TCB

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Gris-Gris

GOIN' BACK TO NEW ORLEANS: "I'm happy to be here," New Orleans' Cyril Neville (right) told the sold-out crowd at Threadgill's World Headquarters last Friday night, as owner Eddie Wilson stood front and center. "I'm happy to be anywhere." Loosening up with a greasy version of "Big Chief," Neville, wife Gaynelle, son Henry Caesar, and locals Papa Mali & the Instigators effortlessly bridged New Orleans and Austin, first through Gaynelle's impassioned vocals on Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart," then with Malcolm "Papa Mali" Welbourne's blues-baked guitar work on "Tipitina." "The gumbo's spilled over into the chili," quipped Neville.

Indeed it has. Neville and friends are scheduled to play "Second Line for Pets" Friday at Jo's Hot Coffee. Please bring pet supplies (carriers, collars, leashes, etc.) or drop them off at Rivers & Reefs, 1323 S. Congress, from 10am to 7pm weekdays... Former Austinite Fred Sanders, now of New Orleans, performs tonight and Friday at the Austin Jazz & Arts Festival at Kenny Dorham's Backyard next to the Victory Grill. Fellow jazzer Elias Haslanger ([email protected]) is taking donations for Sanders' family, which has been displaced to Dallas. Other highlights of the Thursday-Saturday festival include Tribal Nation, Gary Clark Jr., and Ephraim Owens.

Ghost of the Russian Empire, the Always Already, Tran Tram, and Clap!Clap! play a $5 Katrina benefit Saturday at the Flamingo Cantina... South Austin Jug Band, Jane Bond, Seth Walker, Oliver Rajamani, and more play a free show 11am Sunday at Central Market North. Nonperishable food items and money, but no bottled water or diapers, are requested.

Emo's hosts its own huge benefit Tuesday, with Young Heart Attack, Flametrick Subs, Pink Swords, the Score, Invincible Czars, Attic Ted, Oh, Beast!, Masonic, My Education, and the Shells outside, and Horse Plus Donkey, the Fall Collection, Pompeii, Cue, Sally Crewe & the Sudden Moves, Single Frame, the Word Association, the Lemurs, Vacation Gold, and the Midgetmen inside. Starts 8pm.

Abra Moore, King Tears, Tucker Livingston, and more pause for the cause at Ruta Maya Wednesday... At the Frank Erwin Center's "Neighbors in Need" concert the same day will be Willie Nelson, Ray Price, Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Patty Griffin, the Flatlanders, Bob Schneider, and, just maybe, a special guest or two. Clifford Antone, who helped organize the show, isn't stopping there, planning benefits Sept. 28 at the Paramount, Oct. 8 at the Broken Spoke, and Nov. 5 at the Austin Music Hall.

Almost – but not quite – an afterthought at this point, the Austin City Limits Music Festival will have Red Cross donation points and other relief efforts stationed around Zilker Park, says producer Charles Attal. (That's right, it's next weekend!) A few hundred one-day passes for Friday are all that's left, and Attal hopes the festival will also provide a different sort of relief: psychological.

"Everybody I know, whether they have a company, or if it's a friend, or if they make $7 an hour, everybody's done something to try to help," he says. "That's what we're going to do at ACL."