Katrina Revisited
Two years ago, on August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall at Waveland, Mississippi. Of course, the actual landfall extended west to parts of Louisiana, and east across the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast. Incredible as it might seem, 24 months after Katrina, much of the Mississippi Coast is still barren and scarred.

While a significant, and probably unprecedented, amount of debris has been removed, much of the Mississippi coastline lies undisturbed…and frozen in time. There are signs of rebuilding, especially at the casinos. And some valiant residents have started to rebuild. As they do so, they cling to their memories, as little else remains. A seemingly endless number of FEMA trailers cover the landscape. (more…)

His name is Roy Reick. His first name is actually pronounced “ro-ei” . He traveled from Israel to tour the Home of the Blues…and to learn how to play a bit of blues harp. We’ve worked out a contract for me to manage him. I told him I don’t have high expectations, but we’ve agreed I get 40% of his losses.

What follows, in his own words, is his story:

I’m 23 years old, from Tel Aviv. A year back from now, I finished a service 4 and a half years as an officer in the Army. During the last year of the Army, I picked up harmonica playing with no real clue what it means (I played guitar since I’m 17). Since I was a child, I was drawn into music and literature, but it has always been a hobby to me that almost vanished once I reached the hectic life in the Army. But, it (the Army) gave me a lot of dead hours to mess with the harmonica with only one goal in mind - to learn how to play songs of Neil Young. After a while, I got there, and started exploring the harmonica.

…I became drawn to the harp world and, once I finished my debt to the Army, I promised myself that now I would do things I always wanted to do. I started writing a book I was thinking about for years. I went to Italy and worked there for a couple of months in a vineyard. I then toured Europe a bit, got back to Israel and worked as a carpenter, and between it all, kept playing harmonica and finding out about the blues. I fell in love with the blues. All I wanted was to play like that. But, I was light years behind. Then, an idea came to mind - to go to the birthplace of the blues.

I got to Clarksdale two months ago with no clue on what I should do. Luckily, I met Bill through the Delta Blues Museum where he teaches blues classes. He told me to bring the harps to a gig he had that day. Since then, I’m with the band, playing everywhere in the Mississippi and it’s been a wonderful and crazy ride.

ROY

Photo: Israeli Blues - Indianola, MS - June of 2007