On August 25-26 of last year, Chris Thomas King recorded a relatively jaunty take on Joni Mitchell’s classic “Big Yellow Taxi”. A few days later, he was forced to flee his New Orleans home because of Hurricane Katrina. As many blues artists before him had done, he began writing songs in response to the devastation he saw. In Nashville, on September 4, he recorded “What Would Jesus Do?”, a powerful soul number raising questions about the reaction to those who had to steal to survive in the wake of the hurricane. In early October, King went to Los Angeles to record a few more cuts, including the extraordinarily mournful blues “Baptized In Dirty Water”. By January and February, he was back in Louisiana to record a few more songs. Rise tells the tale of outrage, fear, sorrow, cynicism, and hope for the future of the home Chris Thomas King lost.