Album: Dr John and the Lower 911, City That Care Forgot (cooking vinyl)

Andy Gill
Friday 30 May 2008 00:00 BST
Comments

On recent albums, Dr John has touched on the Katrina disaster that destroyed his hometown New Orleans – but here it's personal, a volley of bitter buckshot at specific targets – Bush, Cheney and Halliburton – and the wider lack of concern that allowed such a disgrace to take place.

The doctor employs characteristically limber, syncopated funk grooves while vilifying the profiteers, "black gold politicians" and land-grabbers fattening themselves on human tragedy, and elsewhere using the city's traditional mournful horn stylings to commemorate the victims. The funeral oration "My People Need a Second Line" unites both strands, as he puzzles over why police now harass the mourners whose processions were once such a feature of the city's culture. It's a sterling broadside from the self-styled "samurai of the holy lost cause/ of the river and the bayou and the fishin' holes", though you should skip the front-loaded guest slots by Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson to get to the album's real meat.

Pick of the album:'Dream Warrior', 'Say Whut?', 'My People Need a Second Line'

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in