How far can good intentions carry a project? What do good intentions excuse? Love Song to New Orleans invites these questions because it’s obviously a sincere collection of songs dedicated to New Orleans, but the songs themselves don’t make me feel loved or understood. Cliches run rampant here, with Cajun girls on Bourbon Street, bayou hospitality and Mississippi queens, all sung about deep reverence and mannered passion. Only Kenneth Wayne Spruell’s “Ragin’ Storm” is winceworthy when he sings, “There’s a raging storm gaining ground / Oh my, what an awful sound”–radically underselling the emotional response  of New Orleanians to suit the rhythm and rhyme scheme–but only Jenny Brooks’ good-time country “Down in the Bayou” merits a second listen.

It feels cold to critique a love letter, but a more effective, bolstering effort would suggest that the songwriters have been here and know who we are. It would also have the things that make any gift effective: personality, idiosyncrasy and the sense that the recipient was thought about in a genuine way. Oddly, it seems like the artists collected for Love Song to New Orleans don’t know us at all, or if they do, they’re unable to reflect that knowledge in their songs.

The bottom line: It’s nice to be thought of, but it means more if it seems like you know who we are.