Dr John and The Lower 911 - 'The City That Care Forgot'
‘The City That Care Forgot’ is New Orleans, an old nickname given new significance since the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. The new album from funk icon Dr John and his merry band The Lower 911 is brilliant, the aging voodoo troubadour turning in work that is at once a lamentation for his soaked city, a cry of praise for the resilience of its inhabitants and a furious political tirade against the administration who so hopelessly mishandled the tragedy. It also has some serious, serious groove.
Single ‘Time For A Change’ rolls by in a good-natured wave of funk, all synchronous trumpets and Eric Clapton’s (as the first of a variety of guest artists) shrewdly poised electrics while not leaving any doubt as to Dr John’s opinion of Still President Bush. The duet with Willie Nelson on the next track ‘Promises, Promises’ unfortunately doesn’t impress as much, Nelson sounding almost bland next to Dr John’s distinctively nasal croon.
This is a stridently political album, the intensity of its anger at the ineptness of the government response to one of the worst domestic American crises in decades rivalling that expressed by Neil Young on his incensed ‘Living With War’. Take ‘Say Whut?’ for example, Dr John channelling the incredulous disbelief of those left out to dry (literally), promising ‘this thing ain’t over / you don’t close that door / whole lotta shit / to be answered for’, or ‘Land Grab’ which would make Naomi Klein proud.
This is all accompanied by the compellingly laid-back work from The Lower 911 who balance Dr John’s hot-wire song-writing with off-hand skill, as on the rollickingly upbeat interlude on ‘My People Need A Second Line’. And despite the vitriol hurled at the establishment, it’s this sense of affirmation and hope in the nation’s capacity for change that ultimately shines through. The title track probably captures this best, bearing simmering witness to the ruin of one of the most vibrant cultural centres in the US while looking towards a different future. With an undetermined number of people still displaced from Katrina, ‘The City That Care Forgot’ is not just a timely call for a vast change in direction from the tainted superpower, but a superb artistic statement.