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Tuesday, 08/29/06
Neville lives in Tenn., but heart in New Orleans
Vocalist voices pain felt by those Katrina displaced
By BEVERLY KEEL
For The Tennessean
One of Nashville's newest celebrity residents is still viewed by the rest of the world as the face of New Orleans.
Aaron Neville, whose family's name and music is synonymous with the Crescent City, quietly moved to Brentwood with his wife, Joel Roux, in November after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their New Orleans home.
"It was definitely an easy decision because our New Orleans wasn't there," Neville, 65, told The Tennessean on Monday. "Our house was under water, and three of my kids' houses, and my sister's (Athelgra), was under water. We had mold and mildew, and I have asthma, so I can't go back down there and inhale that.
"I had been thinking about moving from New Orleans because I knew something was going to happen one day soon; I didn't know when. I was hoping it wouldn't happen in my lifetime."
His attorney, Craig Hayes, lives in Franklin, and Neville's label for his Christian records, Tell It Records, is distributed by EMI Christian Music Group in Brentwood. He has done four albums for the label.
"As we passed it on the tour buses, it was pretty," he said of Music City. "You see all four of the seasons. It's beautiful. And we just picked Nashville."
Three of his four children lost their houses; two of the four have returned to the area. His brother Art has returned to New Orleans, brother Cyril lives in Austin and brother Charles has lived in Massachusetts for seven or eight years.
Aaron Neville ? born in New Orleans, the third-youngest of four Neville brothers ? is a four-time Grammy winner who this year celebrates the 40th anniversary of his first hit, "Tell It Like It Is." In the 1980s, he performed with the Neville Brothers, and he reignited his solo career in the 1990s after a successful partnership with Linda Ronstadt that produced hits "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life." He teamed with Trisha Yearwood in 1994 on the much-lauded "I Fall to Pieces."
While Neville has enjoyed his brief time here, his heavy heart remains with those suffering in New Orleans. "I've probably got friends of mine that I don't know if they are living or dead," said Neville, who is known as "New Orleans' first son." "I don't know if they went with the water or they got out.
"I feel kin to all of those people in New Orleans. I am theirs. I am Aaron Neville, and I belong to New Orleans. That is my people that are down there fending for themselves in this catastrophe."
But he can't bring himself to go back to New Orleans. He has not been back in the year since Katrina hit, and he doesn't know when or if he will.
"Maybe," he said of returning. "I don't know. When it helps for me to go back, I would like to go back. The New Orleans that I knew no longer exists; the heart and soul was gutted out. I just can't see it being the same New Orleans. I wish it all the best to be the best that it can be for the people that are there, that they can be safe from the hurricanes. Maybe one day, I would like to go back and see, but right now, I have a memory and I'm going to keep it a memory."
Neville is in New York doing interviews, including tonight's "Larry King Live," about the hurricane's anniversary and his new album. "I'm doing a lot of interviews, and it's bringing me back to last year, to watching the TV of murky water and bodies floating in it," Neville said during a phone interview.
"What is on my mind now is what has been on it since last year: Where was the cavalry when all those days that they showed on CNN those people in the water, those dead bodies, those people at the Dome and all?" Neville said. "I see the cavalry go everywhere else, but it didn't come to New Orleans. It's like it wasn't part of the United States."
When news of the hurricane spread, Neville was working in New York. He encouraged his wife and children to evacuate and joined them as soon as possible at a Memphis hotel. Not one to take risks, Neville had always evacuated his family early in response to storm warnings because he knew that a big one was coming.
"It was inevitable that you would get hit," he says. "I knew we were sitting in a bowl surrounded by water." Neville was in New Orleans during Hurricane Betsy in 1965, when the levees broke, and also in 1969, when Hurricane Camille ripped up the Gulf Coast.
After he and his family reunited in Memphis, there was nothing they could do but watch TV. "It was a whole week of watching TV," he says. "You were feeling so helpless. You wanted to do something. People in America were helping all they could. They were wondering the same thing: Where is the cavalry? No cavalry came for those people. But for the grace of God, it could have been me down there."
