[StBernard] Our home, Louisiana

[Westley Annis]

Editor's note: David "The Nac" Naccari is a friend of mine.  The song is
great!  If you don't want to order the CD over the Internet, let me know and
I can make arrangements to get it for you, autographed if you'd like.


Sing a song of recovery

'Our Home, Louisiana' and 'Katrinalaya' deliver musical message 
Friday, April 07, 2006 
Angus Lind 

Recently, I wrote about Louisiana rockabilly legend Jay Chevalier's "Come
Back to Louisiana" being introduced to the Legislature for consideration as
the state's official Hurricane Katrina/Rita recovery song. Now comes this
news: 
 
Thanks to Katrina and her evil sister, this state apparently will be the
most lyricized-in-song state in the union, as evidenced by two more
not-as-official songs, but songs certainly worthy of mention. 


Reader Dave Weber sends in his nomination for what he describes as "an
absolutely beautiful, original ballad that I believe has become the anthem
for our recovery here in south Louisiana." 


That would be the haunting "Our Home, Louisiana," the work of New Orleans
native Jep Epstein, a talented local musician who creates original scores
for commercials and documentaries both locally and nationally. The Isidore
Newman School graduate was living Uptown before the storm and while he
evacuated to his grandmother's home in northern Louisiana, he got a call
from one of his clients, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana. 
The company commissioned him to compose a song that would depict an
emotional journey back to a place Louisianians call home. An ad featuring
the song reached viewers nationwide during the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, in
which Louisiana State University bushwhacked Miami's Hurricanes, 40-3. 
Epstein performed his song at his alma mater, at the dedication of Newman's
new fine arts facilities in March, bringing audience members with tears in
their eyes to their feet. No doubt many have heard it on the Blue Cross/Blue
Shield commercials, but if you haven't, here's a sampling of the lyrics,
which hardly capture the powerful voice or music tough to do in print. 
A flickering lamp, a fire bright,
The lights are on again,
Graceful trees tell quiet tales
And you remember then. 
All our dreams head homeward, cher,
Smiles bring other smiles,
Neighbors, friends and family join,
Together we survive. 
This is our love, This is our life,
This is our home, Louisiana,
This is our day, come what may,
This is our home. 
You can hear the song and some of the spots at www.bcbsla.com, which also
explains how sales of the CD benefit hurricane relief. 
Meanwhile . . . one of this town's great and talented characters (also an
educator and lawyer), David "The Nac" Naccari, president of the New Orleans
Hysterical History Society, in collaboration with fellow evacuees Sandra
Hollan Thornburg and Steven T. Jones, came up with a tribute to the
resiliency of Louisianians, to the tune of a Hank Williams classic,
"Jambalaya." 
Created and first sung at poolside at the Lufkin Days Inn in Texas, the song
has since been sung at shelters, in shopping malls, on street corners, in
schools, in churches, in health clinics, in retirement homes, on radio and
on television. 
The song, "Katrinalaya," is being touted as "quickly becoming the 'battle
hymn' of hurricane recovery." 
Here's a scary thought: The Legislature could enact bills for the official
state recovery battle hymn and the official state recovery anthem in
addition to the official state recovery song. 
But if legislators designated "Katrinalaya" the official recovery battle
hymn, they would also be acknowledging a song that has been added -- get
this -- to the permanent archives of the Smithsonian Institution. Naccari
sent in a recording for the Smithsonian's Katrina Collection and has a
letter of acceptance to prove it. How about that? 
Here's a sample of the songwriting skills of "The Nac" and his pals: 
Goodbye Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh,
'Cause the whole subdivision's now a bayou Levee broke -- no time to joke --
me oh my oh Gotta go contra-flow to where it's high-oh. 
Oh, hurricane, you're a pain, me oh my oh, 'Cause the bowl that I called
home is filling up-oh Didn't pack -- what's on my back is all I got-oh,
Filed FEMA claims to ease our pain when we got out-oh. 
Oh CNN, you're my new friend for all the news-oh We get fed six times a day
by the Texarkanos, More Louisianians in Texarkan than armadillos Evacuees
not refugees that's our new name-oh. 
Thank our new friends and go back home when it's OK-oh And we'll rebuild the
city that we love-oh, Make houses high so we won't cry the next time-oh Son
of a gun, don't need more floods on the bayou. 
"The Nac" has a message for everyone from Katie Couric and Oprah Winfrey to
Larry King, Bill O'Reilly, Jay Leno and David Letterman: "Put me on your
shows -- 'Katrinalaya' is the song that everyone in America should hear!" 
Also a comedian and a harmonica player and Tipitina's Cajun Dance Contest
winner, Naccari says his Hysterical History Society is grounded in the
wisdom of Napoleon Bonaparte, who believed that "history is the lies we all
agree on." Naccari says in New Orleans, "Hysterical History is the gris-gris
that we all lie on." 
Which shows up in the lyrics to "Katrinalaya." 
Naccari is getting ready for a five-day tour of central California, where he
will raise money for Habitat for Humanity. Sales of this CD, like the other,
are going to hurricane relief efforts, according to Web site
www.katrinalaya.org. 
And with apologies to Hank Williams: 
Creole cuisine and Cajun queens is what we-love-oh The best in jazz is what
we have to make you smile-oh Come party-gras at Mardi Gras and second
line-oh Thanks for helping save our city on the bayou! 
. . . . . . . 
Columnist Angus Lind can be reached at alind at timespicayune.com or at (504)
826-3449.