E-mail a friendJosh Charles
airdate August 28, 2009
Josh Charles has played with some of the great musicians, from Wynton Marsalis and Tony Bennett to Dr. John—who became his friend and mentor. He experimented with different styles, but always came back to his love of New Orleans music and the piano. Charles grew up in Kansas City, where he started playing in blues clubs as a teen. He was moving to the Big Easy when Katrina hit. Forced to flee, he later returned and, after seeing the devastation, wrote and recorded "Healing Time," to raise money for the recovery effort.
Singer-songwriter performs 'Healing Time.' (3:44)
Full interview. (9:50)
Josh Charles
Tavis: One week before Hurricane Katrina, musician Josh Charles moved to New Orleans with plans to record an album there. Like so many in the Big Easy back in 2005, the storm and its aftermath has forever changed his life.
His most recent project is a single devoted to the people of the Big Easy called "Healing Time." All proceeds from the song go toward the continuing reconstruction in the city. In just a moment, he'll perform "Healing Time" for us. But first, Josh, nice to have you on the program.
Josh Charles: Thank you, Tavis. It's a pleasure being here.
Tavis: As you walked on, I asked you before we came on camera whether or not you were still living in the city and you said, "I tried." What did you mean by that?
Charles: Well, I attempted to move to New Orleans after so many years of falling in love with it, August 25th of 2005, four days before the storm evacuated the city. I've since went back many, many times and my goal is to try and move back there at some point soon enough. But I feel like I'm more of a wandering nomad now, going around trying to help bring attention and awareness back to New Orleans.
Tavis: What do you make, in your life, of being in love with the city, being in love with the music and the culture the city has produced, going there four days and the storm comes and runs you out? What do you make of that?
Charles: A sign perhaps (laughter)? It is such an incredible place. Arriving there in the dense heat of the summer, I mean, it has its own atmosphere, its own vibe. But I think when I got the last bus out of Houston and we were driving away, a lot of us wondered if we'd ever see it again. There was such a tension that we were never gonna see New Orleans. It was gonna be sunk in 200 feet of water, and it came close.
Tavis: What do you make, Josh, of the slow pace of recovery? It's no longer a wasteland, but no one would argue, especially the folk who still live there who are watching us right now, that the recovery, the pace of it, is still slow. What do you make of that?
Charles: Well, I mean, obviously, there's a lot of blame that went on in the previous administration. I think the problem is that when things happen, there's a lot of attention to them right away and then they sort of fade away and it becomes like you're not hearing about, so you assume it's all right.
When people found out I was doing this project, they're like, "New Orleans? That was four years ago." I'm like, "You realize that half the population is still missing?" When they said 85% of the city flooded, they weren't lying. You've been there. All you have to do is go there and realize that. I think people just aren't thinking about it because there's so many problems going on in the world and in the country today.
But what really disturbs me is New Orleans is a treasure. It's the cultural birthplace of rock and roll, jazz and blues, and food and culture in this country. It should be preserved like a museum. So that's the part that really, really bothers me, that the people aren't paying attention to this treasure of a city.
Tavis: To your point now, your latter point, how then does a project like this break through - I was gonna say break the noise. In fact, pardon my English, it ain't really noise; it's silence. How do you get people to move beyond what might be described as New Orleans-Katrina fatigue four years later?
Charles: Right, right. Well, I think one of the things is, I mean, I wrote this song called "Healing Time" after walking around areas of New Orleans and seeing this devastation and thinking, "Oh, my God. How much healing time is it gonna take to fix this?" and we released the song to benefit the city.
I think a lot of times people now will say, "We can't give any more money; we can't give this or that." So we put the song out for 99 cents, which means that one dollar - if a million people download it, a million dollars is gonna go a long, long way to rebuilding. And a lot of the efforts down in New Orleans are all volunteer-based. They're not getting federal money; they're not getting grants anymore, so it has to be done through private donations to rebuild the city.
Everybody I've talked to so far really thinks that the city does need to be rebuilt and they want to help, but they really don't know how they can help. So I said, "Well, this is a great opportunity because even your 99 cents will make a difference."
Tavis: How you doing on your goal of a million sales?
Charles: We're doing well. I mean, this is the month - we're in the anniversary month. We're two weeks away from the anniversary, so I think it's finally come back into peoples' minds, the forefront of their minds, that, "Hey, wait a minute. We live in the United States. This is happening in our country."
There's a lot of problems happening in our country, but this is a city that people go to and they never forget it when they go there. I mean, you go there and it has that something special. So I think it comes into peoples' minds that we need to do something again, and this is why we're out here pushing really hard.
Our goal is to raise one million dollars through the sale of this song, "Healing Time," which I'm donating all of the money to the Preservation Resource Center which, since Katrina, has rebuilt 200 homes, green homes. They don't even tear down the homes that need to be torn down. They rebuild the homes in the architectural integrity - kept the architectural integrity to the city that makes New Orleans special.
Tavis: You referenced the previous administration. What's your sense of what this new administration ought to be doing where New Orleans is concerned?
Charles: I mean, hopefully they're gonna pay attention to it. I know that what I've read and what I've heard is that New Orleans is definitely on the agenda. But like even healthcare and the economy, I mean, where does the priority lie? I mean, even with "Healing Time." "Healing Time"is a song I wrote for New Orleans personally, but I think everybody needs healing time.
I mean, this country could sure use healing time with the economy and everything that's going on this country. So the song has actually grown beyond just uniquely New Orleans, but I'm donating the money to the city that I believe really needs the help.
Tavis: Before I make room for you to perform here, right quick tell me a bit about the lyrics. I'm always turned on by lyrics. It's called "Healing Time," but tell me about the lyrical content.
Charles: Well, the second verse of the song has the lyrics, "When you've lost all your possessions and all you're left with are memories, and the house where you grew up has been washed away" - I mean, metaphorically, obviously, the house could be anything. Specifically to New Orleans, the house is literally somebody's house - "and all you need is healing time to make it through the pain and the sorrow, forget the pain and the sorrow, it'll be a better tomorrow."
I wrote the song, in a sense, of like a second line in New Orleans where it starts off somber and then it comes to the point where, you know, there's healing within the song. And that was my goal, to create some sense of a serious nature, but also feeling good.
Even like my bass player who played on the record, when we were doing the session, called me up and we was like, "I just got in a fight with my girlfriend. I put the song on and all of a sudden, you know, I feel better. You know, I've had some healing time. You know what I'm saying?"
Tavis: (Laughter) Up next, Josh Charles and his tribute to the people of New Orleans with some lyrics that might even work for you in your own situation. Josh, nice to have you here.
Charles: A pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Tavis.
Tavis: Here comes Josh. Stand by.
Here is Josh Charles performing his acclaimed single for the city of New Orleans, "Healing Time." Enjoy, goodnight from Los Angeles and keep the faith.
[Performance]
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