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Goodbye New Orleans

from The Way the River Goes by Dan Weber

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    Comes with a Custom 20 Page Insert/Booklet (we had to BEG the CD manufacturer to do this!) with Photos, Stories behind the Songs and the making of the CD.

    From Dan:

    "Everything that possibly could go wrong while making the 'The Way the River Goes' seemed to happen. It started way back in 2017, when I drove up to Oysterville, WA and holed up in a cabin near the Pacific Ocean to polish 20 new songs I felt were close to ready. When I went to start recording, the studio I was working with packed up moved all the way to Truth or Consequences, NM. So I put the project on hold for a bit and in a wave of creativity, wrote a dozen more songs. I finally got down to New Mexico in early 2020 with 30 plus songs to record and we finished it 2 days before the Covid-19 pandemic was declared on March 11th. The world came to a screeching halt.

    Then after 23 years of marriage, I got divorced and moved from the Pacific NW to Texas, and tried to start over. Looking back, nearly all of the songs on 'The Way the River Goes' are about 'Leaving' or 'Moving towards' someplace or someone. There's a lot of truth and foreshadowing in that. I eventually whittled it down to 14 songs---the ones I couldn't shake and can't stop singing. I found them along rivers of water and asphalt, the current carrying the sediment of my life downstream to a confluence that was years in the making. I hope you agree that it was worth the wait!"

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Way the River Goes via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Way the River Goes, What I'm Lookin' For, and Ash and Bone. , and , .

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about

UNDER THE GRAND ROTUNDA of the old St. Louis Hotel in New Orleans, LA (Elev. - 6.5'), there was once a large auction block where slaves were bought and sold. During Reconstruction, after the Civil War, the hotel became 'The de facto Louisiana State Capitol'. Eventually, the hurricane of 1915 destroyed the building entirely and in 1960 the Omni Royal Orleans hotel was built in its place.

I learned all this one April weekend in 2017 while looking for a hotel in the French Quarter, an impromptu visit after a Sundilla Concert Series show with Bailey Jones in Auburn, AL (Elev. 702'). Along the way I stopped in Montgomery, AL (Elev. 240') to pay tribute at Hank Williams (I played him 'Hank and Jesus' of course!) and later on that trip I sang a little bit of 'Blue Yodel #9' for Jimmie Rodgers, 'The Singing Brakeman', in his hometown of Meridian, MI (Elev. 344').

I hadn't been to 'NOLA' since a wild and crazy Mardi Gras trip in college (shout out to the 'Twigs'!) and definitely not since hurricane Katrina drowned a portion of the city in 2005. I can't say why, but I really wanted to see the Lower Ninth Ward in person and what I saw left me speechless. Acres of vacant blocks, with an occasional house here or there, still seeming so desolate 12 years after Katrina.

I went to the French Quarter Festival that weekend, had the requisite Hurricanes and po' boys at Mother's, but discovering a hotel I could have stayed at was on the grounds of a historic slave auction site left me feeling uneasy. Standing on the hotel's wrought iron balcony that night, I had this eerie feeling that one gets surrounded by so much history. With the Mississippi just blocks away, and Katrina's devastation still fresh in my mind, I couldn't help but wonder: "In an age of rising oceans, how long could a city below sea level kept safe by surrounding levees, keep on rebuilding itself under the weight of its own history?"

This one is dedicated to the good people of 'The Big Easy'...

lyrics

Goodbye New Orleans
Dan Weber © 2021 Highway 142 Music (ASCAP)

The balconies are all empty now, Bourbon Street’s lost its rush
Even the drunks are fast asleep, maybe the Quarter’s lost its touch
The river keeps on rising; higher than it seems
So goodbye, Goodbye New Orleans

All the chapels to the past, they rise in to the air
The Cathedral spires, the Superdome, the old wrought iron stairs
But everything that you can climb, someday washes out to sea
So goodbye, yeah Goodbye New Orleans

Norfolk Southern, that big black horse, stumbles at the gate
Blows her horn at the ship canal, so you know she’s been runnin’ late
Through the Lower 9th Ward, with its vacant lots picked clean
So goodbye, yeah Goodbye New Orleans
Goodbye, oh goodbye...

After all those sleepless nights, rainfall on the roof
I finally learned, that love was, letting go of you
I used to trust my instincts, that's why it's so hard to leave
So goodbye, yeah Goodbye New Orleans

Confederate ghosts are all gathered at the St. Louis Hotel
They stand upon that auction block; with souls they cannot sell
While Old Man River just keeps on rising, like shackles on their feet
So goodbye, yeah Goodbye New Orleans (x3)

credits

from The Way the River Goes, track released January 28, 2022
Dan Weber: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals

Truth or Consequences Rhythm Section:
Rob 'Berto' Stroup: Drums & Percussion, Bass (Tracks 12 & 14), Organ, Electric Guitar, Harmony Vocals
Michael Henchman: 5 String Electric Bass

Socially Distant Portland Players:
Paul Brainard: Electric Guitar, Pedal Steel
Kathryn Claire: Fiddle
Jenny Conlee-Drizos: Accordion
Tim Connell: Mandolin
Tony Furtado: Banjo, Dojo
David Lipkind: Harmonica

© &  Daniel Weber 2021 Highway142 Music (ASCAP)
All Rights Reserved.

Produced, Engineered & Mixed by Rob 'Berto' Stroup with assistance from Mo Cravenock @ Taproot Studio, Truth or Consequences, NM / www.blameberto.com

Mastered by Ed Brooks @ Resonant Mastering, Seattle, WA. / www.resonantmastering.com

Dan Weber is an officially Sponsored Artist with Crossrock Cases and tours with his 1967 Gibson B-25 acoustic guitar in an 'Air Carbon' 6000 Series Crossrock case. / www.crossrockcase.com

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Dan Weber Richardson, Texas

Dan Weber is an Award Winning songwriter who's been described as "reminiscent of early John Prine."

In 2019, Dan was the winner of the prestigious Woody Guthrie songwriting contest and in 2021 he was named a rare 4 time finalist in the legendary Kerrville ‘New Folk’ songwriting competition.

In 2022, he released 'The Way the River Goes', his best work yet. Dan currently lives near Dallas, Texas.
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