We hear a lot about how New Orleans has changed since Katrina and how people from outside are changing the city, not always for the better. But if you want to know how it really is, from the inside, this conversation is it.

NOLA musicians NOLA FAM Que Hefner (aka Quentin Coleman) and Mani (aka Romani Cole) talk about how the new residents who have moved into New Orleans neighborhoods where there are bars are shutting down the music and forcing musicians – themselves included – out of work. They used to support themselves as full time musicians, now there’s not enough work and they’re working day jobs. When you listen to how these guys have truly given everything to be musicians – including for a time post-Katrina being forced to live in Shreveport where they reportedly drink milk out of bags – you’ll get a first hand, bitter-free, real NOLA feel of what it’s like to be the victim of change.

Rosy Wilson knows a thing or two about the pressures of the music biz. She started out at the age of 19 founding the seminal Rosy’s nightclub on Tchoupitoulas street back in the 1970’s where she hosted the likes of Stevie Wonder and Sarah Vaughan. Rosy’s take on modern New Orleans is tempered by the 30 years she spent living away in places like New York and Los Angeles (“where the demons are hidden”) but steeped in the deep and abiding love of the city she was raised in and to which she has now returned.

This Happy Hour’s insider music-centric conversation is complemented by Tommy Lewis, nominally a realtor but more widely known for his love of music and his legendary Jazz Fest parties that feature live bands.

Tommy’s world just got a lot more music in it with his impending marriage to Wylie, who drops by on this show and talks about growing up with Master P “all up in the 318.”

If you want a snapshot of what’s going on inside New Orleans today, not from the national news media or even the local news media who are packaging post-Katrina New Orleans in all kinds of tidy boxes – if you want to know what’s going in the lives and minds of real New Orleanians, listen to this Happy Hour.

Photos at Wayfare by Alison Moon.