Mississippi and Louisiana Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South

MUSIC: An American Trilogy by Elvis Presley

# Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton

# Old times there are not forgotten

# Look away

# Look away

# Look away, Dixie Land. #

When you think of American music,

what you're really thinking about is the South.

MUSIC: Midnight Train To Georgia by Gladys Knight

Blues, soul, jazz and rock and roll...

they all emerged from the swamps, mountains, cities

and racial ferment of the southern states of America.

-# He's leaving

-Leaving

# On that midnight train to Georgia

# Leaving on the midnight train

# Mm, yeah

# Said he's going back... #

I was born in Albany, Georgia -

and I grew up in the post-civil rights era

and even though segregation was officially over,

there were racial barriers that still had to be contended with.

MUSIC: Goin' Down South by RL Burnside

# I'm going down south

# I'm going down south Where the chilly wind don't blow... #

By the time I swapped Georgia for Britain -

when I left America -

I hated the south.

Now, I've returned to rediscover my homeland,

through its most famous export.

Via the songs of the south,

I will take a look at where the south has been

and try to get a sense -

a little bit, probably, maybe - of where the south is going.

Come with me.

BLUES GUITAR PLAYS

Sitting here, looking at this old river...

..just rolling on...

..slowly, down to the coast.

Real slow.

The Mississippi river -

an icon of America.

To me, it's Huckleberry Finn,

river boat casinos and music.

It is the embodiment of adventure, freedom and danger -

I am lucky enough to be following it from Memphis to New Orleans,

through the cradle of rock and roll, blues and jazz.

MUSIC: Proud Mary by Ike and Tina Turner

# If you come down to the river

# I bet you gonna find some people who live

# You don't have to worry if you've got no money

# The people on the river are happy to give... #

The Mississippi drains America.

Its muddy water starts life as northern waste,

but when the river reaches Memphis, the magic begins.

MUSIC: Please Love Me by BB King

The city that gave the world

the blues of Bobby "Blue" Bland and BB King

dines out on its musical heritage.

And while its downtown isn't as gentrified as New York,

the tale of the city's most famous thoroughfare

is that of the typical black American inner city.

This is Beale Street -

the heart and soul of old Memphis.

In the 1860s, a lot of black travelling musicians

began to play right here on Beale Street -

and by the 1900s,

many clubs were frequented and owned by black Americans

and it was in this heady atmosphere of booze, music

and colourful characters that the Memphis blues was born.

-MUSIC:

-Haunted House by Memphis Minnie

# Well, this house is haunted and I can't live here no more

# Well, this house is haunted and I can't live here no more

# Every night just about 12

# I can hear something creeping across my floor... #

The 1930s brought the Great Depression to Beale Street

and it never left.

By the 1960s, this entire street was almost completely boarded up.

MUSIC: Furry Sings The Blues by Joni Mitchell

# Sweeties' Snack Bar boarded up now

# And Egles the Tailor and the Shine Boy's gone

# Faded out with ragtime blues

# Handy's cast in bronze and he's standing in a little park

# With a trumpet in his hand like he's listening back... #

Many attempts at urban renewal resulted in just this -

the destruction of a black cultural centre

and the emergence of a tourist theme park.

It's what America does best, when it's done with portions of its past.

It destroys it, evicts it, co-ops it

and then re-sells part of it back to you.

I don't know, the music and the food seems good.

MUSIC: Born Under A Bad Sign by Albert King

# Born under a bad sign

# I been down since I begin to crawl... #

Memphis is famous for Sun Records,

the label that gave the world Elvis Presley,

Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash -

but in the midst of the segregation era,

it was the city's other famous record label

that arguably made a greater contribution to Memphis life.

# ..trouble is my only friend

# I been on my own ever since I was ten... #

Sit down, gentlemen.

Thank you, thank you so much. Please, I'm dying to know.

Tell me what was it like working at Stax.

What separated the sound of Stax's music,

as opposed to other production labels?

It was a sound, but it was an attitude, too, I think.

It was an attitude...?

To me, when I listen to that stuff,

there's as much energy on those records

as there is music and notes and all that.

You take that energy away and it's just more music.

But you put that energy back in there,

you've got Eddie Floyd, you got Sam and Dave, you got Otis Redding,

you got Booker T - and I think part of it was the feel and the attitude,

because none of the artists really sounded alike.

MUSIC: Knock On Wood by Eddie Floyd

Knock On Wood - tell me us how came into being made.