He said one bright spot had emerged from this tragedy: the kindness shown to the New Orleans musicians all over the world.
"We went to Europe and they had the New Orleans musicians over there," he said. "They've had plenty of work this year touring with the festivals. There was open arms all through the States. We run across different artists from New Orleans and everybody has the same look in their eyes: They want to cry, but they don't want to cry. 'Wow, that was our city, our culture, our life. It's not there no more.' "
During the weeks after Katrina, Neville became a frequent fixture on benefits shows to help hurricane victims. "It was bittersweet, but it was good that we were doing something positive for the people and not just talking about it."
Neville has been working nonstop since, both in the studio and on the road.
On Sept. 19, he's releasing a new album on Sony/BMG's Burgundy Records: Bring It On Home... The Soul Classics, which features "Rainy Night In Georgia," "(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay" and "You Send Me." He recorded the vocals in Franklin and the tracks with his band in Los Angeles.
"When I was doing this recording, I had moments where I had a tear fall out of my eye in one of the songs, making me think about a time or place in New Orleans or making me think about my wife," he said. "It was kind of heavy duty.
"I was thinking about my childhood days, and I can't revisit that. My mom and dad and my ancestors are buried in New Orleans, different things like that. I was lucky; a lot of people weren't lucky, so I had to think about them. When I was recording, I had happy times in the studio and I had sad times. Each time, a song would bring up something. As they say, grieving comes in stages. Some days I would be by myself and cry."
It was particularly difficult to record "A Change is Gonna Come," he said. "And 'Ain't No Sunshine' and 'Stand by Me,' " he said. "That's the thing about standing by the people in New Orleans. You want the world to stand by them."
He says he doesn't know if performing will become easier once today's first anniversary passes.
"I've had moments onstage where I get in the middle of a song and I have to stop. I hope I can get through it without, you know, because the people come to hear me sing, so that's what I want to be able to do. Sometimes the emotions can bring things up."
Neville lives in Tenn., but heart in New Orleans
Vocalist voices pain felt by those Katrina displaced
By BEVERLY KEEL
For The Tennessean
One of Nashville's newest celebrity residents is still viewed by the rest of the world as the face of New Orleans.
Aaron Neville, whose family's name and music is synonymous with the Crescent City, quietly moved to Brentwood with his wife, Joel Roux, in November after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their New Orleans home.
"It was definitely an easy decision because our New Orleans wasn't there," Neville, 65, told The Tennessean on Monday. "Our house was under water, and three of my kids' houses, and my sister's (Athelgra), was under water. We had mold and mildew, and I have asthma, so I can't go back down there and inhale that.
"I had been thinking about moving from New Orleans because I knew something was going to happen one day soon; I didn't know when. I was hoping it wouldn't happen in my lifetime."
His attorney, Craig Hayes, lives in Franklin, and Neville's label for his Christian records, Tell It Records, is distributed by EMI Christian Music Group in Brentwood. He has done four albums for the label.
"As we passed it on the tour buses, it was pretty," he said of Music City. "You see all four of the seasons. It's beautiful. And we just picked Nashville."
Three of his four children lost their houses; two of the four have returned to the area. His brother Art has returned to New Orleans, brother Cyril lives in Austin and brother Charles has lived in Massachusetts for seven or eight years.
Aaron Neville ? born in New Orleans, the third-youngest of four Neville brothers ? is a four-time Grammy winner who this year celebrates the 40th anniversary of his first hit, "Tell It Like It Is." In the 1980s, he performed with the Neville Brothers, and he reignited his solo career in the 1990s after a successful partnership with Linda Ronstadt that produced hits "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life." He teamed with Trisha Yearwood in 1994 on the much-lauded "I Fall to Pieces."
While Neville has enjoyed his brief time here, his heavy heart remains with those suffering in New Orleans. "I've probably got friends of mine that I don't know if they are living or dead," said Neville, who is known as "New Orleans' first son." "I don't know if they went with the water or they got out.
