Listening to music is just another way to make yourself feel good and shift you to a good place when you are not feeling up beat.

My husband and I like to attend music festivals and enjoy hearing new groups. We enjoy feeling the connectedness to other people as we all sit and listen to music. We enjoy dancing.

Last evening we attended ON THE WATERFRONT in Rockford Illinois. It is a very reasonable event and has lots of different music choices.

We enjoyed a band called Trombone Shorty from New Orleans. Trombone Shorty has a web page and a my space page so look him up. HE is a very excellent trombone player and a real showman. HE is very energetic. At the end of the show, he switched to play the drums, the guitar player, who was excellent played the sax. The sax player played the guitar. The bongo drum player played the trumpet.
The base player played the trombone and the drummer played the base guitar. And then they all played excellently. He got everyone in the audience up dancing by the end of the show.

My son and daughter in law were with us and they really enjoyed the show too. I would say they are a band for all ages. (Though some seniors did get up and leave during the show)

It was a tough choice to pick one band. Puddle of Mud was playing at the same time as well as the Marshall Tucker band and there is always a great band at WNIJ’s stage. They have a country stage as well.

On Friday night we listened to Tab Benoit. He is a wonderful musician from New Orleans as well. His style is more rockabilly which is a New Orleans style. Check him out online.

The New Orleans musicians always have a uniqueness that is the result of growing up in a special musical melting pot.

Tab appealed to the members of the audience to call the White House and ask that New Orleans get help. There are hundreds of people there living in tents as well as people living in FEMA trailers. I have been praying for all these folks as we wait to see what will happen in this hurricane. He said that he has been told that calling has more effect than emailing.

I really can’t imagine all that these people have been through since the last hurricane. I had been to New Orleans several times before Katrina and several times since. It is difficult to describe how the people have been affected. Many lost everything. Some people that still have their house may not be living there now as the drug dealers moved into the empty houses and have made some areas unsafe. One cab driver told us he is waiting for more people to come back so he can move home. The media focuses on the 9th ward which was the most severely hit by Katrina but other parts of the city were affected as well.

I have to say that many, many people told me their stories this last time I was in New Orleans.

The people who live in tent city really affected me. I was wondering where do they go to the bathroom, or shower, or cook. They live under the viaduct. At jazz fest you pass them as you drive from the hotel area to the fairgrounds.

So, give a call today. Or send a donation to habitat for humanity.
Blessings, Eileen