Anyone looking to help victims of Hurricane Katrina by literally putting money right into their pockets can attend one in a string of concerts this week by New Orleans musicians performing in the Hudson Valley.

Among the hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents displaced by Katrina were the many New Orleans musicians who made their livelihood playing at clubs in the Big Easy — a national epicenter of song for generations. Guitarist Coco Robicheaux, for example, performed every night of the week in New Orleans. His French Quarter home survived Katrina, but he lost his livelihood to the storm when the city was flooded and shut down.

Robicheaux, accompanied by David Easley, a pedal steel guitar player from New Orleans, will play the Rosendale Cafe Wednesday, Black Swan in Tivoli Thursday and Bard College in Annandale Friday. The Tin Men, a New Orleans trio consisting of guitar and vocals, sousaphone and washboard, will also be on the bill at Bard Friday and will perform Saturday at the Black Swan.

"I was offered this opportunity and I took it immediately," said Rosendale Cafe owner Mark Morganstern, who is also helping to organize a Mardi Gras parade and concert in Rosendale on Sunday, both to benefit New Orleans musicians.

In addition to hiring these musicians to perform, the Bard concert, sponsored by Jazz at Bard, will benefit the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund.

"I just can't fathom all the difficulties that so many people are going through," said Raissa St. Pierre, a Tivoli resident and 1987 Bard graduate who is associate director of the Bard Music Festival and a co-founder of Jazz at Bard.

Organizing this tour of New Orleans musicians through the Hudson Valley is Tom Thayer, who grew up in Tivoli, graduated from Red Hook High School in 1984 and co-owns the nightclub d.b.a., which has locations in New Orleans and Manhattan. St. Pierre and Thayer years ago worked together at Santa Fe restaurant in Tivoli and Thayer's brother went to Bard with St. Pierre.

"This means everything, man," Robicheaux said. "It's very depressing down there. I'd love to be there. This means a lot. Tom has really come through."

Like Robicheaux, Thayer's home withstood Katrina, as did his nightclub. Thayer evacuated New Orleans on the Sunday morning before the storm hit and settled in Baton Rouge, La., with friends who are concert promoters in New Orleans and stage the annual Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee, which in past years featured Dave Matthews and Bob Dylan.

After learning from television news that the levees had broken, Thayer headed north. He made it as far as Jackson, Miss., but there was no gas to be found. His father, who lives outside Memphis, drove a tank of gas to his son and Thayer headed for New York.

Being an established member of the New Orleans music scene, Thayer on Sept. 20 worked at the Radio City Music Hall concert for New Orleans, running the VIP bars backstage.

"It was great to be hanging with all these New Orleans people who I hadn't seen and was concerned about," Thayer said. "Afterward, I was text messaging to locate people. I text messaged a friend in a boat (in New Orleans), at 3 a.m., who was pulling people out of the water. I was telling them where there was dry land, from New York City."

Both Thayer and Robicheaux said the smells in New Orleans after the storm were horrible.

Garbage left unattended

"There was rotting garbage everywhere," Thayer said last week. "You always see crazy things in New Orleans, but the stuff I've seen in the last couple days, nothing ceases to amaze me. You think you've seen it all. It's so depressing."

Robicheaux rode out the storm, but left after the levees broke.

"The whole house was shaking," he said of Katrina's impact. "The clothes in my closet were swaying back and forth, the water in my toilet was splashing."

Robicheaux eventually loaded up his truck with as many friends as he could fit and headed to Marshall, Texas.

"I've got friends who lost everything," Robicheaux said. "Their houses are under 15 feet of water, 20 feet of water. Their vehicles are gone. I got my wheels out of there — and myself."

Then he returned home.

"It smelled like death everywhere," Robicheaux said. "Seafood wholesalers put stuff out on the sidewalk, a month later, it's still there. ... There are flies. ... They crawl on your lip while you're talking to somebody."

The death and destruction left by Katrina aren't likely to be far from anyone's minds during this string of shows. But while the devastation won't be forgotten, the music of one of the nation's most colorful cities will be celebrated.

"These are friends and these are are great bands," Thayer said. "I want to expose where I grew up to great bands."

Thayer is also working to help people reclaim their livelihoods.

"I'm just trying to get them gigs so they can make some money," Thayer said. "The best thing you can do right now is go see New Orleans music."

John W. Barry can be reached at jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com