The Backstreets of New Orleans
by John Hawkins (arranged and played by Paul Caluori)
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Bourbon Street is buzzin'
and the music's spillin' out
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like a big old muddy river
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with the tourists all about.
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But the backstreets of New Orleans
are lonesome as the dawn
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with too many houses empty
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and too many people gone.
Chorus
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In the backstreets of New Orleans
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they do the best they can,
spendin' all their savings
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and the labor of their hands.
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Not waitin' for the promised help
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that's comin' much too slow,
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to build again a city
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like the one they used to know.
The levees they have been rebuilt,
but who knows if they'll hold
when the next hard wind comes blowin'
from the Gulf of Mexico.
It takes a lot of faith to build
what's done been washed away,
and a lot of hope to come back home
and face another day.
Chorus
So play a dirge for loved ones
who won't be comin' home,
play for the ones who left town
some other place to roam.
But for the ones still fightin'
play a hot and joyful song,
and put on a pot of gumbo
to help and keep 'em strong.
Chorus
to build again a city
like the one they used to know.