Another worthy CD to come out of the Katrina tragedy is Our New Orleans 2005 on Nonesuch Records. It's chock-full of stirring performances by a wide range of top New Orleans musicians, including Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Buckwheat Zydeco, Beausoleil, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and others. Unlike Sing Me Back Home, which was cut in one studio with a house band (and guests), Our New Orleans was recorded in September and October of 2005 at a variety of studios, using a number of different producers and engineers recording multiple lineups of musicians — also a logistical challenge. Some of the performances are spectacular, too: Toussaint rolling through “Yes We Can Can” (see “Classic Tracks”); Thomas, soulful and gritty on Bessie Smith's topical “Backwater Blues”; Ry Cooder unleashing one of his greatest slide guitar solos ever on Buckwheat Zydeco's “Cryin' the Streets”; pianist Eddie Bo breathing new life into “When the Saints Come Marching In”; Randy Newman fronting the Louisiana Philharmonic for a spellbinding version of “Louisiana 1927”; and on and on. All the musicians, engineers and studios donated their time.

The first sessions took place in Manhattan on September 20 and 21, 2005, following a big Katrina fund-raiser at Madison Square Garden. Working at Avatar Studios, producer Joe Henry and engineer Kevin Killen spent the afternoon of the 20th setting up, and then the band — a number of Henry's regulars — came in around 7:30 p.m. “We rehearsed the band until about 11,” Killen says, “and we weren't sure what time Allen [Toussaint] and Irma [Thomas] were going to show up from the concert. They probably came in around 11:30, and then we literally ran down the songs once and started cutting. We were ready to go; we just had to get our vocal levels. Everyone was really revved up.” The next morning, Henry and Killen cut “Yes We Can Can” and “Tipitina” with Toussaint, as well as a track with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. “It was extremely poignant,” Killen notes. “These musicians didn't know if their homes had survived, if they even had a home to go back to.” Killen mixed the tracks at Randy Ezratty's personal facility, Sevonay Sound, which is an ICON D-Command/Pro Tools|HD room. “We kept everything simple,” Killen says. “Our approach was to document what was going down in the room, with a minimal amount of overdubs. I think it turned out really well.”

Meanwhile, over at Clinton Recording (N.Y.), producers Doug Petty and Matt Sakakeeny and engineer Todd Whitelock were tracking the Wild Magnolias and the Perservation Hall Jazz Band for their tracks, and in the weeks that followed, more songs would be cut at Clinton, Avatar, Young Avenue Sound in Memphis, SugarHill in Houston and Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, with a host of producers: Mark Bingham, Steve Epstein, Joel and Adam Dorn, Nick Spitzer, Ry Cooder and Hal Willner; and many fine engineers — Bill Bennett, Sammy Holbrook, Gene Paul, Jamie Polaski, Larry Rock, Anthony Ruotolo and Drew Vonderhaar.

Of special note, though, is the handful of tracks recorded in October at Dockside Studios in Maurice, La. Miraculously, the studio was spared Katrina's wrath — which is why engineer Steve Reynolds, of New Orleans' historic Ultrasonic Studios, gravitated there when his own facility was completely destroyed. “I'm afraid Ultrasonic is ready for the bulldozer,” he says sadly.

“We managed to salvage some of our gear after Katrina and we put it in vans to take down to Dockside because we had a couple of projects to do and [owner Steve Nails] was nice enough to let us work there,” he continues. “But then here comes Hurricane Rita and it was headed right for that area, so we evacuated again and drove around with all this gear, dodging hurricanes for what seemed like the longest time.”

Eventually, Reynolds found his way back to Dockside, and working on Our New Orleans turned into a rare pleasure at a time when he was extremely stressed out from dealing with Ultrasonic's reversal of fortunes. “In New Orleans, everything was wrecked and my whole world was upside down,” he says. “I was going back and forth trying to salvage things, but when I returned to Dockside, it was so beautiful and nice and peaceful. I'd pull in the gate at Dockside, and it was like the weight of the world was off my shoulders. I needed to do that album. I think we all did.”