Arlo Guthrie To Play the New New Orleans New Year Celebration In Jackson Square

NEW OLREANS, LS. (Top 40 Charts/ www.arlo.net) - Showcasing the soul and spirit of the Crescent City, the Countdown Club presents the 2005 New New Orleans New Year Celebration sponsored by Glazer's Companies of Louisiana and Pyrotecnico of Louisiana at Jackson Square on Decatur Street, Saturday, December 31, 2005. For information call (985) 630-4604 or log on to www.neworleansonline.com.

Arlo Guthrie & Friends arrived in New Orleans on December 16 to play two benefit concerts at Tipitina's on the Amtrak City of New Orleans train. Arlo and musical friends had performed benefit concerts along the train's route starting in Chicago and riding down to New Orleans raising thousands of dollars for small clubs and musicians to get them the 'gear' they need get up and running. Arlo's idea of helping to rebuild the infrastructure of the city's music scene caught attention and support from across the United States and around the world. Arlo was the first artist to make a hit of Steve Goodman's song, 'City of New Orleans.' The Countdown Club extended an invitation then and there to Arlo to come back for the New Year's celebration.

Finishing touches are being made to the gumbo pot that will ascend a pole to signal the midnight hour and launch a barrage of fireworks over the Mississippi River for the New New Orleans New Year celebration in the French Quarter. ' I think I can say without a doubt that New Orleans will be the only city in the world to drop a gumbo pot,' says Brian Kern of Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World and Vice President of the Crescent City Countdown Club.

Produced by the Crescent City Countdown Club, festivities will begin at 8 p.m. in traditional New Orleans style with the Coolbone Brass Band, followed by Vivaz from 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Arlo Guthrie will take the stage to perform his hit 'City of New Orleans' and other favorites at 9:45 p.m. At 10:30 p.m. Louisiana LeRoux will play up to the midnight hour.

All eyes will then be cast to the top of the Jax Brewhouse Condominiums for the gumbo pot drop as a barrage of fireworks blankets the sky over the Mississippi River. Choreographed to music by New Orleans musicians, the exquisite 'Symphony in the Sky' will be simulcast live on Magic 101.9 FM and WWL 870 AM and heard in 38 states across the U.S.
Log on to BestNewOrleansHotels.com to register to win tickets to New Orleans donated by Amtrak. For information or to schedule an interview with Arlo please contact Cash Edwards, Music Services, 512/294-3126.