A fitting anthem for a city that refused to die We Shall Not Be Moved video, ironically swept aside as another hurricane approached, is a poignant testament to survival by love, guts ... and music.
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Two years ago, We Shall Not Be Moved, a mega- music video featuring more than 100 New Orleans musicians and vocalists, was in the final stages of production leading up to its August 29th launch, with hundreds of publications throughout the world—from India to France to the UK to Australia—heralding its imminent premier.
Then along came Hurricane Gustav, the resulting evacuation and the supreme irony that We Shall Not Be Moved, which was intended to “heal, uplift and unify” New Orleanians still suffering the after-effects of Katrina, was ... well ... moved.
By the time the music video received its storm-delayed premier at the New Orleans Museum of Art on September 19th of 2008, and had been uploaded to YouTube, two successive hurricanes and the breathtaking cliff-dive of the global economy had wrenched all media attention away from the 3rd Katrina anniversary. And the We Shall Not Be Moved video, which had seemed on a build-up to explode into international broadcast viewership, was left behind.
The majestic irony of that turn of events might have formed yet another spirit-crushing wave in a relentless post-Katrina succession that swept aside the best intentions of many would-be do-gooders. Two years later, the We Shall Not Be Moved video has received only 15,000 or so views on YouTube—where its organizers had once hoped it would go viral and attract a million or more. Only a handful of CD's was ever sold, and the non-profit organization formed with the aspiration of channeling revenues from CD and merchandise sales into ‘healing, uplift and unity’ is no more.
Yet a viewing of the video on YouTube today still touches off deep resonances. “Real people. Real voices. Real emotions. Real hopes,” is one viewer’s post. In his YouTube comment, writer Robert Smallwood (whose book The Five People You Meet in Hell: Surviving Katrina is an account of his experience during the storm and its aftermath) declares the video “wonderful, uplifting, timeless.”
With the critical acclaim of HBO's new dramatic series, Tremé, has come an appreciation for the depth and texture of the New Orleans musicians' role in rebuilding their city post-Katrina. The headliners contributed mightily, to be sure, from the endless benefit performances by the likes of Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas and Wynton Marsalis to the entrepreneurial drive of Harry Connick and Branford Marsalis, whose Habitat for Humanity Musician's Village has been a huge boon to so many New Orleans performers who might never have owned a home, Katrina or no.
But it's those at-home New Orleans musicians—the ones who perform in the corner bars and the hip jazz clubs, in the symphony orchestra and the opera chorus, in sublime church choirs and funky brass bands—whose strivings sound out the heartbeat of their culture every day. It is they who have helped to revive their city, one soulful note at a time, just by being there—by simply doing what they do. It is those same, beloved local players and singers who lent their talents to the We Shall Not Be Moved video, and whose selfless spirit has inspired YouTube viewers to proclaim it “powerful, moving,” “hopeful and beautiful.”
Jazz musician Todd Duke, a much-admired yet self-effacing player with a wry wit and a singular, soulful voice on guitar, performs frequently around New Orleans with his own quintet or accompanying some of the city's other finest musicians. He performed on the We Shall Not Be Moved soundtrack and contributed a solo instrumental cut to the CD. Like all the rest, he agreed to the project readily and without expectation of reward. To the somewhat lofty suggestion that the role of New Orleans musicians, historically, has been to ‘transform suffering into joy,’ he takes a deep drag on his cigarette, releases it with a thoughtful gaze, then shrugs off any suggestion of loftiness. With the gently knowing smile of a man who has come to embrace a fate of late hours and scant monetary rewards as a life eminently worth living, he says simply, “It's what we do.”
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Among the contributors to We Shall Not Be Moved are New Orleans artists John Boutté (whose Tremé Song, included on the We Shall Not Be Moved CD, was later adopted as the theme song for the HBO series, Tremé), Charmaine Neville, Phillip Manuel, Fredy Omar, Topsy Chapman & Solid Harmony, Reverend Lois Dejean, Renée Wilson (supporting role in the movie, Ray), Shades of Praise multi-ethnic gospel choir, members of the New Orleans Opera Chorus, the Crescent City Lights Youth Theater Chorus and many more.