"Fine in the Lower Nine" is the first song on the 2-CD, 39 song set that comprises Nine Lives: A Musical Story of New Orleans. The song summary and musician credits are as follows:

"Now, of all the city’s neighborhoods, none is more maligned than the Lower Ninth Ward. It lies as far downriver as you can go without leaving the parish. It’s out across the Industrial Canal. And on the eve of Hurricane Betsy, it is poor, full of people fresh in from the country. Hell, it’s an embarrassment -- to everybody, that is, except those who live here and love it.

Ronald Lewis is one of those who loves it most. He’s a son of sharecroppers who migrated in the 1940s from the virtual

slavery of Louisiana’s sugarcane fields. They have no idea they’re poor. All they know is, there’s plenty of work on the waterfront, plenty of time for family and friends, and they’re living their own Lower Ninth Ward version of the American dream."

FINE IN THE LOWER NINE 4:42

(Paul Sanchez BMI/Colman deKay BMI)

Paul Sanchez Music BMI/Namloc Music BMI

John Boutté - vocal; Wendell Pierce - vocal; Tom McDermott - piano; Detroit Brooks - guitar; Herman Roscoe Ernest III - drums; Matt Perrine - bass; Rick Trolsen - trombone; Jason Mingledorff - saxophone; Kevin Clark - trumpet; Tim Laughlin - clarinet;

Skinny Parcheesi - additional piano

Backing Vocals: Vance Vaucresson, Tara Brewer, Debbie Davis, Arséne DeLay, The Dixie Cups (Barbara Hawkins, Rosa Hawkins, Athelgra Neville)

Speaking Voice: Lillian Boutté