the music in his bones
And the city in his soul.
Silver notes cascade and fly
Blues against a dark blue sky
Black water lies, far as the eye can see.
The wind that howled is silent now
Yet on the breeze it seems somehow
A thousand voices join in the refrain
When St Peter blows his horn
And the city is reborn
Then the soul of New Orleans
Will wake and rise again.
Oh when the sun refuse to shine
Oh when the sun refuse to shine
The Soul of the South
Can’t be blown away or drowned
For it lives in the heart of the people.
Oh Yeah!