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Marcia Ball Gets 'Right Back in It'

Hurricane Katrina has already spawned countless sad and/or inspirational songs — including a few on Peace, Love & BBQ, the new album by Texas-born, Louisiana-bred singer-pianist-composer Marcia Ball. So it's a relief to hear her play "Right Back in It," a number that's more fun than a barrel of funky monkeys. The song kicks off with a jaunty piano riff before Ball launches into a spicy tale of ne'er-do-wells who never quite abandon their sinful ways.

Ball's awesome mélange of keyboard styles sets the tone: Call it the Zydeco boogie-woogie blues. Horns chug faster and faster throughout, and a guitar drops by for a rock 'n' roll interlude. In the end, there's even a moral that applies in this post-Katrina age: "It's the same old world with a different spin / You can't fight it; you know you're right back in it again." Just like Ball and her Louisiana neighbors.

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Marc Silver
Marc Silver, who edits NPR's global health blog, has been a reporter and editor for the Baltimore Jewish Times, U.S. News & World Report and National Geographic. He is the author of Breast Cancer Husband: How to Help Your Wife (and Yourself) During Diagnosis, Treatment and Beyond and co-author, with his daughter, Maya Silver, of My Parent Has Cancer and It Really Sucks: Real-Life Advice From Real-Life Teens. The NPR story he co-wrote with Rebecca Davis and Viola Kosome -- 'No Sex For Fish' — won a Sigma Delta Chi award for online reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.