Also, here’s Cyril singing the Curtis Mayfield protest song “This is my Country” on Austin City Limits with the New Orleans Social Club last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHCsD9aIieM

In the weeks after Katrina, Cyril alienated the audiences who had supported him for years. While the other performers at the fundraiser concert “From the Big Apple to the Big Easy” at Madison Square Garden sang about love, hope and rebuilding New Orleans, Cyril wore a T-shirt that read “Ethnic Cleansing in New Orleans.” He followed it up with downright mean statements that he has not recanted. See one article about it, from the Dallas Morning News:
http://cubanow.net/global/loader.php?&secc=4&cont=show.php&item=696

Again in 2006, he was quoted as saying, “”If you’re black, you’re not welcome back in New Orleans,” quoted in:
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/ent/columnists/tchristensen/stories/DN-nosocial_0402gl.aa879bf.html

Those who see those comments about the Nevilles on the blog that you posted should read them in light of Cyril’s words and conduct. Our governments at all levels continue to fail to get the job done in rebuillding New Orleans, and that affects everyone here equally. But with our city literally teeming with non-profits like Habitat for Humanity and church groups working to rebuild the housing stock for those who need help, there are some great success stories in our city’s rebuilding. Cyril’s comments seem uninformed to those on ground level in New Orleans.

The Neville Brothers have made some great music over the years, and
it’s best to focus on their art, which remains incredible. Listen to Aaron sing “Amazing Grace,” or Cyril sing “One Love” or “Fire On the Bayou,” or Art sing “Mardi Gras Mambo”, and all of the other stuff is easily forgotten.

As for the negativity aimed at the family, I think it is all about symbolism. I am a NOLA resident, and I am not surprised by the negative reaction expressed towards folks like the Nevilles who have the means, but not the desire, to return to the Crescent City. They have become symbols, representatives of the population that locals feel have “turned their backs” on their City.

So many New Orleanians (those who have returned and those in diasporas across the country) have the desire to rebuild and move forward, but for one reason or another, they lack the means. I think these people may be taking their frustrations out on the Nevilles and others who haven’t expressed the same desire to return and rebuild.

You don’t hear a whole lot of complaining about the fact that Fats Domino is a recluse and has refused to play at the Fest for the last two years, despite still living locally. Is this because Domino’s house has become a symbol for the destruction in the Lower Ninth, and his destroyed piano is in the LA State Museum?