Benefit helps musicians hurt by Isaac

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. (WALA) - Thankfully, the Gulf Coast beaches were able to salvage the Labor Day weekend.

It’s a big tourist draw, being the unofficial last week of summer.

But if you can believe it, a local bar is giving away some of its proceeds all to help their neighbors in need.

Our area beaches dodged a bullet, but it came at our neighbor's expense.

Flora-Bama GM Cameron Price said, "[We] feel sorry that (Isaac) kinda stalled over New Orleans, so we want to do our part to help the musicians over there."

To that end, the Flora-Bama is donating a portion of this weekend's proceeds to New Orleans musicians who've missed out on gigs because of the storm.

"If you can't play those Friday and Saturday night, it gets hard,” said Price.

Local artist Leanna Creswell said, "If you miss $100 a night, or whatever you're gettin' paid, and you don't get insurance, you don't get any benefits, we have to provide that for ourselves also, so if you miss out on that, just like the guys in New Orleans, that's a lot."

It's going to the New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation, which provides healthcare to the artists.

But this benefit is an opportunity for the Flora-Bama to give back.

Price said, "When we had Hurricane Ivan hit here and destroyed the Flora-Bama building, they helped us out and we did the same thing a year later, during Hurricane Katrina."

Adversity is a litmus test for a true friendship, and while these neighbors are separated by hundreds of miles, they're united by music.

The benefit will be running through the entire weekend.

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