Hurricane Romancer

Phil Melancon stayed for the hurricane. Never left. The photo here I found on an accordian website but it originally appeared as visual accompaniment to a feature about him in the New York Times. You can search "Philip Melancon" on the Times website to access it. You need to have Times Select actually, so herewith a favorite paragraph or two...actually the next four:

"In the weeks after the hurricane, he spent the days minding the apartment building he manages all the way in the Uptown neighborhood at the end of Magazine Street, and in the evening, he would sit at his grand piano, amusing himself and the crickets in the dark.

"Two weeks after the hurricane, some military police from the Puerto Rican National Guard stopped by to check on his well-being and stayed for the music. One thing led to another, and they eventually loaded his piano and hauled it onto the bandstand in Audubon Park, where they were stationed. He told some bad jokes and played some of his own tunes, gorgeous miniature reflections on the city, and in the more recent ones, on its abasement.

"The soldiers found him a comfort, something the city continues to be a little short on, and word got around. He has since played five shows at high schools and community centers, mostly for the soldiers who are here to secure the city.

''It's my own little U.S.O. tour,'' he said, sitting in his apartment on Wednesday with his feet propped up on a cinder block.

Me again...anyway I say all of this because Mr. Phil has recorded an album of songs about his experience and calls it Hurricane Romance. He was kind enough to include on this disc the first number I ever wrote, "The Broadwater Blues" as a paen to our dearly departed Mississippi Gulf Coast. You can hear him play (and buy the record) any Friday or Saturday night at the Ponchartrain Hotel's Bayou Bar where he entertains the swells.