Well, we wrote that particular song at the Lorraine Hotel,

like most of all of them -

and that particular night, I remember it was stormy.

It was. Came across that river from Arkansas, over into Tennessee.

We sat there with pencil and a piece of paper, just our heads -

and I don't even think I'd pulled a guitar yet -

and we were talking about all of the superstitions -

rabbit's feet, you know what I'm saying?

And umbrellas - opening them up when it ain't raining inside...

Walking under a ladder, black cats,

stomping champagne glasses, throwing them in the fireplace,

salt over the shoulder...

Everything you could think of, that's been a superstition through the years

and... I don't know, one of us came up with,

"What do people do for good luck?"

# ..on wood

# Baby... #

I gave him the idea of the part of thunder and lightning,

"The way she loves me is frightening"... Oh, man...

..I told him we was frightened of the thunder and lightning,

my brother and I - and he said, "That's it".

LAUGHTER

He's a good listener.

# It's like thunder, lightning

# The way you love me is frightening

# I better knock on wood

# Yeah

Come on, everybody, I'm going to knock, knock on wood, all right?

Come on over here. # All right... #

On April 4th 1968,

in the very same motel that Eddie and Steve wrote Knock On Wood,

Martin Luther King, leader of the civil rights movement, was murdered.

MUSIC: Walk On By by Isaac Hayes

Do you remember where you were when you heard King had been killed?

I was here at Stax.

Curfew by five or six o'clock, of course.

I stayed at Booker's house...

-Oh, did you?

-Yeah, down the street.

I had never been to his house before, but I couldn't make it home.

First thing they do, once something...you know?

They do a lockdown, we had to go lockdown.

In the block, in the whole area, there was a grocery store next door,

there was a restaurant across the street,

there was a bakery up the street,

a barber shop around the corner...

They torched all those buildings.

I remember Ray Meadows,

who was a promotion guy for us and also a bodyguard for some people.

He said he stood out in front of the studio and said,

"Guys, you're not torching this one" and they passed it on by.

# Walk on by

# Walk on by... #

Stax's reputation is such that it managed to do racial integration

better than a lot of things and people around it.

No matter who you were -

whether you were a disc jockey, or somebody visiting,

or a musician getting ready to go to work -

when you walked through those doors, it was the same as going to church.

It's like everything on the outside stayed on the outside -

you didn't bring that inside.

Everyone was in there for the same reason, on the same level -

to try to get a hit record. That's what it was about.

LAUGHTER

MUSIC: My Home Is In The Delta by Muddy Waters

# Well, my home's in the delta

# Way out on that farmer's road... #

In the 19th and early 20th century,

the Mississippi Delta was a booming region

that thrived on cotton farming.

This area has been described as "the most southern place on Earth".

Being here is like stepping back in time.

When I go back to Mississippi down there,

I feel drunk with the atmosphere.

It just roll over me like a wave, you know?

It's thick in the air.

So, if people go down to these places

and feel where that music come from -

haille on, my brother.

MUSIC: High Water Everywhere by Charley Patton

I feel like if people know or feel what that maybe felt like,

then when they listen to whatever they listen to -

hip-hop, or anything -

they see the birth of it, cos...

..ain't nothing that got rhythm, didn't come from that area.

Ain't nothing.

Mississippi is famously the home of the delta blues.

Its grand-pappy was Charley Patton.

He was just a rock star.

Man, he played behind his... Put the guitar behind his head,

played down...jumped on the tables...

So all this stuff that we think is like "new" -

that was going on in the '20s, man.

# I ain't gonna tell nobody what

# '34 have done for me

# I ain't gonna tell nobody what

# '34 have done for me

# Christmas rolled up

# I was broke as I could be. #

You help me understand some things?

-I'll do my best.

-I appreciate it.

Help me understand Charley Patton -

what is his connection with Dockery farms?

This is where he lived.

Round here in the delta, there was a lot of land that needed clearing -

lot of men that was needed for work,

so they came out here in droves, they hired them in droves.

And his family was one of the ones that come out here.

He got here about the age of six, if I ain't mistaken.

All his rearing, all his learning, what he became - he got here.

Mm-hmm. What's his connection to blues, why does he matter?

Charley Patton matters,

not only because of his influences,

but also who he was and how he was.

He was one of the realest people who played this kind of music

that you could get.

He didn't play in Chicago. He didn't play uptown.

He played here, where people who worked hard was,

people who knew, who made their living with their hands

and with their mind and with their back

and he had to find the soundtrack to accompany them -

and he did a good job of it -

so good, that he got to make a lot of records.

