Paul Sanchez: Foot Of Canal Street

SONG Foot Of Canal Street

WRITTEN BY Paul Sanchez, John Boutte

PERFORMED BY Paul Sanchez

APPEARS ON Hurricane Party (2000)

Paul Sanchez is a New Orleans treasure who deserves a much wider audience. Sanchez, who performs primarily in New Orleans and Louisiana, is quite simply one of the best singer-songwriters working today. Not only that, he is a gifted producer, as he amply demonstrates in his work with jazz singer John Boutte and on Stew Called New Orleans, their excellent collaboration released earlier this year.

They wrote "Foot of Canal Street" after discovering that both of their fathers -- one black, one white -- were buried on the same cemetery at the foot of said street. Boutte observed that we all wind up there sooner or later, and a song was born. Although the song begins slowly as dirge, the contrasting lyrics stem Sanchez' sunny optimism. "Don't waste your time being angry" because, well, in the end "I'll see you there/at the foot of Canal Street." It then breaks into a second line, one the Sanchez expects to last long after "all is gone."

New Orleans horn charts provide a perfect complement to the lyrics, supplyinh the gravity for the first part of the song and propelling the second line as "Foot" gathers momentum. The charts are a hallmark of Sanchez' arrangements, linking his songwriting to the musical tradition of New Orleans.

"Foot of CanalStreet" merely scratches the surface of Paul Sanchez' best work. For more, check out last year's superb Exit To Mystery St., Stew Called New Orleans, and his production of John Boutte's excellent Good Neighbor.

LYRICS

Don't waste your time being angry

When a moment's better with a smile

If you feel your time's been wasted

Waste it here a while

Standing at the bus just across from Krauss

Waiting for the driver to take me to my heavenly house

I'll see you there

At the foot of Canal Street

What will you wear

At the foot of Canal Street

Will the band be playing

At the foot of Canal Street

What will the people be saying

At the foot of Canal Street

Does your father lie there

Does your mother pray there

I'm going to put on my golden crown

At the foot of Canal Street

When the levee banks have overflowed

And the street car has seen its day

When all is gone: The plantations,

The Treme, and the Vieux Carre

I'll be swinging to that music

Way up on the higher ground

Where Pops is blowing "Walk On"

And Gabriel making sacred sounds

I'll see you there

At the foot of Canal Street

What will you wear

At the foot of Canal Street

Will the band be playing

At the foot of Canal Street

What will the people be saying

At the foot of Canal Street

Does your father lie there

Does your mother pray there

I'm going to put on my golden crown

At the foot of Canal Street