If you’re looking for a musical gift for the holidays, buy the Our New Orleans compilation CD. All profits go to Habitat for Humanity’s homebuilding efforts in NOLA, and you get very fine (newly recorded) tracks from Dr. John, Buckwheat Zydeco, Wild Magnolias, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Allen Toussaint, and more. (That damned Randy Newman track makes me cry every damned time. And that guitar solo on the Buckwheat song — which sounds like producer Ry Cooder — rips your heart out.) There’s a nice mini-documentary of the recording sessions on the site, too.

And as Chuck says, you can buy it from a Louisiana record store online to help out even more. While you’re at it, do all your shopping at online New Orleans stores.

Other New Orleans shopping opportunities: Renew Orleans and the t-shirts at Metro Three (although it looks they’re all sold out for holiday purposes). Love those slogans: “Go with the contraflow,” “Let’s mess with Texas,” “Make levees, not war,” “Nagin for President,” etc.

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17 December | 15:46 | Lislei

Thanks for the recommendation/links. I snagged a few copies of Our New Orleans and some other musical treats from Louisiana Music Factory. Yay, presents!

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Joshua Benton

Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Digital Journalism Project at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)