Tell me about the song, '34 Blues. What does it mean? What is it about?

'34 Blues is about the year 1934

and what it meant to Charley Patton.

'34 wasn't a good year for Charley Patton, evidently -

as the song says.

REGINALD LAUGHS

He talks about this place, the Dockery's plantation.

He got chased off of Dockery's plantation that year - his home.

# They run me from Will Dockery's

# Took me on another job... #

1934, he gets kicked off for have...

How do you say? Maybe not quite a game of jack in the bushes,

but somebody's missus hanged around where he was hanging around.

Or something of the sort.

# Come and told Papa Charley

# "I don't want you hangin' round on my job no more" #

There's an old Indian saying that says,

some places, the music is so thick in the trees

that you can hold up your instrument and it'll play itself -

and the music of this place was born right out of here.

It wasn't fashioned, it wasn't created for somebody to like -

it came up and it was liked.

One of the few spiritual things you can connect to

in the physical world is music -

and this music rose up out of here and came out of people.

# Oh, it may bring sorrow

# And it may bring tears

# And it may bring sorrow

# And it may bring tears

# Oh, Lord have mercy

# Let me see another year. #

MUSIC: Moon Going Down by Seasick Steve

# Oh, that moon going down baby,

# Clarksdale sun's about to shine

# Yeah, that moon going down, baby,

# Clarksdale sun's about to shine

# Rosetta Henry told me

# Don't want you hanging round no more. #

In the early 20th century,

Clarksdale was known as "the gold button in the cotton belt".

But the city gradually emptied following the Great Depression,

part of a migration that saw six million blacks go north,

in search of work.

Clarksdale never recovered

and today, Mississippi is the poorest state in the union.

The river has worked its magic on Clarksdale.

It oozes with famous musical names.

John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Sam Cooke were born in the area.

You know, Clarksdale? So many people come from there -

from that little area around there -

and it used to be a kind of wealthy town,

when the cotton was doing good.

I like walking through the town, cos it's like...

all the old beat-up buildings.

You kind of can imagine what it was like,

back in the '30s and stuff, you know?

# I was down in Sunflower

# With my face full of frowns. #

MUSIC: Cross Road Blues by Robert Johnson

Clarksdale also lays claim to being the site of a dubious myth.

# I went to the crossroad

# Fell down on my knees... #

This is the site of the blues' most enduring legend -

the crossroads.

# I went to the crossroad

# Fell down on my knees... #

As the legend has it,

Robert Johnson was instructed to bring his guitar here at midnight,

for a meeting with the devil himself.

The devil did meet him.

The devil tuned his guitar, played a few tunes

and then, in exchange for his soul,

Robert Johnson was supposed to be granted

the gift of blues immortality.

Well, I don't know what Robert Johnson got,

or anybody else who made the blues here,

but the devil didn't keep much for himself.

What he got in return, it seems, was business -

American business.

But you know what?

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the union.

If a little blues keeps some dollars flowing in here,

I ain't going to get the blues about it.

# Lord, that I'm standin' at the crossroad, babe

# I believe I'm sinkin' down... #

It was here, just 17 years ago,

that I made a deal with the devil,

that in exchange for my soul, he would let me come to England.

MUSIC: Little Red Rooster by Howlin' Wolf

# I am a little red rooster

# Too late to close the gate... #

How do I feel about the blues?

I think the blues are a good thing. I think they're necessary.

However, I think it is a misnomer

that black people invented the blues.

I think black people transcribed the blues,

but I think white people invented the blues.

Black people didn't have the blues, until...

Well...you know?

Life was hard for rural black workers,

but not without some respite.

In ramshackle buildings, out of the eye of the authorities,

juke joints offered moonshine, dancing and the chance of romancing

to relaxing field hands.

Most of these barrelhouses have long gone,

but deep in Merigold,

one farmer has been running a joint for over 50 years.

On Thursday nights, William Seaberry is Po' Monkey.

Now, we're standing here

in one of the most authentic juke joints going around.

Tell me, in the best words you can,

what is a juke joint, for someone who ain't never heard of one

or know what one is?

Well, ever since I been here - I been here 58 years,

I tell you everyone that comes here, they really enjoy themselves.

All the guys with their breeches falling off and caps back,

this is not the place for them - this is a blues house only.

Say, you know a lot of people like that bomp-bomp music.

That bomp-bomp music's not the score here.

So coming in with your breeches falling all off your ass

and your caps all back, this is not the place.

