The Big Easy Top Ten: Biloxi (#1)

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Before we head off to the Big Apple for September we have one last stop to make in the Big Easy. Don’t worry about the title of the song, this really does mention the Crescent City. Get your suntan lotion out, and let’s enjoy the final song this month. #1: Biloxi - Jesse Winchester Pony is thrilled (he loves Jesse Winchester’s music). NJ Chic is a little miffed (why not Buffett’s version? Because I already used Buffett this month! ). Everyone else, just enjoy this gorgeous song. Jesse Winchester was a marvelous songwriter. While you may have heard others do one of his songs (“Brand New Tennessee Waltz” was covered by the likes of Emmylou Harris and Don Henley; “Rhumba Man” was done by Nicolette Larson as “Rhumba Girl”), you’ve probably never heard him. Well, there’s a reason. Just as he was getting ready to start a career in the late 60s, he got a draft notice. Like many opposed to the Vietnam War, he fled to Canada. He couldn’t legally come to the States without fear of being arrested. There’s no concrete number of men who went to Canada to avoid the draft. Statistics range from 30,000 to 100,000. What is positive, however, is that Jesse Winchester was one of them. As a college graduate, he could easily have received a deferment, but he didn’t want any part of that. On January 21, 1977, President — and former Naval officer — Jimmy Carter issued an unconditional pardon to the people who’d fled. It pissed off the “Fightin’ Side of Me” people, but my take is that if a man who’d been in the military during World War II could forgive them, then so could I. (And, as I’ve grown older, I understand more and more why people resisted that stupid war.) By the time Winchester was able to tour America, the era of the “singer/songwriter” was being replaced by disco. Still, he maintained a loyal following that didn’t end with his death from bladder cancer in 2014. Those fans included people like Jimmy Buffett, who covered this gorgeous song on his biggest-selling album, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. Buffett also recorded “Defying Gravity,” “L’Air de la Louisiane,” and others. Biloxi is only 90 miles away from New Orleans, so the vibe of this song resonates from the titular city west…east….and all along the Gulf Coast. Thanks for reading. Biloxi Written by Jesse Winchester Recorded by Jesse Winchester From Jesse Winchester, 1970 NEW ORLEANS LYRICS: And the storms will blow from off towards New Orleans