[The muddy waters roiled by Katrina have no doubt flooded some legendary musical locales and wiped out irreplaceable artifacts of New Orleans music. Among the hardest hit areas were the poverty-stricken African-American neighborhoods, where the New Orleans musical traditions are all but woven into the tattered but colorful fabric of everyday life. But the music of Crescent City as well as the people who create it -- and the spirit, soul, originality, independence and distinctive locality of that art and the musicians who create it -- cannot be washed away, no matter what the category hurricane or depth of flood.] It's going to take some time, but it will come back, ... We've got to put it back because it's so involved with the local economy and the United States.
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