“Despite New Orleans’ reputation, prior to Hurricane Katrina, as a city immune to change, it changed me, and I listened to it grow,” writes Marc Weidenbaum, an incredibly smart music writer and a friend.
His essay on web site Disquiet begins:
“For four sweaty years, beginning in the summer of 1999, I wrote about music from New Orleans. That sounds like a dream nexus — though probably less of one when your area of interest is abstract electronic music, as is mine. New Orleans is not exactly a center of such plugged-in activity. It is, however, helpfully located between Miami and Austin, which means tours came through regularly despite the city’s predilection for trad jazz and party hip-hop.” …
A couple of years ago I did some research into the song "St. James Infirmary," wrote up what I found, emailed that essay to friends and posted it on my web site (as part of a series of "Letters From New Orleans," as I was living in that city at the time). Based on the feedback, I wrote a second version of the essay, and asked for more feedback. Based on that, I wrote a 