-To hell with that bomp-bomp music!

-That's right.

What makes you run this one night a week, rather than every night?

Well, the thing about it, I work on a farm - I drive tractors every day.

-You work on a farm...

-Yeah.

-..and then you do this?

Yeah, I'm a tractor driver.

That's a hell of a man, sir. That's a hell of a man.

-Mr Po' Monkey...

-Yes, sir.

-..it's getting about dark, it's getting time for you to start.

I'm going to go in and enjoy a drink in your place, if that's all right?

-It will be fine, fine.

-Lead the way, sir.

-OK.

MUSIC: Let's Get High by Rosco Gordon

# We're gonna have a real good time

# Honey, let's get high

# We're gonna have a real good time

# We're gonna start out on whiskey

# We'll end up drinking wine... #

I've not met Frank. What's happening, Frank?

Frank looks like he'd be lifting logs - for fun!

THEY LAUGH

# Let's get real drunk

# Let's let it be our ruin

# Whoa!

# Let's start out on whiskey

# Let's let it be our ruin... #

This is just like the juke joints I've been to in Georgia,

except back in Georgia,

they're set deeper in the woods, to evade detection.

But it don't seem like you hiding from nobody.

I ain't got to hide from nobody.

REGINALD LAUGHS

You've been in the same place for a long time.

REGINALD LAUGHS

This is my toast, to Po' Monkey's.

Oh, yeah.

I was born in Chickasaw County.

When I was six,

we moved to another region in Mississippi called the Delta

and we lived between two rivers -

one was the Yazoo...

..and the other was...

..the Tallahatchie.

# It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day

# I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay

# And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

# And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"

# And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"

# "Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

Bobbie Gentry's Ode To Billie Joe is a southern gothic tale, in which

a terrible secret returns to haunt the present in Money, Mississippi.

The song starts with the suicide of Billie Joe

and then speculates on the cause.

# "He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge

# "And she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin'

# "Off the Tallahatchie Bridge..." #

The secret of what was actually thrown into the river

will never be known.

It's safe with Bobbie Gentry, who avoids the limelight these days.

Ode To Billie Joe was written in 1967

and true to the curse of southern gothic,

the bridge in Money, Mississippi collapsed in 1972

and was rebuilt.

# And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

# Drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge. #

This is the Tallahatchie bridge

and while it's not clear what item got tossed over into it

at the end of the song Ode To Billie Joe,

the Tallahatchie river has released one grim deposit.

# Twas down in Mississippi

# Not so long ago

# When a young boy from Chicago town

# Stepped through a Southern door... #

In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till, from Chicago -

a black boy visiting his grandfather right here in Money -

whistled at a white woman in Bryant's grocery store

and later that night,

several white men came to his grandfather's house at gunpoint

and took the boy away, beat him to death

and threw him in this very same river.

The trial that followed was a sham.

The all-white jury took 67 minutes to acquit the grocery store owner

and his half-brother.

Protected by the double-jeopardy rule,

the pair later admitted that they killed Till in a magazine article.

That story was told to me as a young boy,

often like a cautionary tale

for young black boys in the Deep South...

and probably because of it,

I will never, ever be able to stop saying the word "ma'am".

MUSIC: Shake 'Em On Down by RL Burnside

Not all blues is the same.

I've come back upstream to the hill country,

to explore a very distinct style to that practised in the delta.

I'm at the North Mississippi Hill Country Blues Picnic.

Nothing says "blues" like a picnic.

I'm about to go and speak to the grandson of one of my blues heroes,

who is at this festival.

# See my jumper Lord

# Hangin' out on the line

# See my jumper, Lord

# Hangin' out on the line

# Know by that

# Something on my mind. #

Cedric Burnside, my name's Reginald Hunter. Thank you for talking to me.

It's all good, man. Thanks for having me.

You're the grandson of Mr RL Burnside

and I know you're an accomplished musician in your own right.

Could you please tell us about Mr RL Burnside?

-He's one of my favourites.

-All right, man.

Well, I have to say, he was unique.

You know, definitely his own guy.

He was the type of guy, he would give you his shirt off his back

but he didn't like to take no smack either, you know?

LAUGHTER

I just knew him for being that musician that

everybody come to the house, just to hear, you know?

On the weekends, if the club was closed, they would come to the house

and they would be right there in a little, small room.

Might hold 12 people,

but it'd be about 30 people trying to crowd up in that small room!

So I just knew him for always being that guy.

