Artists band together for 'Preservation'

I know I typically use this blog space to comment on all things rock in Jersey, but for the moment I'd like to fill you all in on a new benefit album which affects the sound of the entire country.

Some of the finest musicians working today - including Tom Waits, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Richie Havens and Pete Seeger - have banded together with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on "Preservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall and The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program," out now on single and double-disc CD sets as well as on vinyl and as an MP3 download.

As the album's title makes clear, proceeds from "Preservation" will go to benefit both Preservation Hall itself, which is located in the French Quarter of New Orleans three blocks away from the Mississippi River, and the Hall's Music Outreach Program. With all of the tragedy which has struck the Big Easy and the surrounding areas in recent years, there's really no reason for music fans not to pony up the cash for this great cause.

According to the Preservation Hall website, over a year more than 20 artists traveled to the Hall to collaborate with the Jazz Band on selections from the New Orleans songbook. The result is a uniformly great look at the bedrock of American music.

Waits brings his unmistakable yowl to a pair of numbers - "Tootie Ma is a Big Fine Thing" and "Corinne Died on the Battle Field" - while Havens lends a powerful gravity to "Trouble in Mind," Andrew Bird proves he can swing with the best of them on the album-opening "Shake It and Break It" and Jim James (performing under his Yim Yames moniker) chillingly drifts through his songs - "Louisiana Fairtyale" and "St. James Infirmary" - like an ancient ghost off the bayou.

A few of the acts featured on "Preservation" will also be rolling through our area this summer: Havens will be performing on Thursday, June 24 at the Mill in Spring Lake and on Saturday, July 24 at the Montclair Congregational Church in Montclair; Steve Earle, who brings a bit of twang to "Tain't Nobody's Business," will be playing the Stone Pony in Asbury Park with Hot Tuna on Saturday, July 18 and James and the rest of My Morning Jacket will be opening for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on Tuesday, Aug. 24 at the Izod Center.

Ani DiFranco stars on one of the standout cuts of "Preservation," a swinging and jaunty take on Elizabeth Cotten's "Freight Train." Earlier this year I spoke to DiFranco, a Buffalo, NY native and New Orleans resident, about her latest album, "Red Letter Year" (2008), and the conversation included DiFranco's thoughts on how life in the Big Easy affected her music.

"I think just for me living in New Orleans now, in a more general way I'm surrounded by music, of course, like it's such a musical place, and the music of New Orleans is so joyous," she said. "The brass bands, the funk bands, the jazz, different experimental and improvisational jazz music, the second-lines and it's all sort of like music that takes a real direct route to joy and transcendence, and I think all art gets us there, even when it's dark and expresses pain. I think just the releasing of that pain and the relating to it uplifts us in a roundabout way.

"But, living in New Orleans now, it inspires me, I guess, to take that direct route, trying to include the simple things in my songs, the happy things, the joyful parts of my life that have gotten under-played over the years."

For more information on Preservation Hall, including the Preservation Hall Jazz band and the new benefit album, visit its official website.