Album Notes

Egyptland is a collection of scenes and stories set in New Orleans, where saxophonist turned songwriter, Ted Hefko, made his home for some ten years. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a decade's worth of ideas began to fit together to personify a city and a period in the author's life. Recorded in an era when living room studios began to rival the fidelity afforded our favorite artists and works of yesteryear, each track on Egyptland represents a collaboration a with a close friend or two in an intimate setting. The songs on this album are as varied as the sounds emanating from the myriad of storefront concert halls lining the way on an evening jaunt down New Orleans's Frenchmen street.
We begin with a tale of escape from Hurricane Betsy in the late Sixties, coupled with first impressions of New Orleans. By track nine, we find ourselves accompanying Ted as he guts homes in decimated New Orleans East, in the wake of a terrific storm. In between we have hangovers and awkward dates, hot days working construction in Algiers, an instrumental tribute to some flamboyant second-line dancer and memories of a childhood in Wisconsin. Finally we make our way back to Frenchmen street and one of those spontaneous late night street jams, mixing the Caribbean percussion and jazz improv that breathe vitality into New Orleans's take on American folk music.