Guest Book

From the ACT @ http://www.citizentimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage Habitat, musicians help rebuild New Orleans by Erin Brethauer published October 23, 2007 12:15 am Read 4 comments » e-mail this Print this New Orleans – Under a cool, gray Louisiana sky Monday, the pouring rain stopped long enough for musician Warren Haynes to place a set of life-changing keys in the hands of Thomas McDonald. The keys open the door to a home brightly painted in orange along Bartholomew Street in the Musicians’ Village of New Orleans and represent for the new homeowner “a shot at a future.” “I’m finally going to own a piece of the place I’ve lived in my whole life,” said McDonald, 38. “This is wonderful.” McDonald, a bass player with four to five different bands in The Crescent City, will not be the only musician on the block. Centered around eight acres in the Upper Ninth Ward, the Musicians’ Village is a small pocket of hope for returning musician’s and low-income families hoping to rebuild in New Orleans. Plans call for the village to include 300 Habitat homes. Supported by famous national musicians like Harry Connick Jr., Dave Matthews, Branford Marsalis and Warren Haynes, the village was specifically started to foster support for the city’s cherished musical artists. “There’s nothing like New Orleans. It is America’s richest musical city,” said Haynes, who has been performing on and off in the city for 27 years, “It’s a travesty to see all those people in New Orleans forced out or reluctant to come back. All Americans, beginning with American musicians, need to get involved.” Of the artists Haynes has known over his successful career, he always notices there is something different about the players from New Orleans. “All the musicians that are raised in New Orleans learn to play in such a unique way,” says Haynes, an Asheville native who has earned acclaim for his guitar work and songwriting with The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule. “It’s like they’re speaking a different language.” The home in the Musicians’ Village was funded with $75,000 from the 2006 Christmas Jam concert that Haynes holds every year in Asheville. The concert last year raised $127,200 to support the house in New Orleans and a home in the Enka Hills subdivision. Along with the keys, Asheville Habitat volunteers who are in New Orleans to start work on a new Habitat house, presented McDonald with a toolbox, flowers, a Bible, a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine, gifts that represent hard work, guidance, nourishment and companionship. “I had tears in my eyes,” said Melissa Rush, an Asheville Habitat volunteer who presented McDonald the bottle of wine. For more information on the New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village, please visit: www.habitatnola.org and click on Musicians’ Village, or mail a check to: NOAHH — Musicians’ Village; P.O. Box 15052, New Orleans, LA 70175-5052.