At any of Kermit Ruffins' barroom gigs in his hometown of New Orleans, you can bet that there's someone in the audience who's tapping a new visitor on the shoulder, saying, "That's the guy from 'Treme.' "

Basin Street Records president Mark Samuels, whose label has released Ruffins' music for 13 years, says he sees it happening with growing frequency at the vocalist/trumpeter's weekly set at Vaughan's Lounge, and at other performances in the city.

Now Samuels is looking for the critically acclaimed HBO drama to work its magic on the Rebirth Brass Band, which has also appeared on the show. Basin Street will release the band's new album "Rebirth of New Orleans" on April 12, timed to roughly coincide with the city's French Quarter Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the April 24 season premiere of "Treme."

Since the series premiered a year ago this month, "Treme" has become a powerful promotional platform for New Orleans musicians who make their living playing at local venues. And in a city that has based its music economy on gigs and little else, the show has also introduced a welcome new source of revenue: synchronization licensing and appearance fees, money that originates from beyond the club owners and session producers that the musicians are used to dealing with.

"Historically, it's a bird-in-the-hand approach," says "Treme" music supervisor Blake Leyh, who has ingratiated himself into the city's various musical communities during the last two years. "There's a certain amount of education that goes on with any music that's close to the ground like bounce, Cajun, blues and even some jazz musicians. They haven't all had contact with the mainstream music community. There are times when you have to help them understand how the business works."

"Treme" has earned trust by consciously working to steer money into the pockets of New Orleans musicians and songwriters, hiring actual bands to perform rather than actors, and by allowing younger artists' songs to land on the show, not just Big Easy standards.

"You could postulate about the trickle-down effect because 'Treme' folks go out of their way to make sure they are doing the right thing to get money to artists who need it the most, making sure synch money goes to the artists," says Scott Aiges, who comes in contact with countless local musicians in his capacity as director of programs for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation. "The diligence with which they have done that means dozens of musicians are able to pay their rent and sustain their livelihood in ways they otherwise wouldn't."

Leyh projects that the second season of "Treme" will match the $1 million-plus in appearance and synch fees that he says the show paid to local musicians during its first season.

Performers in the first three episodes of the new season include Ruffins, brass bands Hot 8 and Baby Boyz, Steve Earle, the Subdudes, the fictional Soul Apostles featuring Antoine Batiste (played by Wendell Pierce) and bounce artist 10th Ward Buck.

Slated to make appearances later in the season are the Rebirth Brass Band, Cyril Neville, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Steve Riley, Al "Carnival Time" Johnson and George Porter. More Cajun, country and zydeco music is forthcoming as well.

The debut episode of the second season features about a dozen performances, one of which is a club performance by rapper Juvenile with funk band Galactic and the Dirty Dozen Band. None of the artists had ever met prior to the show.

"We write it and cross our fingers that our music supervisors can work out the logistics," says Eric Overmyer, who produces the show with David Simon.

Fortunately for the producers and Leyh, enlisting musicians is easier than it was for the first season, when they shot eight episodes before the series premiere.

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