New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans

At its most intimate level, music heals our emotional wounds and inspires us. At its most public, it unites people across cultural boundaries. But can it rebuild a city? That's the central question posed in New Atlantis, journalist John Swenson's beautifully detailed account of the musical artists working to save America's most colorful and troubled metropolis: New Orleans.The city has been threatened with extinction many times during its three-hundred-plus-year history by fire, pestilence, crime, flood, and oil spills. Working for little money and in spite of having lost their own homes and possessions to Katrina, New Orleans's most gifted musicians--including such figures as Dr. John, the Neville Brothers, "Trombone Shorty," and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux--are fighting back against a tidal wave of problems: the depletion of the wetlands south of the city (which are disappearing at the rate of one acre every hour), the violence that has made New Orleans the murder capitol of the US, the waning tourism industry, and above all the continuing calamity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (or, as it is known in New Orleans, the "Federal Flood"). Indeed, most of the neighborhoods that nurtured the indigenous music of New Orleans were destroyed in the flood, and many of the elder statesmen have died or been incapacitated since then, but the musicians profiled here have stepped up to fill their roles. New Atlantis is their story.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents 1. Voice of the Wetlands 2. African Americans and Indians 3. The Constantinople of the New World 4. Sad night in Jackson Square 5. Return of the Spirits 6. Let It Go 7. Don't Let Them Wash Us Away 8. Reality Check 9. Don't Take My Picture 10. Musicians Strike Back at Violence 11. I am New Orleans 12. Shorty on the Block 13. The Armstrong Legacy 14. Cold in the Trailer 15. If I Can Help Somebody 16. Baghdad on the Mississippi 17. Brown Baby Dead in the Water 18. On the Fringes 19. City That Care Forgot 20. Wild and Free 21. Saving at the Bank of Soul 22. It Ain't Just the Suit 23. Bourbon Street Blues 24. Snooks Flies Away 25. Ghosts of Traditional Jazz 26. New Blood 27. Jazz Fest turns 40 28. New Atlantis 29. McDermott's Duets 30. Cyril's Nightmare 31. The Wizard of Piety Street 32. Blues Come Down Like Rain 33. Cyril Comes Full Crcle 34. Marching In

About the Author :
John Swenson has been writing about popular music since 1967. He edited the website jazze.com for Knit Media and has worked as an editor at Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone, Circus, Saturday Review, Rock World, and OffBeat magazine, while publishing articles in virtually every American popular-music magazine of note. Among his previous books are biographies of Bill Haley, John Lennon, Simon and Garfunkel, and Stevie Wonder, as well as reference works such as The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. In addition, his writing has won two awards from the Press Club of New Orleans: Best Entertainment Feature in 2007 and Best Critical Review in 2008.

Review :
Named the Jazz Book of the Year (2011) by the Jazz Times Critics Poll "New Atlantis is a fast-moving hybrid of richly detailed journalism and compelling partisan memoir." -David Fricke, Rolling Stone "A solid, rewarding book."--Kirkus Reviews "An all-inclusive and engrossing study of New Orleans music and life in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Highly recommended."--Library Journal "Intimate, intelligent and passionate...Swenson's concern for the future of the music culture is as personal as it is journalistic--probably more so--and reading him, you can't help but care, too."--The Times-Picayune "The eloquent central narrative beautifully evokes New Orleans, alongside interviews with those who, like the Neville Brothers and Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, lived through the deluge, scraped out the sludge and faced down the National Guard." --Financial Times "An excellent and well-written book...A great companion read if you're a fan of the HBO series, Treme." --The Nation "This intimate portrait of a city that lost so much yet still has so much to offer captures the resiliency of its inhabitants and their stubborn determination to never give up."--Booklist "Swenson nimbly deals with an increase in violence and turf wars, one of the consequences of the town losing most of its inhabitants, while also telling heartrending stories of the irreplaceable memorabilia that was destroyed...anyone who loves New Orleans will find New Atlantis an engaging read." --The Austin Chronicle "John Swenson's moving book records the story of a city that acted on singer Randy Newman's famous plea, 'Don't let them wash us away.'"--The Independent