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Butler, of course, is talking about the myriad problems that continue to plague New Orleans -- particularly violent street crime and a chronic shortage of housing, jobs and services. The situation is further complicated by half-hearted federal initiatives and ineffective and corrupt state and local programs, all of which leave New Orleans' residents deeply cynical. "The government puts strings on walking across the street," says Porter, "Forget about getting your business up, fixing your home or all the money that should be coming into New Orleans." Adds Mark Bingham, a producer at Piety Street Studios, "My shrink says that 70 percent of the people with businesses in New Orleans are on antidepressants. What's the town's temperature? It's kind of miserable."

Piety, one of New Orleans' premier studios, was never flooded, but the storm shook the building and destroyed the studio's soundproofing and console. "It cost us $100,000 and we didn't even have any water!" Bingham says, adding that their insurer ponied up "with some prodding." Though active -- Piety hosted the sessions for the Allen Toussaint/Elvis Costello album, "The River in Reverse" -- Bingham says the commercial scene has definitely changed. "I had to call 11 trumpeters before I could find one for a recent BellSouth commercial. Before Katrina, I could get 10 by throwing a dollar out the window. There's just no place to live and the musicians are not here. And the ones who are aren't making the same money unless it's someone like the Radiators."

Gros, who says Papa Grows Funk has actually seen its New Orleans' draw increase because they toured a lot more after Katrina instead of staying in town, is concerned about whether New Orleans can regain its tourist industry -- a prime factor in the music scene. "It's pretty piss-poor," Gros says. "We have the Monday-night gig at the Maple Leaf Bar and, while we're drawing about 100 folks a night because we've been the only game uptown, the mix is completely different. Before Katrina, it was 50 percent tourists.

"Afterwards it was FEMA employees and construction workers -- y'know, you were stuck between two guys talking about Sheetrock. Now it's about 85 percent locals and 15 percent tourists. My brother rents audiovisual equipment to the convention business and there's nothing on the horizon -- the biggest event in the next two months is a poker tournament. A lot of these events are booked two years in advance and it's not going to be remedied in the near future. And with a lot of assistance being misused or swindled, it's coming down to locals taking care of locals," Gros says.

One bright spot has been the different music-driven charities -- from benefit concerts and recordings to donated instruments and Nonesuch Records' $1 million donation to Habitat for Humanity.

The rock group OK Go is teaming with the wild and loose New Orleans' brass rock band Bonerama to cut a benefit album for Al Johnson, the veteran R&B performer best known for the hit "Carnival Time," whose home was destroyed by Katrina. OK Go guitarist Damian Kulash says the project grew out of a benefit he played with Bonerama at the invitation of the music activists group Future of Music Coalition. "It was just spectacular," he says of the impromptu matchup. Although impressed by the young musicians he sees playing around town, Kulash does worry about New Orleans' continuing inability to provide enough work to support musicians with families.

"You go out to the bars and you see 15-year-old kids playing the nastiest stuff on tuba," Kulash says. "But the mentors are in exile. I was always a fan of New Orleans' music and it's hard to come and see what's not happening. You feel like you're seeing the remnants of a great community -- and we don't just want to watch it come to an end."

It's unlikely that fan empathy will be enough to rebuild the Crescent City music scene. Six weeks after Katrina, record producer Leo Sachs assembled some of the city's greatest players -- under the moniker New Orleans Social Club -- at a studio in Austin, Texas, to record "Sing Me Back Home." An extraordinary collection featuring the Neville Brothers, the Meters, Dr. John, Henry Butler and Irma Thomas, the album was critically hailed -- by the few writers who actually reviewed it. "By April of 2006, the cultural tastemakers had already determined that the American appetite for New Orleans' music had been sated," says a frustrated Sachs, who had hoped to see the project generate more income and support for the regeneration of the scene.

Still, along with the frustrations and uncertainty, younger musicians say they are up to the task. Trombonist Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, who leads the popular rock/funk/hip-hop group Orleans Avenue, is optimistic. On the road as a member of Lenny Kravitz' band when Katrina hit New Orleans, he stayed in touch with the members of Orleans Avenue, even as conditions forced many of them to temporarily relocate. "Everyone called within a week of Katrina to say they were moving back," Andrews says. "Wherever they were, I'd hook up with them while I was touring."

Andrews says that the gigs that once defined the New Orleans scene are now few and far between and that many musicians have been forced to take other jobs. Yet whenever Orleans Avenue plays, the crowds are bigger than ever. Subsequently, he's tried to take the initiative and lend a hand to other musicians. "I've invited friends and people to play for two or three songs and try to give 'em a little money, get 'em a little exposure. Some of it is just trying to give back to the older cats -- we've had Walter "Wolfman" Washington and Kermit Ruffins play with us -- and I think the music scene is growing stronger because it's forcing us to play with people we wouldn't otherwise play with. We're trying to stick out our hand to get New Orleans back to where it was or better."

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Fred Goodman is the author of "The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce" (Vintage). A former editor of Rolling Stone and Billboard, his work has appeared in many major publications.