"I feel kin to all of those people in New Orleans. I am theirs. I am Aaron Neville, and I belong to New Orleans. That is my people that are down there fending for themselves in this catastrophe."
But he can't bring himself to go back to New Orleans. He has not been back in the year since Katrina hit, and he doesn't know when or if he will.
"Maybe," he said of returning. "I don't know. When it helps for me to go back, I would like to go back. The New Orleans that I knew no longer exists; the heart and soul was gutted out. I just can't see it being the same New Orleans. I wish it all the best to be the best that it can be for the people that are there, that they can be safe from the hurricanes. Maybe one day, I would like to go back and see, but right now, I have a memory and I'm going to keep it a memory."
Neville is in New York doing interviews, including tonight's "Larry King Live," about the hurricane's anniversary and his new album. "I'm doing a lot of interviews, and it's bringing me back to last year, to watching the TV of murky water and bodies floating in it," Neville said during a phone interview.
"What is on my mind now is what has been on it since last year: Where was the cavalry when all those days that they showed on CNN those people in the water, those dead bodies, those people at the Dome and all?" Neville said. "I see the cavalry go everywhere else, but it didn't come to New Orleans. It's like it wasn't part of the United States."
When news of the hurricane spread, Neville was working in New York. He encouraged his wife and children to evacuate and joined them as soon as possible at a Memphis hotel. Not one to take risks, Neville had always evacuated his family early in response to storm warnings because he knew that a big one was coming.
"It was inevitable that you would get hit," he says. "I knew we were sitting in a bowl surrounded by water." Neville was in New Orleans during Hurricane Betsy in 1965, when the levees broke, and also in 1969, when Hurricane Camille ripped up the Gulf Coast.
After he and his family reunited in Memphis, there was nothing they could do but watch TV. "It was a whole week of watching TV," he says. "You were feeling so helpless. You wanted to do something. People in America were helping all they could. They were wondering the same thing: Where is the cavalry? No cavalry came for those people. But for the grace of God, it could have been me down there."
He said one bright spot had emerged from this tragedy: the kindness shown to the New Orleans musicians all over the world.
"We went to Europe and they had the New Orleans musicians over there," he said. "They've had plenty of work this year touring with the festivals. There was open arms all through the States. We run across different artists from New Orleans and everybody has the same look in their eyes: They want to cry, but they don't want to cry. 'Wow, that was our city, our culture, our life. It's not there no more.' "
During the weeks after Katrina, Neville became a frequent fixture on benefits shows to help hurricane victims. "It was bittersweet, but it was good that we were doing something positive for the people and not just talking about it."
Neville has been working nonstop since, both in the studio and on the road.
On Sept. 19, he's releasing a new album on Sony/BMG's Burgundy Records: Bring It On Home... The Soul Classics, which features "Rainy Night In Georgia," "(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay" and "You Send Me." He recorded the vocals in Franklin and the tracks with his band in Los Angeles.
"When I was doing this recording, I had moments where I had a tear fall out of my eye in one of the songs, making me think about a time or place in New Orleans or making me think about my wife," he said. "It was kind of heavy duty.
"I was thinking about my childhood days, and I can't revisit that. My mom and dad and my ancestors are buried in New Orleans, different things like that. I was lucky; a lot of people weren't lucky, so I had to think about them. When I was recording, I had happy times in the studio and I had sad times. Each time, a song would bring up something. As they say, grieving comes in stages. Some days I would be by myself and cry."
It was particularly difficult to record "A Change is Gonna Come," he said. "And 'Ain't No Sunshine' and 'Stand by Me,' " he said. "That's the thing about standing by the people in New Orleans. You want the world to stand by them."
He says he doesn't know if performing will become easier once today's first anniversary passes.
"I've had moments onstage where I get in the middle of a song and I have to stop. I hope I can get through it without, you know, because the people come to hear me sing, so that's what I want to be able to do. Sometimes the emotions can bring things up."