I'm dying to know - what kind of music did he hate?

LAUGHTER

Anything that would make him go, "Boy, turn that off!"

Well, hip-hop... He didn't like a whole lot of hip-hop.

But every now and then, he would have a good side

and he'd be like, "Hey, go ahead and play it."

He don't be wanting to hear it, but he'd just be nice to us,

because he knows that's what we all want to hear, every now and then.

The old timers, they called it old Chinese music.

He'd be like "that hippity-hop" that "hip-hip-hoppity hip-hop,

"I don't want to hear that."

LAUGHTER

Would you explain the difference between hill country blues

and say, delta blues?

Yeah, delta have that straight-going beat...

and you'll have the changes here and there...

but in hill country blues, you might not have any changes.

You know what I'm saying?

And then, when you have a change,

you better know where that change is coming from,

because they might throw it in there anywhere.

So we call it "feel music".

It's music that... You can't really write this music.

It's not no 16 bars, no 12 bars -

it's just feel music. It comes from the heart, you know?

# Whoa, Miss Maybelle Let me be your hoppin' frog

# Drink by the water Sleep in a hollow log

# Oh, Miss Maybelle Let me be your hoppin' frog... #

Come on then, come on through.

I've got a face that's hard to forget.

-I'm just going to come out and say this...

-Come on out and say it.

-You're a young cat, playing this kind of music...

-Yeah.

..and when you hear about the blues

and people with the names that kick out, it be a lot of old timers.

What does it mean to you, being a young cat, playing this music now?

Reg, I'm going to have to explain to you, man.

Real true, man.

# See that moonlight shinin' through them trees... #

As I came up, it was just in my blood.

I just played it and I just did it, you know?

I got into my early 20s and people come up to me crying,

telling me how much they enjoyed it and how much helped them.

It wasn't till then, I realised and it dawned on me

that this was some special music.

Right now, I wouldn't do nothing else.

I'm a hill country man and I'm going to die a hill country man.

Anybody can have the blues,

but can't anybody can't live the blues.

Cedric Burnside, I am glad you exist.

Hey, thanks for having me, man!

# Miss Maybelle must wanna speak to me. #

These are my roots - the blues.

When I came to England, I was ashamed of this,

but now I am so this and this is so me.

It is how to say heavy truths,

with just a few words.

MUSIC: Frankie And Albert by Mississippi John Hurt

# Frankie was a good girl

# Every boy knows

# Paid 100 for Albert's suit of clothes

# He's a man and he done her wrong. #

One of the things I forgot about people in the south -

we are encouraged to expound on a love of gratitude.

If you do something for us, or give us something

that we feel really enriches our lives,

then we have this thing in us that goes,

"I'm your friend, for the rest of this life.

"You know, you don't have to be my friend, but I am yours.

"Deal with it."

MUSIC: Mississippi Goddam by Nina Simone

# Alabama's got me so upset

# Tennessee made me lose my rest

# And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

# Alabama's got me so upset

# Tennessee made me lose my rest

# And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam. #

This is a former plantation in Natchez, Mississippi.

Plantations and slavery is how the South built its wealth.

Before the civil war, Natchez boasted more millionaires per capita

than any other city in the union.

Natchez, Mississippi

is also the home of the 20th century's first great musical -

Showboat.

# There's an ol' man called the Mississippi

# That's the ol' man that I'd like to be

# What does he care if the world's got troubles?

# What does he care if the land ain't free?

# Ol' man river

# That ol' man river

# He must know something

# But don't say nothin'

# He just keeps rollin'

# He keeps on rollin' along

# Don't plant taters, he don't plant cotton

# Them that plants them is soon forgotten... #

Natchez was known for growing a lot of cotton

and most of your boats came through here and all your...

You might say, "riff raff", uh...

your gamblers, women of the night,

they had clubs down here.

A little of everything happened down here.

And it was very busy, shipping cotton and stuff...

The river was the only means they had of shipping stuff out.

# Darkies all work on the Mississippi,

# Darkies all work while the white folks play

# Pullin' those boats from the dawn to sunset,

# Gettin' no rest till the judgment day. #

All day long, lifting bales of cotton, picking up barges -

it was just work. In the song, they were saying,

"Old man river doesn't have any mercy on me."

"I'm tired of living", but he said, "I'm scared of dying".

And old man river - it doesn't bother it -

it just keeps rolling all along.

It just keeps rolling right along.

MUSIC: Born On The Bayou by Creedence Clearwater Revival

# Wish I were back on the Bayou... #

Louisiana is the end of the South.

