The great Khandi Alexander (News Radio and CSI: Miami) plays LaDonna Batiste-Williams, a bar owner working intently to find her brother who has been missing since the flood.
Wendell Pierce (The Wire) plays Antoine Batiste, LaDonna's ex-husband, a jazz trombonist struggling with money and fidelity.
Clarke Peters (The Wire) plays Albert Lambreaux who has returned to the city, against the wishes of his adult children, to reunite his Mardi Gras Indians.
Rob Brown (Finding Forrester) plays Albert's son Delmond Lambreaux, a successful touring jazz trumpetist.
Movie actor Steve Zahn (Reality Bites) gives a surprisingly great performance as Davis McAlary, a DJ and would-be musician constantly raging against any changes to his old neighborhood.
Kim Dickens (from Deadwood and 24) plays Janette Desautel, an up-and-coming chef desperately working to keep her restaurant afloat.
Melissa Leo (Homicide: Life on the Street) plays Toni Bernette, a feisty lawyer locked into constant struggles with the police on the behalf of the city's struggling survivors.
The fantastic John Goodman (The Big Lewbowski) plays Toni's husband, Creighton Bernette, an English professor at Tulane and part-time defender of the city in the national media.
Anf finally Dutch actor/musician Michiel Huisman and talented violinist Lucia Micarelli play Sonny and Annie, an engaging pair of street musicians who rode out the storm.