The soundtrack for driving through the prairies and swamp lands of southwest Louisiana is right on your car radio. Hit the scan button while driving from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Henderson, Lafayette, Lake Charles, then down Route 27 to the gulf coast towns of Creole, Cameron, and Holly Beach, and you’ll hear old time religion, some top 40, and then POW, you’ll hit upon 100.3 FM and its neighbor 101.1 FM. If the reason you’re in Louisiana is to dig the indigenous music and dance culture, you’ve found the Holy Grail. And you’re in for a sociology lesson on where pop music’s deepest roots are buried.
If you’re under the tender age of 40, you’ll find out what radio used to sound like before it became solidly commercial. There’s “KBON, brought to you by Southern Barbecue Sauce, a Cajun tradition since 1957.” 101.1 FM in Eunice plays a gumbo of Cajun, Country, Blues, Swamp Pop, Zydeco, Oldies, most of it played and sung by Louisiana musicians.
The endless flatlands lining I-10 become drenched with some of that Southern sauce when accompanied by Little Alfred singing Louisiana Soul with “You Can Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye,” Wayne Toups and The Jambalaya Cajun Band playing a sweet little Cajun waltz, and an impromptu interview with Terry of Terry and The Zydeco Cowboys, who happened to drop by the studio with his wife.
Louisiana versions of “Sixteen Candles” and “I Want My Baby Back Again” with the distinct doo wop beat that characterized the late fifties appear in the midst of this. The writer imagines a whiff of Aqua-Velva and recalls his first awkward close dance with a girl at the Friday night dance at the Boys’ Club in small town America. This trip, meant to create memories, momentarily plumbs them.
We tuned in one day to hear “I want to wish Happy Birthday to Loyce ‘Topsie’ Babineau and (several other people named too fast for us to write) who live in Eunice, Crowley, and Houma.” Between “songs coming up by Red Beans and Rice and Louisiana Boogie with Kim Brasso, brought to you by Cypress Bayou Casino and Shorty’s,” we heard the daily fishing report. This is exactly what their target audience of 35 to 64 year-olds wants to hear.
Every time KBON’s signal faded we tried clicking down to 100.3 FM looking for KLRZ, “The Ragin’ Cajun,” out of Larose. It took about a hundred miles to discover it shares the same bandwidth with 100.3 KRRV FM out of Alexandria. At KRRV, we got an earful of Johnny Allen’s “You’re Nobody’s Darlin’ But Mine” and Ronnie Milsap’s “I’ve Got A Houston Solution in Mind” rather than the spicy Cajun, Blues, and Swamp Pop mix we were looking for on KLRZ.
All the stations got mixed up in a spicy aural jambalaya that fed us for days. Ping pong back and forth and you’ll hear a Cajun version of “I’m Just A Gigolo,” then a Louisiana cover of Waylon Jennings’s “I’ve Always Been Crazy But It’s Kept Me From Going Insane,” and occasionally be startled to hear a song you recognize like The Rolling Stones “Beast of Burden.”
There’s a Cajun force field in the bayous that will not submit to commercial radio. You won’t hear the same song twice in a day. You will hear news and weather at top of hour, plus a health tip of the day brought to you by a local pharmacy. This is “BWM” radio (Before Wall Mart), where sponsors include The Cajun Trading Post in Carencro that advertises - “We have motorized ice chests you can ride, “ and “The only thing we can’t fix is a broken heart.”
Listen to KBON long enough and you’ll hear the forebears of blues - horns and all, rock ’n roll, and soul, along with zydeco and Cajun music. The common denominator is a dance beat. Whether you’re Sunday driving down a two-lane road or ripping along a Louisiana interstate, your fanny will be wiggling in your seat. The music isn’t everyone’s cup of gumbo, but if it’s yours you’ll spoon it up every time you get in the car.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
Paul, what a fun story! Sounds like a great way to spend a few days and get into the culture. Music is vibrant but agree that too much of a good thing may not be so good! Thanks for bringing some cheer my way. Jan
Posted by: Jan O'Keefe | August 19, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Ahhh...! Love that Aqua Velva with a dash of doo wap!
Posted by: Susaan | August 19, 2008 at 06:24 PM