"Unsung Heroes: The Secret History of Louisiana Rock n Roll"
Ponderosa Stomp Exhibit at The Louisiana State Museum's Cabildo Building
Jackson Square
New Orleans, Louisiana
September 21, 2012
Here you have it folks - one room, half the size of a basketball court, loaded with artifacts, photos with explanatory captions, and music clips celebrating the immense influence Louisiana's blues, R&B, soul and garage band musicians had on American music. Aside from a few luminaries like Little Richard and Fats Domino, you may not have heard of many of them. But I guarantee you’d recognize their style, harmonies, and vocal arrangements in just about every rock n roll song made in the 1950s, 60s and beyond.
The exhibit is tucked away on the third floor of the Cabildo Building, one of two fabulous museums standing like bookends against the soaring St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. Both the Cabildo and the Presbytere, operated by the Louisiana State Museum, have a wide range of exhibits that shed light on how New Orleans has evolved into a city whose vibe is hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t spent time in its streets, restaurants, bars, music joints, or attended festivals, which seem to happen more often than you wipe perspiration from your brow in the thick August humidity.
The rainbow arching over American popular music probably has one pot of gold in New Orleans and the cities surrounding it and the other in Nashville,Tennessee.
The early and raw forms of rock 'n roll, rhythm and blues, blues, swamp pop, can be traced to New Orleans, Lafayette, Crowley, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport.
You think Lady Gaga has over-the-top style? Self-proclaimed “Emperor of the Universe,” Ernie K-Doe, and Guitar Slim, who dyed his hair to match his suits, and guitar pickin’ Evangelist Utah Smith who wore wings during his performances would have yawned at her.
The biggest surprise of the day was finding out about a radio program called the Louisiana Hayride that began in the late 1940s. In the 1950s Elvis Presley and Hank Williams took their 1st steps toward stardom when they recorded on KWKH, dubbed “Cradle of the Stars.” The asteroid that plowed into the continent 65 million years ago might have spelled doom for the dinosaurs. KWKH crackled into the living rooms of listeners in 28 states across the Southwest with a massive 50,000-watt signal. America was never the same after each landing.
Although the room has a fine collection of artifacts, it’s the music emanating from the two video installations that lingered in my memory long after I’d left. Jimmy Clanton’s “Just A Dream” brought back memories of the Friday night dances at the Pittsfield, MA, Boys’ Club. Hormones at a dance for high school kids are thicker than the crust of the pizzas we boys wanted to wolf down after the dance, a lame substitute for what we really wanted which, during the 1950s, remained “Just A Dream.”
The exhibit is the brainchild of The Ponderosa Stomp Foundation, a group dedicated to show the uninitiated how much we owe to the seminal influence of Louisiana musicians.
You might have to be of a certain age to fully appreciate the exhibit but its appeal is universal. I met a couple who flew all the way from Canberra, Australia, to feel the music in the chunk of Louisiana where it was born. They knew the lyrics to lots of the songs echoing through the room.
“We’re going to Nashville, next,” the woman says, “this room has us gobsmacked!”
I guess there’s always time to make “Just A Dream” come true.
Legendary New Orleans engineer Cosimo Metassa - from the late 1940s to 1970s, he recorded Little Richard, Fats Domino, Big Joe Turner and dozens of less well known singers and groups whose styles you'd recognize but names you wouldn't. Other singers covered their material and met with wider success.
Professor Longhair, practically venerated in New Orleans and unknown elsewhere - Fats Domino is known everywhere; Shirley and Lee's "Let the Good Times Roll" was a #1 R & B hit in 1952.
Cajun singers Johnnie Allan and Warren Storm pioneered "swamp pop".
Incredible variety and talent: Lightnin' Slim was the king of "swamp blues" and Hank Williams the king of "honky tonk".
Speaking of kings, Clifton Chenier is the undisputed "King of Zydeco". His accordion skills were legendary. Chenier had the idea to blend the French and Cajun 2-steps and waltzes of southwest Louisiana with New Orleans R&B, Texas blues, and big-band jazz and the sound was heaven to dancers and listeners alike. For a taste of his style, listen to the Arhoolie Records CD "The Best of Clifton Chenier"
From Crowley to New Orleans, Louisiana was producing music that would shape the scene for decades.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello
VIDEOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EoU1m1dQrw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1C5BUd0xyE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaX6HOvZYBk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZESJGJ_DoPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iZFtrmiG2Y
Comments