My Morning Jacket, OK Go Lead Big Easy Benefit LP

Top artists like My Morning Jacket, OK Go, Steve Earle, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills, Tom Morello and more have teamed up for a new digital benefit compilation, titled Dear New Orleans, marking the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The set — which hits all digital retailers and DearNewOrleansMusic.org on August 24th — includes new material, covers of traditional songs about New Orleans, and collaborations with local musicians. The MC5's Wayne Kramer teams up with New Orleans' funk rock mainstays Bonerama on one track, while MMJ collaborate with Preservation Hall Jazz Band on a cover of Al Johnson's Mardi Gras anthem "Carnival Time" for another. See the complete tracklisting below.

Air Traffic Control — a group of managers and artists who promote social justice initiatives — and the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Future of Music conceived the album. The two organizations have been hosting artist activism retreats in New Orleans since 2006, where musicians interact with other local musicians during a three-day benefit. "Go to New Orleans and meet the folks down there," the MC5's Wayne Kramer said in a statement. "Talk with them, eat with them, work alongside them and then play music with them and for them. Anyone that calls themselves a musician owes a debt to New Orleans."

Tracklisting:
OK Go, "Louisiana Land"
The Mendoza Line, "Catch a Collapsing Star"
Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman, "Midnight in the City of Destruction"
Janet Bean and the Concertina Wire, "My Little Brigadoon"
Matt Sweeney and Bonnie "Prince" Billy, "Love in the Hot Afternoon"
Paul Sanchez (featuring Shamarr Allen), "Don't Be Sure"
Alec Ounsworth (featuring Al "Carnival Time" Johnson and John Boutte), "Dr. So and So" Steve Earle, "Dixieland"
Luke Reynolds, "Flood"
Jon Langford, "Last Fair Deal Gone Down"
Laura Veirs, "I Can See Your Tracks"
Vijay Iyer, "Threnody"
Jill Sobule, "Where is Bobby Gentry?"
Flobots, "Stand Up"
Rebecca Gates, "Doos"
The Wrens, "Crescent"
Indigo Girls (featuring Brandi Carlile), "Kid Fears"
Timothy Bracy's Collection Agency, "Matching Scars"
Nellie McKay, "Late Again"
Blind Pilot, "Buried a Bone"
Mirah (featuring Thao Nguyen), "NOLA"
Allison Moorer, "A Change is Gonna Come"
2nd Chief David Montana, "The Change of Heart Man"
Wonderlick, "The American Way"
Bonerama, "Mr. Go"
Thao Nguyen and Bonerama, "Body"
Erin McKeown and Bonerama, "Blackbirds"
Nicole Atkins and Bonerama, "When the Levee Breaks"
Mike Mills and Bonerama (with Wayne Kramer and Dave Herlihy), "Ohio"
Wayne Kramer and Bonerama (with Mike Mills, Erin McKeown, Nicole Atkins and Martin Perna), "Kick out the Jams"
My Morning Jacket and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, "Carnival Time"

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

More Song Stories entries »

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