Nine Lives , by local author Dan Baum, could become musical
Lots of authors dream of their books scoring glowing praise from theNew York Review of Books, topping the bestseller lists, getting optioned for a Hollywood movie. But getting turned into a musical? How often does that happen?
That could be the fate for Nine Lives, a nonfiction account of New Orleans penned by Boulder-based writer Dan Baum. A group of New Orleans musicians recently scored $50,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Project, a contest funding revitalization projects around the Gulf to make an album based on the characters and stories in Baum's book -- the first step towards a full Broadway musical.
Just like Baum's best-selling book weaves together the strands of different New Orleans residents from Hurricane Betsy in 1965 up to Katrina , the Threadhead Records Foundation plans to include delta blues, gospel, traditional and modern jazz, '60s soul, Haitian meringue, funk, brass band, Mardi Gras Indian chants and hip-hop on the forthcoming album. Sounds like the sort of funky musical gumbo we can get behind. To learn more about the project, check out the Threadhead's video presentation below.