In the 17th century, it was French territory

and its remoteness has allowed ancient cultures to mingle.

# ..chooglin' on down to New Orleans

# Born on the Bayou

# Born on the Bayou... #

The Creole were originally descendants of French settlers,

but the term grew to include black people -

both free and enslaved.

Today, the Louisiana Creole are famed for their cuisine

and zydeco music.

HE SINGS IN CREOLE

-You got some fried catfish...

-Is this crawfish?

You got catfish here, you got crawfish...you've got some shrimp.

-Little bit of everything.

-I'm going to scoop up some crawfish

and hope ain't nobody going to say anything.

Ain't going to say nothing! LAUGHTER

This is part of our culture, this is what we're known for -

the food and music, that's what we are all about -

Southern hospitality.

Tell me, what's the difference between a Cajun and a Creole person?

You've got to remember that you're talking to somebody...

I barely know in a song or in food -

I damn sure wouldn't know in a person. What's the difference?

Well, make a long story short,

a Cajun is basically a white, French-speaking American in Louisiana

and a Creole is a black French-speaking American,

here in Louisiana.

-It's that simple?

-It's that simple.

HE SINGS IN CREOLE

Now, tell me - what is zydeco?

Zydeco? The word "zydeco" actually means "snap bean".

That's exactly what it means - zydeco.

And we call our music "zydeco music" because it's snappy -

-it's up-tempo and has that snap to it...

-Ah, snap bean music.

That's right.

Back in the days, the old folks,

when they would speak French, they would say,

"Comment sont les haricots?" - How's the zydeco?

and some people would respond, "Les haricots ne sont pas sales."

"The snap beans are not salty",

-meaning things are not too good.

-Oh, man.

Or they say, "les haricots sont sales" - they salty -

everything is going good.

Like right now, if I asked you "Comment sont les haricots?"

You would say, "Il sont sales", cos everything is going good for you, right now.

-Il sont sales?

-Yeah!

-Il sont sales.

LAUGHTER

So, is it fair to say that zydeco is like...

-Creole-based...

-Very much.

..but then, after that, it just adds every influence around it?

Zydeco is definitely Creole-based,

but it's just jacked up a couple of notches.

It's kind of like, we can cook rice and you'll eat it,

but then, if you add a bit of salt to your rice,

it makes it taste a little bit different,

but it's still rice.

And that's kind of how zydeco music and Creole music is -

-they're very much... Very similar.

-Oh, man - the heat on the outside

and this heat that I'm putting on the inside...

The heat is on!

I am one cooked dude now, man!

You're well done!

Like I said, welcome to Louisiana.

All right?

MUSIC: Polk Salad Annie by Tony Joe White

# Down in Louisiana

# Where the alligators grow so mean

# There lived a girl that I swear to the world

# Made the alligators look tame

# Polk salad Annie... #

When I think of Louisiana, I think of spiciness,

I think of the French,

I think of Louis Armstrong,

I think of hurricanes,

I think of corrupt politicians,

I think of colourful law enforcement -

that's what I think of, when I think of Louisiana...

Oh, and most of all,

I think of voodoo.

MUSIC: Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya by Dr John

# They call me Dr John,

# Known as the Night Tripper

# Got my sizzling Gris-Gris in my hand... #

Malcolm John Rebennack is musical ambassador for New Orleans.

He belongs to a prestigious line of piano greats

that includes Fats Domino and Professor Longhair.

Mac is better known by his voodoo-inspired alter ego, Dr John.

If somebody was coming to New Orleans for the first time

and they wanted to put their finger on one thing

that would make them begin to understand

what the New Orleans vibe is about,

what would you recommend that they put their finger on, in New Orleans?

I say this... Jelly Roll Morton said this first...

It ain't New Orleans, if it ain't got that Latin tinge.

That Latin tinge?

Cos it's kind of the top end of the Caribbean,

whether it's Haitian,

or whether it's Dominican Republic,

or whether it's Cuba,

this was just the outpost for all of that, back in the game.

# I see trees of green

# Red roses too

# I see them bloom

# For me and you

# And I think to myself

# What a wonderful world. #

Tell us about the other flavours, that makes New Orleans -

and New Orleans music - what it is.

I think that one of the things that is off the hook here

that makes something different happen is...

There is no-one way...

or two ways to do anything -

and I think that spiritually,

that opens a lot of doors.

