Big Easy Musicians Sing the Blues

Sept. 12, 2005 — -- Normally, 400 miles of muddy Mississippi separate the raw and rough delta blues of Memphis from the sweet and smooth jazz of New Orleans.

But Hurricane Katrina has wiped the musical difference between these two river cities clean as denizens of Bourbon Street find new musical homes along Beale Street.

Sax master Rasheed Akbar came to Memphis because he needed somewhere to play away the pain. "I came straight to Beale Street 'cause I knew that this was in me," he said.

Bourbon Street is silent today and its treasured musicians are scattered. Akbar's home is under water, and he has been staying with relatives in Memphis since the hurricane, feeling the hurt and praying.

"I come out musically and it seems like it is a release valve for me," Akbar said.

Akbar was not alone in his migration, as Beale Street's merchant association opened up 50 immediate hotel and restaurant jobs for New Orleans evacuees, and stages are making room for Big Easy musicians every night.

New Orleans guitar legend Jimmy Robinson made it out with his instruments. "There's no water in this case -- completely dry," he said. He even had gigs lined up in Memphis.

"You may get a little bit of a zydeco twang added to the blues up here," said Reid Wick of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences/Musicares.

No one has written anything as obvious as the "Katrina Blues," but nearly every New Orleans musician now playing in Memphis told ABC News that the pain they and their city are going through is coming right through their instruments.

"I'm feeling a lot of energy from it," Robinson said. "I'm feeling a lot of sort of aggression in the playing that's coming out as a result of this, and it feels good. I like it."

As for Akbar, he feels the new musical stories coming already. "It is overwhelming at times, and a lot of people cry a lot, and I cry and I play," he said. "It is like tears for the people, tears for the dead, tears for the living, tears for the city."

ABC News' Jim Avila reported this story for World News Tonight.