New Orleans, straight up. I like Beyonce and all, but this is real dance music.

This song was played a LOT at Lafitte’s after Katrina. My friend Randy Bush and I would do the little dances and sing the little “dip dip diddydip dip dip” parts and crack each other up all night. Randy even stayed with Alberto and I for a while after I moved to DC and he got a job at MICROS in Columbia, MD. Randy and I had a falling out around the end of 2008 and we haven’t talked since. I’ve sent emails and left messages and even tried to friend him on FaceBook and he hasn’t replied to any of them. I really miss him and wish we could reconcile.

I bought “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” the day after New Orleans flooded and I didn’t listen to it for 6 months. Then, one day I was doing dishes in the kitchen and this song started playing on my computer. I let the dirty cup fall into the sink of water, sat on my bed, listened to his voice and cried for the first time since the flood.