[VOCALIZING] [MUSIC PLAYING] I like New Orleans houses because they-- all of them are so colorful.

They have a rhythm about them.

They have a look.

I'm going into the Eighth Ward, which is where I grew up at.

This is the Lower Ninth Ward.

This is across the canal.

I really can't get lost around here because I know this area.

I feel like no matter if I get on that street or that street on that street or that street, I know that this is the main one that I'm returning to that that is going to get me home.

And I love that because I need to get home.

There is nobody like Tank.

Fearless and fierce, she's a force of nature.

The Grammy-nominated leader of New Orleans' own Tank and the Bangas is all about poetry, community, and eating her tee Tina's home cooking in between backyard sets here at Bangaville.

[MUSIC PLAYING] I'm your host Thao, and this is Southern Sounds.

[CHEERING] Thank you so much.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Hey.

Wait, wait, only one time.

Wait, wait.

[VOCALIZING] [HUMMING] (SINGING) Yeah.

[SCATTING] Yeah.

[SCATTING] Hey, Mr. Bluebell with the soft white skinned, eagle tone, and your pretty blue eyes, I like to bake a big round American pie, grab a chair, and let you take a big bite-- Tank, can you tell us where we?

Are in Bangaville.

[VOCALIZING] Right here in the-- across the canal.

Area was pretty tore up after the storms, but with the help of community, we rebuilding.

(SINGING) When the years become pleasant, that passes the day.

So easy to scroll all your problems away.

Addictions not mentioned, we forgot prescription.

And this is where we rehearse at.

This is where we have our open mics.

This is where we eat.

We congregate.

We love to invite out of town musicians and singers, especially in this backyard area.

We show them house, but this is the gold mine.

This is where you can come and be free and I be free normally with Albert Allenback on saxophone and flute, I am the Joshua Johnson on drums, and Norman Spence, multiple instrumentalist, The Bangas.

[MUSIC PLAYING] [SCATTING] You guys have such a great chemistry when you play.

I would just love to hear about how y'all song write together.

Can you walk us through that?

It could be different any time.

It really can.

It happens a couple of ways.

It'll happen if they're just grooving-- [MUSIC PLAYING] I ain't even [INAUDIBLE].

And I'll take out my cell phone, and I'll read a poem that I've been writing and I've been working on.

And I'll write it.

Depending on the melody of it, I'll make it a song.

But I never know what it's going to be until it's done.

I can literally say something like the rain was pouring outside and I walked in on a hot day and I feel OK. And that's the poem.

And I be like, oh that's good in my heart.

Or I'll be like (SINGING) the rain was pouring outside.

It was OK. That's a good day.

That's a good day.

So it'll be a song or a poem depending on how it is.

I can't say what it is, but my heart-- my heart will decide.

And if I'm stuck on something, one of the guys that helped me finish out a line.

I prefer though to work organically, to literally say press record and it's going to go where it needs to go.

It happens.

And whatever song sounds the best, we're going to go in a room, and then we're going to chisel at it until it becomes something real.

[MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) Hey, Tina.

How are you?

Good.

I love you.

I'm excited about what you're cooking today.

This is Thao.

Hi, I'm Thao.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

She is a musician as well.

Thank you for letting us be here.

This is my tee Tina.

This is the creator of honestly Bangaville.

Are you-- would you say you're the number one Tank and the Bangas fan?

Oh, of course.

Yeah.

What did you see in them that made you know that they had it?

I used to write.

My brother used to sing, her father.

But he died when she was three.

Yeah OK. We called him Cannonball.

He had the nickname from school playing football.

Cannonball nicknamed her Tank.

Here she is singing, writing.

I was writing my brother was singing.

She doing them both.

When I was young, she would sing me her songs, and I know her songs and-- before I would ever thought about doing anything like this.

Incredible.

Do you consider yourself a storyteller?

Do I view myself as a storyteller?

Yeah, for sure, especially in the music.

I don't realize it until I'm done telling the story.

I don't make sense of the songs too much while I'm writing it.

I just let the words come through, and then later on I'll make sense of it.

I'm like, well, it's about this clearly.

[LAUGHS] I love Black folk.

Black look like a revolution, look like a family reunion in the park.

Black look like it's a different world, smell like a crawfish boil in New Orleans.

Black folk joke around like Martin, got paintings from JJ in the living room.

It sounds strong to me.

It look like sacrifice, like flowers blooming in the summertime.

Black sound like old songs, smell like good food, but it taste like heart disease.

But it feel like Maze at Jazz Fest.

Black sound like something that hurt like a hard test.

Sound like skin.

It was during COVID and I was living just in a messed up area and I was able to see just the masks on the ground, the heroin needles.

This is such a terrible, sad time, and I thought about writing a love letter to Black people and just talking about everything that was beautiful and also everything that was not so very beautiful about us because it's all a part of the story.

And I love it so much.

New Orleans, everybody from the 5-0-4, what y'all think I went to LA for?

[LAUGHS] Now everybody from the 5-0-4, what you think I went to LA for?

Everybody from the 5-0-4, what you think-- People feel seen through this poem, and I know that.

It's so cool to have a poem go viral.

It just hits something so special for us because it lets me know that the poetry is still important.

(SINGING) Yeah.

Yes.

Your grandma smiling and your mama smiling and your sister smiling and your baby brother smiling and your grandfather smiling.

And everyone's smiling looking at you become all that you were supposed to be and meant to do.

[SCATTING] It's true.

Tank got her start as a poet.

Last year, she lived out a lifelong dream publishing her first book of poetry.

Pretty.

[CLAPPING] This is my book Vulnerable AF.

It's my first published book of poetry.

Yeah, it's my book.

That's what I went on tour with.

And the coolest part is all the signatures from my fans that came to the shows.

Oh my God, just encouraging things.

So if I'm ever feeling away, all I got to do is open up this book.

More healing and strength to you, truly anointed by God.

Thank you for being you.

Thank you, you beautiful spirit.

You genuinely move me.

Thanks for being you.

It was the most wonderful tour because I was my-- I was just able to be just my full Tarriona self.

It just felt so free and just myself because poetry is my first love because it loved me back.

[HUMMING] When you live here, you feel that the people are truly what make it special.

It's those moments where I'm like damn I am right where I am supposed to be with who I'm supposed to be it, and I love those moments.

Those are the magic moments that lets you know that God is in a place, and we right along here with God creating.

(SINGING) Outside, outside, outside, where I get some pie, outside.

This sure is good.

Oh, [INAUDIBLE] No, wait, you took my whole pie!

Give that all to me.

I just changed my mind then.

That's all.

I changed my mind then.