August 24, 2007 / BY MARY HOULIHAN mhoulihan@suntimes.com

Six weeks after Hurricane Katrina forever changed New Orleans -- which happened two years ago this Wednesday -- a group of the city's esteemed musicians and singers gathered in Austin, Texas, to record an album that wound up being a therapy session for everyone involved.

Nearly all the performers had been displaced to various cities around the country, where they sat wondering if they had seen the last of the New Orleans music they knew and loved.

Meanwhile, New York producer Leo Sacks, who also had strong ties to New Orleans, was pondering the same question. Wanting to do something to bring the musicians back to the music, he envisioned an album that "pooled heartbreak and rage and vulnerability" into a "glimpse of the old neighborhood."

Sacks set his idea in motion by reaching out to some of his favorite musicians -- Leo Nocentelli and George Porter Jr. of the Meters; organist Ivan Neville, son of Aaron Neville; piano player Henry Butler, and drummer Raymond Weber.

This new supergroup was dubbed the New Orleans Social Club and the album, "Sing Me Back Home," featured rousing, highly emotional performances by a stellar series of guest artists, including Cyril Neville on Curtis Mayfield's "This Is My Country," Irma Thomas and Marcia Ball on Allen Toussaint's "Look Up (a k a Whenever)," Dr. John on Fats Domino's "Walking to New Orleans," John Boutte on Annie Lennox's "Cry" and the Subdudes on Earl King's "Make a Better World."

"It was a very special time because we all were suffering emotionally," Butler recalled. "Everyone checked their egos at the door and we bonded as a community. We used music to start the healing process."

Because of their busy schedules, the members of the New Orleans Social Club don't often perform together. But a show in Chicago was something they couldn't turn down. The band (Tony Hall replaces Porter for this show) and guest performers -- Thomas, Boutte, Koko Taylor, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, guitarist Ian Neville and the Hot 8 Brass Band -- will perform in a free show tonight in Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion.

There's a strong musical kinship between New Orleans and Chicago. Generations of musicians have been traveling between the two cities for decades.

"Chicago is a city with a great legacy of African-American music," said Larry Blumenfeld, a New York writer who has written in depth about the current cultural crisis in New Orleans. "And some of that music had its roots in New Orleans. There's a living kinship between the two cities."

While the music will draw fans to the performance, all those involved hope people leave knowing more about the situation in New Orleans, where a once-thriving musical culture hangs in the balance.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina, the city is still picking up the pieces and fitting them back together. The parts of the city (French Quarter, Magazine Street) frequented by tourists are pretty much back to normal. However, totally devastated neighborhoods like the 9th Ward have seen little change.

One of the keys to the city's rebirth -- both culturally and economically -- is the return of musicians who once called New Orleans home.

Pre-Katrina musicians in New Orleans numbered around 5,000 and were a huge boon to the economy. About a third have returned and if not thriving, they are relatively stable. Another third have returned but are unstable, living in cars and trailers with little work to support them. The final third is scattered in cities around the country.

"We're mostly concerned now with the broader community," said Jordan Hirsch, executive director of Sweet Home New Orleans, an umbrella organization for nonprofits serving the music community. "[That includes] the people who sing in the churches, teach in the schools and the players who perform in brass bands and other groups in the neighborhoods."

But the tough question remains. Will the musical culture of New Orleans ever return to its pre-Katrina state? There's no easy answer.

"Some say New Orleans as we knew it is gone forever; others say New Orleans can never be washed away," Blumenfeld said. "The reality is somewhere in the middle. There are a lot of people working to build it back one social club, one brass band at a time. The music, the true culture will never die, but the living, breathing New Orleans we've experienced is in question."

Butler, who now lives in Denver, admits to a "mixture of feelings" every time he returns to New Orleans.

"You want to be there but you don't like to see the city in such a devastated state," he said. "It just makes me wonder where we are going as a nation. Politicians on the city level, the state level and the national level haven't been doing a good job of putting New Orleans back together. They've allowed one of the great cities of America to languish and fall by the riverside."

The New Orleans Social Club, whose members include Henry Butler (from left), Leo Nocentelli, Raymond Weber, George Porter Jr. and Ivan Neville, will perform in Chicago tonight, with Tony Hall subbing for Porter.

The New Orleans Social Club

6:30 tonight

Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Michigan and Randolph

Free

(312) 742-1168