# I see skies of blue

# Clouds of white

# The bright blessed days

# The dark sacred nights

# And I think to myself

# What a wonderful world. #

Louis Armstrong is the godfather of New Orleans jazz.

Is it fair to call New Orleans music "southern music"?

Take a song like What A Wonderful World -

what makes that a southern song, if it is at all?

I don't even know if it is, or not.

You know what I do know?

I know that Louis Armstrong recorded it -

that's what I do know.

And he's from the South.

And he was from New Orleans

and he was a character

and when he moved up to New York,

into Queens, you know what?

He came back here and was king of the Zulus

and I thought, "yeah!"

Mac, I know I just met you,

but I love you.

Thank you for your time.

Hey, I love your ass too. LAUGHTER

# And I think to myself

# What a wonderful world

# What a wonderful world. #

MUSIC: Big Chief by Professor Longhair

Another thing about New Orleans is,

it is one of the remaining cities left - maybe the only one -

that still has its own character

and has room for characters.

It hasn't been homogenised to death.

Hey, man - what makes New Orleans New Orleans?

-What makes New Orleans New Orleans?

-Yeah.

-The people, man!

-Ha-ha!

On the spot, baby.

Hey bro-man. Hey, sister-woman.

-What is this?

-Chinese!

-Oh, hey! What's happening?

REGINALD LAUGHS

-They're in China?

-Yeah.

-Oh, my God!

-Hey, China! Hey, Mama!

-This is Mummy.

-Tell her she's going to be on the BBC.

-Oh, thank you!

Hello!

I think it's the most un-American American city in America -

and America is better for it.

MUSIC: Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? by Billie Holiday and Charlie Beal

The beauty of a Southern night is not necessarily in the eyes -

it's in the stillness.

If you were born into it,

then that stillness is in the hard-drive of your soul.

Some say the stillness of the Southern nights

are born out of little else to do.

Maybe.

But in our modern lives...

..we often get disconnected from who we really are,

or what we really want,

or what we're really trying to do, because we lose our stillness.

Those are Southern nights.

# Southern nights

# Have you ever felt a Southern night?

# Free as a breeze

# Not to mention the trees

# Whistling tunes that you know and love so.

# Southern skies... #

Southern Nights, the original was done...

Not as a commercial song,

but to share a part of my life

as a little tot, coming up

and visiting our old relatives in the country -

all those old Creole-speaking people -

some spoke no English at all.

My father said we should go out there to see where we came from,

to know where we were going.

# Feel so good

# I feel so good it's frightening

# Wished I could

# Stop this world from fighting... #

It was a wonderful feeling, to leave the city

and go out to the country, where life was so different.

There was no electricity, no gas.

There was so much wisdom and knowledge that they had passed on,

from generation to generation -

and I felt it, even as a very young child,

how fortunate I was to be there.

It was so good and so rich.

# Mysteries

# Like this and many others

# In the trees

# They all blow in the night

# In the southern skies

# In the southern skies. #

Southern Nights.

MUSIC: Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand) by Irma Thomas

Irma Thomas is known as the Soul Queen of New Orleans.

And if anyone can unpick this city's unique musical gumbo, she can.

I think of New Orleans as a part of the South,

but not necessarily of the South.

We're different.

-It's both at the same time.

-Yeah, we're different.

-Would that be fair?

Yes, we are a very unique city,

for lack of a better word to explain.

When visitors come to the city

and they see this laid-back comfort-ness that we have,

that we share with other people, we share with total strangers...

It kind of rubs off on them, it's like giving them a vaccination

and they've got to come back!

LAUGHTER

# It's raining so hard

# Looks like it's going to rain all night

# And this is the time

# I'd love to be holding you tight

# But I guess I'll have to accept

# The fact that you are not here

# I wish tonight

# Would hurry up and end

# My dear

# It's raining so hard... #

Does singing mean to you now what it always has meant?

-Yeah, I enjoy it.

-As much as you ever have?

Truly, I really... In fact, I enjoy it more,

because at my age, I'm surprised I can still do it.

LAUGHTER

So I'm enjoying it even more so!

Now, the song, It's Raining - tell me about that.

It's a song that's definitely about New Orleans.

It's Raining was written by Allen Toussaint,

under the name of Naomi Neville -

and of course, the city that rains a lot -

it kind of rewrote itself...

The storyline is about a lover who's not there,

but the weather's raining

and you know how you get melancholy, when it rains?

But that's basically what the song is about -

wanting the lover to be there, with the weather being the way it is,

So you can cuddle and do those things that you do when it's raining.

