From the recording Where's Fats Domino?
This song is about the Hurricane Katrina victims that got scattered around the country in the hurricane's aftermath.
A few days after Katrina hit there were several days when the evening news was asking "Where's Fats Domino?" after he was photographed boarding a boat outside his flooded home in New Orleans & seemingly disappeared. Turned out he was staying in West Houston with a friend and had somehow missed all of the brouhaha surrounding his disappearance.
The almost nonsensical chorus plays into my fondness for late 50s/early 60s New Orleans r 'n b Top 40 hits like "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" by Jessie Hill, & "Ya Ya" by Lee Dorsey. Loyce Washington's vocal ad lib & Randy Thomas's guitar outro burn!
Lyrics
Where's Fats Domino?
What blew into town down in New Orleans
Flooded Lake Ponchatrain
Muddied that Mississippi stream
Packed my Smith & Wesson
And a pint of Jim Beam
My dimebag of stash and wore out dreams
Felt like forty days comin' on like forty nights
When those levees bust loose we was buried alive
Row row row row row my pirogue
Row row it down the bayou
Gently down the stream life is but a dream
Row row row row row my pirogue
Gotta go-go with the flow
What I really wants to know,
Know, know, know, know, know, know, know, know...
Where's Fats Domino?
Leavin' didn't leave a lotta choices to choose from
So that bus ride to Houston
Was Greyhound gruesome
Steppin' in style sportin' alligator shoes
That I spit shine perfect pullin' outta Baton Rouge
Ain't anything anywhere anymore exhaustin'
Than thumbing in the heat, city limits of Austin
Chorus
Caught up with my mama down in San Antone
She'd just come off a bad night at the Superdome
Run up hug my sister, yellin' hey grandma!
We ain't never gonna see another Mardi Gras
When that Rita rain blew in
That was our last straw
They hauled us all off to Arkansas
Chorus
Piano: Kevin McKendree
Bass: Steve Mackey
Drums: Lynn Williams
Guitar: Rob McNelly
Guitar outro: Randy Thomas
Slide Guitar: Matt Ellias
Backup vocals: Loyce Washington