Mystery Street Records Set to Release Nine Lives, A Musical Adaptation Today

Mystery Street Records is proud to present "Nine Lives, A Musical Adaptation (Volume 1)" by Colman deKay and Paul Sanchez, a two CD collection of 24 original songs, set for release March 1, 2011. Over one hundred musicians (mostly from New Orleans) perform on the album, including Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, John Boutte, Lillian Boutte, Wendell Pierce (from HBO's Treme), Broadway star and Tony Award winning actor/singer Michael Cerveris, Kevin Griffin, Michelle Shocked, Harry Shearer, Shamarr Allen, The Dixie Cups and Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

The Nine Lives album is a musical adaptation of the New York Times bestselling book "Nine Lives" by Dan Baum (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009). The non-fiction book is a remarkable oral history of New Orleans in the forty years (1965-2005) between the twin catastrophes known as Betsy and Katrina as seen through the eyes of nine of its citizens. The album includes the first 24 songs imagined for a theatrical production and is anticipated to become a Broadway musical.

The Nine Lives CD was made possible in part by a $50,000 grant awarded to the Threadhead Records Foundation as part of the Pepsi Do Good for the Gulf program last September.

Comments co-writer Colman deKay: "Baum's book is so vivid and so visual--and its epic sweep so comically, tragically human--that it yelled out to the two of us to be adapted to another medium." Comments co-writer and producer Paul Sanchez: "The Nine Lives album captures the uniqueness, diversity and rich storylines that everybody can share and enjoy. The music we wrote and produced encompasses traditional New Orleans jazz, rock, funk, chamber music, Mardi Gras Indian chants, 70s soul, hip-hop, brass band music, and rap and blues. The music rises off the pages of the book and this will be unprecedented to the Broadway stage."