From second lines to hard lessons, from broken chains to new life — the poems of Poetic Nola, set to a beat. Survival you can hear.
"These started as poems — love, heartbreak, trauma, and the grace running under all of it. Then I gave them a beat. New Orleans taught me you can carry a casket and dance behind it in the same afternoon. That's this whole record. Ya heard me."
— Ensley T. Joseph IVEvery track starts with Ensley's original poem — no rewrites, no cleanup, the words exactly as written. From there the sound is described in New Orleans terms — gospel-funk, second-line groove, soulful vocals, Hammond organ, brass — and rendered into a complete song. The poem leads; the music follows.
Out now in hardback & Kindle
Poetic Nola is thirty poems about love, loss, faith, and perseverance — seasoned by New Orleans. The hardback and Kindle are live now on Amazon.