Monday Music: Louisiana, 1927 (Angel City Chorale)

The Angel City Chorale sings a beautiful rendition of Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927," and they make the song sound as big as the flood itself. In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, we could say, "Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, 2021." The winds have surely changed.

 

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Louisiana 1927 (Randy Newman)

Louisiana has had its share of floods. There is the 1927 flood commemorated by Randy Newman in his song recorded in 1974.  That flood came when the river flooded and levees broke. There has been flooding from hurricanes hitting the coast, and today there is flooding from heavy rains in what is being called "the 500 year flood."

There is yet another "washing away" of Louisiana due to a system of dams that prevent the Mississippi River from depositing silt to build up the delta and exacerbated by other man-made activity, as in the oil and gas industry, that is literally putting the land under water.

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Monday Music: I Think It's Going to Rain Today

Many have covered this song by Randy Newman. It appeared on Newman's debut album in 1968, but before that it was recorded by Julius La Rosa, Judy Collins, and Bobby Darin. Here is Nora Jones' cover.

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Monday Music: Birmingham (Randy Newman)

Prolific songwriter, Randy Newman offers a poignant view of a life in Birmingham, Alabama.

It was released as a track on his 1974 album, Good Old Boys. See a live performance below, or hear the studio version here.

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