“New Orleans is like a body without a spirit. The music itself is the spirit.”
- Robert Mugge, filmmaker
Hurricane Katrina and its chaotic aftermath devastated the legendary New Orleans music community. Noted music documentarian Robert Mugge creates an emotional portrait of horror, heartbreak and hope as the musicians who lived through the disaster pick up the pieces and try to rebuild their lives.
Many Crescent City artists perform, including Dr John, Cyril Neville, Kermit Ruffins, Irma Thomas, the Iguanas, Cowboy Mouth and the ReBirth Brass Band. Interviews with the musicians and others make it clear how a category five hurricane, broken levees, floods, looting, black mold and their consequences have wreaked havoc on music and life in America's most colourful city.
As Cyril Neville puts it, “Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Wards is the heart, the roux of that gumbo they call New Orleans music and without that roux, you know they ain't no gumbo, y'all.”