Shots from the Road: Can't Keep a Good Musician Down

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – While touring the hurricane-torn Lower Ninth Ward here this week, I saw the flooded home of the music legend, Fats Domino, who never moved from the poor neighborhood where he grew up. Friends and fans scrawled a heartfelt goodbye to the man they loved and thought they had lost – "R.I.P Fats, you will be missed" – but as it turns out, Fats survived. 

And, in fact, is the main subject of the official poster of the 2006 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where he'll be one of the featured performers. I guess it just shows that in Katrinaville these days, you never know what's gonna happen next. ​

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: This post was originally published on Feb. 1, 2006 in my Nomad's Gallery "online travel photo journal" (aka blog), and is now part of my Shots from the Road collection. Antione Dominique "Fats" Domino would go on to live until 2017 and the ripe old age of 89. Four of his records were named to the Grammy Hall of Fame for their significance ("Blueberry Hill", "Ain't That A Shame", "Walking to New Orleans" and "The Fat Man"), and "The Fat Man" is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million copies. -Starling
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
​Born in a small Wisconsin blue-collar town, Mike Starling ditched the assembly line for a long, sometimes circuitous career working with words, sound and images. His original music is heard on numerous recordings and soundtracks, and his stories and photos have been featured in books, films, mags and other media. Among his other interesting career moves, he has edited a beer magazine, played bass in a reggae band and sold potato chips door-to-door. Inspired by the life-altering events of 2020, he launched a year-long web-based project called I Remember Travel in January 2021.

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