Album Notes

Illusion Fields was the name of a chapbook of poetry that I, R. Moose Jackson, released just days before the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Returning to a battered community, where heartbroken wanderers wept openly on the streets littered with our memories, our sins, with the threat of another hurricane upon us, musicians from my neighborhood and I gathered our forces and blew our own storm of words and music. We are the ones who returned, who are here still, fighting to keep this city alive. Jazzmen, punks, gypsys and drunks, this cd is a snapshot of New Orleans in 2005. Expertly mastered at Piety Street Studios, it is a tribute to the spirit of the City that Care Forgot.


still-traumatic stress


here we are agian
back at the bar, my friend
or walking down the jazzclubs
who remembers
those first days coming home
when you could still smell the piety meat market
six blocks in any direction

but did that stop the vipers?
didn't we still move our shoes
to the saddest-ever swingtime beat?

you could say that
new orleans is a town with bounce
ounce for ounce
scrappers and hustlers

you might catch us awhile
with our elbows on the bar
even weeping aloud on the still, wet street

but soon comes the brass band
say, man...
the devil is in the distractions and
it's already the season of the witch

why do they call it post-traumatic stress when it
ain't over yet?

we still got no levy
but, alright
we'll make a raft of empty 40 ouncers
and this time empty the refrigerator
before we let any four lettered agency
call us not worth saving
again