Ellis Paul Writes About Hurricane Katrina
Ellis Paul is capable of telling poignant stories in 4 minutes; by the end of the song you feel like you watched a gorgeous cinematic movie. The imagery and story are so strong, I feel I was there watching this persons story unraveling in front of me. “Hurricane Angel” is one of those songs, singing about the struggles of a persons survival through Hurricane Katrina. Below is a quote taken from Ellis’ website discussing the inspiration and writing process. Seemed only fitting to post this today, reminds me to never forget, others are struggling in ways I hope I will never know; But mostly I am reminded to never stop reaching out my hand to help.
“Hurricane Angel is about a hurricane Katrina victim looking for God and a reason to believe. All of these far away characters- the president in air force one, an insurance guy in Delaware, and a credit card worker in India seem to be in control of his fate. He looks for an angel for some hopefulness. There was a news cast that talked about all the people being kicked out of the FEMA trailers, and they were sleeping 16 to a trailer. “I took a flat bed Ford up to Baton Rouge/ with four worn souls and one old cork screw/ You can drown New Orleans, but you can’t drown the blues/ so bartender, pour away… “
Hurricane Angel could be the best narrative song I’ve ever written. Its sad desperate hopeful in equal parts. I was having all these issues with debt and bills and I heard about Katrina victims being kicked out of their trailers because the trailers were poisonous. It was like a reality sandwich.
There’s always someone hurting more than the next person out there. I applied some of my problems to a fictitious character- always looking out to someone controlling his fate from a distance- a credit card guy in India-an insurance guy in Delaware, the president flying over in Airforce one. No one right there-right now. He ends up asking God for help- heavens even far away, but we pull hope out of it somehow. I’m proud of that song but I don’t find myself feeling entirely responsible for writing it-it kind of wrote itself. A lot of these songs were pulled from the ether like they’d been there all along. I can’t explain it better than that.”
Video filmed by Lynette Najimy of Bean Sprout Productions at the historical Guthrie Center in the Berkshires
Read more about the songs on his latest release
“The Day After Everything Changed”
Check out all of Ellis’ Music