Fannye Katrina

05:15:46 - Americana

Recorded, Mixed and Mastered in Nashville, TN

John Gardner - Drums/Percussion
David Francis - Bass
Jeff Roach - Keyboards/Organ
Rob McNelley - Electric Guitars
Pat McGrath - Acoustic Guitar
John Mock – Tin Whistles
Chris Heers – Vocals/Background Vocals/Harmonica


Story behind the song

I was puttering around the house, doing dishes or something and in the background there was a news special that I could hear on CNN. It was the 5-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the man who was being interviewed on TV was talking about how his restaurant used to be on the water but was completely wiped out and is now located inland. He said something like, "We'll be back there again though...I know it". I remember pumping my fist and saying out loud as I was washing the dishes, "Yeah buddy... you will be back!". Later that night or the next day I was noodling around with my old black Takamine acoustic guitar and that song just came out. I have no idea where Fannye the Angel or whatever she was came from but I am thankful that she rolled through my pen. I knew what she looked like as soon as I said her name because there was a real Fannye who I used to help take care of in the early 90's. She was elderly, late 80's from Georgia via Louisiana, and she used to cook me things after I went to the grocery store for her; Great things like collard greens "washed in two waters" she would say, and chicken cooked in real lard baby. "She looked like the woman on the pancake syrup bottle..." There were two that came to mind, Mrs. Butterworth and Aunt Jemima. Fannye looks like AJ but more wrinkled. Beautiful. The Fannye in the song is luminescent. Her brown face is wise and somewhat younger than the Fannye I used to take care of. The Fannye in the song swims up to my character with a face that glows with an energy and love that can't be put into words. She is not from here. That I know.

In my mind the main character, a fisherman, was having breakfast in his boat – pancakes. As he looks out the window at the grey wall of hurricane coming toward him he sees the bottle of pancake syrup, one of the last things he sees on the boat before the mast disappears into the sea. As he starts hallucinating three days later he has this picture in his head – the pancake bottle. Fannye swims up to him and assumes the form of the woman in his head to make things easier for him.

I know that you can float on a bag of potato chips because it really happened to me when I was in high school. My best friend Jim and I ditched school with some other kids of questionable intentions and we went to Lake Mead for the day. Jim's dad, Jim Sr., had a large boat there with a rubber motorized dinghy. It was brand new and very off limits to us like the boat itself. The dinghy was attached to the back of Jim’s dad's boat. Long story short, this kid Randy had the engine and rudder of the dinghy and I was on the bow holding a rope like a bronc rider as we slammed into these huge windy lake waves. Next thing I knew we slammed into a massive wave and we were both in the water with the dinghy disastrously empty of it's passengers and stuck on full throttle while heading for Jim Jr. who was on a jet ski in the distance. We were in a dire position but it was strangely hilarious to see Jim’s dad’s boat heading straight for him unmanned at full throttle. Jim Jr. managed to jump off the Jet Ski onto the dinghy at high speed and save the boat and his ass that day, a courageous maneuver at that speed. Randy and I were about a mile off shore surrounded by floating snacks that had fallen overboard with us. I decided to let my tennis shoes sink in order to stay buoyant with my big yellow bag of Lays which I floated on until rescue. Thank you Lays!!!

Fannye says, "I could explain it in detail but it would be like talking about outer space with a fish. Child just know that you don't know and have faith.