Forced by hurricane Katrina to flee her adopted home in New Orleans, an angry and enlightened Jhelisa Anderson touched down in Atlanta, Georgia, to
finish her third album, 'Freedom's Land'. It's an uplifting, eclectic, passion-fuelled journey back to her southern roots and it's set for imminent release alongside a DVD that vividly documents her experiences in the Big Easy.

"The sun was shining in New Orleans when I left." reflects the former resident of the Crescent City. "It's amazing what becomes irrelevant... insignificant... when you've got 24 hours to decide what to take. It was real focussed. I just took my keyboard and a couple of bags of essential stuff, threw them in the car, and set off with Katrina on my tail. We all thought we'd be back in a couple days, nobody thought it would become a metaphor for survival. Nature does not let you forget that things can be very temporary. The dinosaurs found that out!"
Jhelisa Anderson is in London, fresh from performing in Berlin, and it's a bright winter's day. She is in limbo and pondering where to temporarily sink some roots and finish her long-awaited third album, 'Freedom's Land'.
"I'd like to be part of the rebuilding, but I don't think I'll be going back there for a while," maintains Jhelisa. Angry at the Bush administration and the neglect and corruption that had left her adopted home under water
she declares, "I'm hoping, with the rebuilding, that the city will get better. There's a lot of people who won't return but the people of New Orleans are passionate about their city. It's generational... I met one woman who is 18th generation and it's very rare that any black family in America can be traced back that far. They will return to the city and that will be a beautiful thing to watch... passion and hope. With the sound of every hammer you will hear the music begin."
Along with neglecting the levees, built to protect those areas of New Orleans below sea level, the Bush administration have potentially contributed to a rise in water temperature in the gulf – which results in the increased ferocity of the hurricanes – by opting out of the Kyoto Agreement. For Jhelisa it has been a politicising process. She feels that people are starved of real information and if they want to make their voices heard they should look for inspiration, for example, to those people in the Ukraine who stood in the freezing cold for two weeks to overturn a corrupt election result.
In Jhelisa's view it's all about being able to maintain a balance, to interact and represent hope in its truest form.
"When I started 'Freedom's Land', using New Orleans musicians as a focus, it began a process of rediscovering America – especially the south where my grandparents and parents are from – after being in London for over 13 years. When people would ask, 'Where are you from?' I'd tend to hesitate 'cause I've never felt patriotic about where I'm from. I was born in Jackson, Mississippi at a time when there were many crazy things going on. We lived round the corner from Medger Evers who was killed around that time. In fact, we left Jackson when I was six months old because my father was attacked by this racist man that worked at the radio station with him. My father was a radio announcer for over 40 years... this man... 'cause he was jealous, jumped him, beat him... brutally.... hospitalised him. The station encouraged him to stay but the experience had been too brutal. We moved to Louisville, Kentucky where I grew up. The negativity of those times left a deep impression on me. I always felt claustrophobic there and five days after I graduated from high school I left for Los Angeles."

Read the full article in the February 2006 issue of Straight No Chaser
Words: Paul Bradshaw
Pictures: Markus Bader