Willie & Arlo together for Katrina

[RonJonSurfer]

Willie Strums on Guthrie's Katrina Tour By STACEY PLAISANCE, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - Folk singer Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson gave a sold-out crowd something they've needed since Hurricane Katrina — good music, a good time and a reminder of what they love most about this city.

Guthrie welcomed the crowd late Saturday at legendary Tipitina's, his last performance in a two-week railroad tour to raise money for musicians left homeless and without a place to work by Katrina.

"I'm so happy to be here," Guthrie said, drawing hollers and applause.

Crystal Gross was among the roughly 800 people at the benefit concert. She said her apartment in the city survived, but she wanted to do her part to help people who were less fortunate.

"Besides, when else do you get to see Willie Nelson at Tip's?" said Gross, who had just moved back to New Orleans in July, about a month before Katrina struck.

Gross said the city has been glum since Katrina, but Guthrie and Nelson have changed that, at least for the moment.

"It's so good to see people out again. It's good to see people with smiles on their faces," she said.

Inspired by television coverage of the hurricane's aftermath and by learning that Amtrak had resumed its "City of New Orleans" service to the city, Guthrie hopped a train in Illinois two weeks ago and scheduled performances along the route with other musicians.

His 1972 hit, "The City of New Orleans," recounts life on the train, with the chorus "Good morning America, how are you? Don't you know me, I'm your native son, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans."

Guthrie arrived in New Orleans on Thursday and performed at Tipitina's on Friday with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and others. He added that show after finding out that Saturday night's grand finale performance with Nelson was sold out.

"We are thrilled that we have been able to make some small dent in all that is wrong down here," Guthrie said.

In an interview before the show, Nelson said he hoped his visit would encourage musicians to return and get the New Orleans music scene back on its feet.

"We want to see them come back," he said, "but I want them to have a place to come back to, a place to live."

Nelson took the stage after 11 p.m. and, following his set he joined Guthrie with a stirring rendition of the Steve Goodman song "City of New Orleans" that Guthrie made popular in 1972. The song was based on a train operated by Illinois Central before the creation of Amtrak. The City of New Orleans name was discontinued in 1971, but Amtrak christened an overnight train that runs much of the same route in 1981.

Money and equipment from the Arlo Guthrie & Friends benefit tour will be donated to performers and to churches and schools that have music programs. Tour spokeswoman Cash Edwards did not have definitive figures on how much the tour has raised.

The tour is one of several efforts to help New Orleans' musicians. Singer Harry Connick Jr. and saxophone player Branford Marsalis are working with Habitat for Humanity to create a "village" for musicians who lost their homes to the storm.