Day #13 – Breathe In, Breath Out, Move On

Day #13 – Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On

The same trip that took me to Key West last May, also included a three-day stopover in New Orleans, which is one of my favorite cities to visit. It’s like no place else I have even been to, such a mashup of culture and style and people. It has an amazing vibe.

The first time I was there, it was pre-Katrina, then I was there about 10 years later, and last year, we seen the damage from yet another hurricane. It didn’t do the amount of damage as Katrina did, but it certainly left its mark. That was Hurricane Ida, and it was the second most intense hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana on record, ranked right behind Katrina.

Living in the face of such storms must take a lot of breathing in, breathing out, and moving on. It’s hard to win against mother nature but we certainly can keep our heads up and keep trying. And it’s not just physical storms we face, it’s the storms of life.

That is what this song means to me.  

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-Original post from 9/14/2023-

Day #13 – Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On

I’m sure we all remember the devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused to multiple places on the gulf coast, but most especially to the city of New Orleans. Too much wind, too much water, and it wasn’t the Mississippi that caused problems, it was Lake Pontchartrain to the north. And when the levees gave way, many places in the city were deeply under water. People and pets were stranded, families were separated, rescue and relief operations seemed like they would never be enough. I was in my first semester of nursing school, August 2005 – I remember many of the visuals like I seen them yesterday.

Jimmy was no stranger to New Orleans. He grew up in the gulf coast and New Orleans was the first place he went to pursue his music career, long before Nashville, long before Key West. He always had an important connection to that city, played Jazz Fest multiple times, had a Margaritaville in the French Quarter (the first one I ever visited and I loved that place).

So he wrote this song about Katrina and the city, but it’s not just about destruction or despair, it’s about surviving and overcoming as well. It’s not just about one storm and one city, it’s about the storms of life we all face. And it is great advice… breathe in, breathe out, move on… and hopefully you come out better in some way.

This song was released on his 2006 album Take The Weather With You and he co-wrote this beautiful song with Matt Betton. Weirdly, days ago I mentioned Matt Betton as a co-writer to Take It Back and I said, I don’t know who that guy is, and then, two days later, he’s back. So, I decided to find out. Matt Betton is a songwriter and drummer who was part of the Coral Reefers in the 1980’s, and still managed to get together with JB to write some great songs.

In 2017, hurricanes devastated Florida and Jimmy was part of a huge live relief concert called the Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season Relief (yesterday’s song with a title great enough to rally for hurricane relief forty years after Jimmy penned it). It raised a lot of money for the relief effort. During that, Jimmy sang a live version of this song with the talented Caroline Jones, which is quite beautiful.

Please enjoy the studio version of Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On which I have included in the comments below. It’s a gorgeous song!

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Jimmy lived in New Orleans and it was the first place he went to really try to follow his heart as a troubadour. He had a long love affair with the city of New Orleans. The first Margaritaville restaurant that I ever went to was in New Orleans, and I believe it was the second location he chose, after building the first in Key West.

I think you can feel his love for the city and its people in the words of this song. I think he was very affected by the damage Katrina did to his beloved city. I know that he celebrated his Saints winning the Super Bowl in February of 2010, and while that game was played in Miami, it felt like it finally chased a few ghosts out of the Superdome.

Stacy

Please enjoy Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On. I have included the link below. Enjoy!

The link is from Jimmy’s official YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.