Katrina brings Costello, Toussaint together

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‘It felt like we were part of a very important mission’
It’s a scene that was replayed when the pair traveled to New Orleans in the fall to finish the record, which was started in Los Angeles. At first, they didn’t even know if there was an undamaged studio left in the city, but they soon found themselves at the celebrated Piety Street Recording studio in the virtually deserted Ninth Ward.

Their surroundings definitely had an impact on the tone of the record, both men say.

“Spiritually, we knew where we were,” says Toussaint, in his deep, regal voice. “It felt like we were part of a very important mission. It was about making the music itself, but these underlying subjects were lurking around.”

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“There’s also the experience of being in a city which you’re used to seeing full of people and activity and life,” Costello pipes in, describing how the typically busy Canal Street strip looked like a ghost town.

“I got out of the car, and it’s like, it’s completely silent, and there was nobody around.”

Though Costello’s ties to New Orleans are more musical than personal, he’s the one who gets most visibly riled over what’s become of the city. A vocal critic of the Bush administration, his anger over Katrina can be heard not only in his voice, but in the lyrics. While there’s no “Impeach the President” song a la Neil Young, Costello makes it clear that songs like the title track are political — and more.

“What the song says, I hope, is more than just finger-pointing. It is, ‘Wake me up from this. I want to wake up from this.”’

Toussaint still hasn’t awakened from his bad dream. While his house is being rebuilt, he has only been in his beloved New Orleans a few times since the hurricane hit. Though staying in New York has been fun — “I love New York like everybody else,” he says — he still feels homesick, a bit out of sorts, and is longing to go home again.

“I am a plant in the garden of New Orleans,” Toussaint says proudly.

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