Katrina's Winds Still Felt Throughout the Nation
Life isn't fair. My dad used to say that all the time, and the inequities and randomness of it all become clearer every day. As the nation observes the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the contrasts between lives is one of the things that hits people most about it. Thousands of families lost everything they owned and were crammed into shelters while the rest of us watched the story unfold through the news from the comfort of our own homes thousands of miles away.
One of the oddest contrasts of that disaster was found for me in the tale of two people involved with the song "Southern Nights," which was a hit 30 years ago. As soon as you heard the title, you probably thought of Glen Campbell, who recorded it. The song was written by Allen Toussaint, a New Orleans figure who produced Patti LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" and wrote Lee Dorsey's "Working in the Coalmine."
The dichotomy between Campbell and Toussaint could not have been much greater on Aug. 29, 2005. Glen received word that he was being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, a significant milestone in his career. Toussaint boarded up his home and went to a shelter to ride out the hurricane, his very life hanging in the balance.
Both musicians made changes in their residences that year -- one by choice, the other by force. Just months before, Campbell had sold his toney mansion near a Phoenix golf course and moved to California's elite Malibu neighborhood, where, oddly enough, Tanya Tucker also recently moved. Like many other Louisianans, Toussaint is still displaced. He originally moved to Baton Rouge and now resides in New York. His home is being rebuilt, and he does intend to move back to the Crescent City.
I don't have a lot of other valuable insights. It's not like the same kinds of contrasts don't play out all the time: Tim McGraw, for example, moved to Nashville the same day Keith Whitley died; Johnny Paycheck recorded the biggest hit of his career in Nashville the same day that Waylon Jennings got busted on cocaine charges. But Katrina really underscores for me a couple of old adages: Life isn't fair, and much of life is out of our control. What we do with those facts goes a long way toward determining who we are as people.
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Mary Kay Soucy says:
I’m not replying to this blog…..It’s the only one I could get on to. I just wanted you all at CMT to know about my friend, Ashley Ambrose. She lost her 2 year old son, Talon, in a terrible, rainy, Saturday morning wreck. She played Kenny Chesney’s song “Who’d you’d be today” at his funeral. It has affected our whole town. Her family has never recovered from Talon’s death. I just hope someone out there in the Country World hears us. We miss him so much. Thank you, Mary Kay Soucy.
Walter says:
What a bauutifel memory! I saw Raffi play many times at music festivals all around Ontario over the years. I always made a point to see him perform as I so enjoyed also watching the kids who were full of joy and dance as he played his infectious songs. Children and adults alike really enjoy his music!