# I've got the blues so bad

# I could hardly catch my breath... #

I hear echoes of Hurricane Katrina in the song. Just echoes -

I know it's not about that, but it's like...

It's raining, and for those who lost anything here, it's like...

"My thing that I love isn't here".

When Katrina hit,

you experienced a loss - you lost the bar, no?

Oh, yes. When Katrina came, fortunately for me,

I was doing a gig in Austin, Texas -

and of course, we played the Saturday night and that's when the storm hit,

between Saturday night and Sunday,

so when I did wake up Sunday morning

and we were trying to see what happened with the storm,

we were able to see our house on TV,

-with the water up to the rafters at the top of the house...

-Oh...

So, as they were doing the fly-over,

my house was near the interstate and we were able to actually

pick out our home and I called my husband and I said,

"Honey, we don't have a home to go to." He said, "What you mean?"

I said "Look at the TV" and I showed it to him, he said "You're right".

The water was at the eaves of the house.

But you know, I was ready to go back home, still, even though the water was there.

My husband said "Where are we going to live?"

I said, "We're going to be in New Orleans". He says, "But..."

I said "No buts, we're going back to New Orleans".

# It's raining so hard

# Brings back memories

# Of the time

# When you were here with me

# Counting every drop

# About to blow my top

# I wish this rain

# Would hurry up and stop... #

I can't speak for other Americans,

but I can't say I believe that I'm alone, in that...

..I felt, as an American, that something was threatening us,

when Hurricane Katrina hit here.

When you hear about the people

who haven't been able to return to their homes

or lost their way of life,

or maybe the erosion of the musical scene, then it felt...

I felt threatened,

even though I had never set foot in New Orleans.

# The harder it rains

# The worse it gets

# This is the time

# I'd love to be holding you tight

# I guess I'll just go crazy

# Tonight. #

Since the flood,

is New Orleans' musical soul the same?

-Better? Worse?

-Well...

It's... Some things is better,

some things is worse,

but when I was just in the Lower Ninth Ward the other day,

I'm taking a guy...

..to see where my friends lived and stuff...

There was nothing, where anybody really lived...

that's there no more.

A whole part of New Orleans that was here...

..and that was part of the soul and the spirit of New Orleans...

is gone.

Where are all them people now?

Where?

A quarter of New Orleans' population never returned.

The storm scattered a million people from the Gulf Coast across America -

the latest in a long line of Southern migrations.

It's now ten years since Katrina -

time to move on.

It may be mid-summer,

but that Mardi Gras feeling is never far away.

All right, all right - and who the hell are you cats?

What's going on?

-Soul rebels.

-Soul rebels?

I'm pleased to meet y'all.

What's going on, brother? What's happening, what's happening?

So what y'all going to play?

Mardi Gras In New Orleans.

You don't need no help, let me get out of your way.

MUSIC: Mardi Gras In New Orleans by The Soul Rebels Brass Band

Music in New Orleans after Katrina - and the spirit of the music -

is in marvellous shape, wonderful shape.

For one thing, it has new strengths.

Whenever you have to overcome something as traumatic as Katrina,

you either perish or become stronger,

as opposed to drowning.

I always consider it a baptism.

# Well, down in New Orleans

# I'm going to go see the Mardi Gras... #

We've always been complacent here, to mosey on along at our own slow pace,

but Katrina sometimes...

made us kind of spike up a bit.

# I got my ticket in my hand

# When I get down there I'mma do my thing

# Gonna go see the Mardi Gras Gonna go see the Mardi Gras

# I got my ticket in my hand

# When I get down there I'mma do my thing

# Gonna go see the Mardi Gras Gonna go see the Mardi Gras

# When I get down there

# Somebody show me the Zulu King. #

New Orleans, end of the line.

End of the Mississippi. Journey's end.

I'm supposed to sit here and tell you

about how this journey has changed me -

and I guess it has, some.

When I left 17 years ago, I was done with it -

but since I've been back, I've found a new...

I hate to say it, but "pride" in southern music,

southern hospitality

and yes, even that accent I ran from, all those years ago.

I see a new South, forming around lots of the cities,

new allegiances, new economies

and the rest of the South, well... It's as sleepy as it's ever been.

I have a feeling it's going to be like that for a while.

The music of the south is many things -

it's funky, it's bluesy, it's gospelly.

It's full of love of home,

it's full of gothic-ness,

of sadness, of pining for the past

and looking forward to the future.

Thanks for watching.

See you next year, for Songs Of The South 2(!)