Not a pretty sight. . .
Scenic New Orleans, Post-Katrina
This is a FEMA photo of Tommy Malone's home. As you may know, he is a founding member of the great roots band, the Subdudes. A fan spotted this photo on the FEMA site and forwarded it to the band; and they had it on their website for a while. If you look closely, you can see the instrument road cases among the debris piled in front of the Mid-City home. Ouch. Fortunately, not all of his equipment was ruined; but his house had over four feet of water in it for weeks.
A friend forwarded this to me; and it's making the rounds. Of course, it is just one graphic depiction of the widespread disruption to lives and livelihoods, and loss of musicians' gear and homes across the city. I've heard that many vintage jazz instruments were lost in the flood, and know for a fact that great record collections went under, as well. No way will things ever be the same; but you make do (and music) with what you've got left, I guess, unless you ain't got doodley squat.
posted by Dan Phillips @ 12:39 PM
3 Comments:
My brother's house over in Slidell is a total loss and a contractor has given him an estimate to rebuild but his insurance company STILL hasn't sent an adjuster over even though one was scheduled to go over weeks ago. He's having to rent a place with some of his co-workers.
I saw the subdudes here in Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago and talked to Tommy about this photo. He said that he rescued a number of vintage guitars from the second floor undamaged. The cases in the photo were empty.
Bassist Jimmy Messa also lost his home in the flood, I understand.
They sounded great, by the way. They broke out three new tunes from a CD due out in January, and the new material was very hot.
Thanks for that update, Bill. Glad Tommy had those guitars upstairs! Sorry that Jimmy's home was lost, though. Look forward to hearing the 'dudes again soon.
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