Lanor Records is a record label based in the bayou region of Louisiana. It is known for its issues of Cajun and zydeco music.
Lee Lavergne began to record musicians local to his home in Church Point, Louisiana after he was returned from army service in Korea. [1] [2] The label was formed in 1960 as a secondary endeavor to Lavergne's job as a grocery clerk. [1] Lavergne deeply wanted to be in the music business, but didn't think he could make it as a performer or a disk jockey. [2] He became a fan of local cajun and rhythm and blues musicians, and decided he wanted to produce and release records. [2] Initially he was discouraged from entering the record business by those he first worked with, but Lavergne decided to begin even if prospects were poor. [2] Lanor's first release was by Shirley Bergeron in May 1960, its entire run of 2000 copies sold and immediately established Lanor as a viable ongoing entity. [1] [3] He supervised his own recording sessions that took place at Crowley and New Orleans, gaining experience and better technical results as time passed. [1] The first Lanor album was also by Shirley Bergeron, entitled "The Sounds Of Cajun Music". [2] This first album was successful, but a second album by Bergeron had disappointing sales. [2]
While promoting Bergeron's discs, Lavergne became acquainted with individuals in the rock and rhythm and blues promotion, and he began recording those genres. [2] The label's first true hit was 1962's "Life Problem" by Elton Anderson. [1] [4] Capitol Records picked up the record for national distribution, and signed with Lanor for further recordings, but the agreement lasted only a short while, and then Anderson unexpectedly quit altogether. [2] Recordings by Charles Mann, who sold very well in Louisiana and Texas, and Billy Matte provided further profitability. [2] [1] Lanor moved into the blues field briefly, but found the climate for a purer form of blues in Louisiana to be difficult with sales rarely exceeding 100 copies, and exited that market by 1963. [2]
Lanor entered the southern soul field in the late 1960s, to disappointing results. [2] Lavergne opened a retail music store in 1972, and in 1975 moved Lanor into a location that was previously a restaurant and bar., [3] but the label was in hiatus for most of the 1970s. [2] Lanor came back in 1980 when it released an album of new Charles Mann material named "She's Walking Towards Me". [2] In 1982, as Lavergne experienced increasing studio costs he built his own small studio consisting of an inexpensive mixing board and a single reel-to-reel recording unit. [1] [3]
The label focused primarily on 45rpm singles until the 1990s, at which time it began to issue albums in cassette and compact disc formats. [1]
Later the label was owned and operated by Bobby and Pat Murray, and relocated to Jennings, Louisiana [5]
The label has been highly sought-after by fans of Cajun and zydeco, who often travel to Louisiana seeking releases. [1] The label has also issued material in the bluegrass and blues genres. [5]
Zydeco is a music genre that evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers which blends blues, rhythm and blues, and music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native American people of Louisiana. Although it is distinct in origin from the Cajun music of Louisiana, the two forms influenced each other, forming a complex of genres native to the region.
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana played by the Cajuns, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Although they are two separate genres, Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based zydeco music. Both are from southwest Louisiana and share French and African origins. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music, and have influenced pop culture through mass media, such as television commercials.
Clifton Chenier, a Louisiana French-speaking native of Leonville, Louisiana, near Opelousas, was a performer and recording artist of zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordion and won a Grammy Award in 1983.
Swamp pop is a music genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s by young Cajuns and Creoles, it combines New Orleans–style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French Louisiana musical influences. Although a fairly obscure genre, swamp pop maintains a large audience in its south Louisiana and southeast Texas homeland, and it has acquired a small but passionate cult following in the United Kingdom, Northern Europe, and Japan.
Beau Jocque was a Louisiana French Creole zydeco musician and songwriter active in the 1990s.
Barbara Lynn is an American rhythm and blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, "You'll Lose a Good Thing" (1962). In 2018, Lynn received a National Heritage Fellowship.
Rod Bernard was an American singer who helped to pioneer the musical genre known as "swamp pop", which combined New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun and black Creole music. He is generally considered one of the foremost musicians of this south Louisiana-east Texas idiom, along with such notables as Bobby Charles, Johnnie Allan, Tommy McLain, and Warren Storm.
Joseph Denton "Jay" Miller was an American record producer, musician and songwriter from Crowley, Louisiana, whose Cajun, swamp blues, and swamp pop recordings influenced American popular culture.
Scott Billington is an American record producer, songwriter, record company executive and blues musician.
Warren Storm was an American drummer and vocalist, known as a pioneer of the musical genre swamp pop; a combination of rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun music and black Creole music.
Johnnie Allan is an American pioneer of the swamp pop musical genre.
Leo Soileau was one of the most prolific Cajun recording artists of the 1930s and 1940s, recording over 100 songs, which was a substantial amount considering the reluctance to record the music during its early stages. He is known as the second person to record a Cajun record and the first to record this genre with a fiddle.
The Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album was an honor presented to recording artists at the 50th, 51st, 52nd and 53rd Annual Grammy Awards (2008–2011) for quality zydeco or cajun music albums. The Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, are presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
Cornelius Green III, known professionally as Lonesome Sundown, was an American blues musician, best known for his recordings for Excello Records in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Leroy "Happy Fats" Leblanc was a Cajun swing musician that recorded with RCA Records in the 1930s and 1940s. He is known for his recordings with Harry Choates and his broadcasts on KVOL. Next to the Hackberry Ramblers, the Rayne-Bo Ramblers were the most popular and innovative of the Cajun string bands.
George Khoury was an American pioneer swamp pop and cajun record producer known for co-writing and composing the No. 1 hit song "Sea of Love" by Phil Phillips as well as "Mathilda" by Cookie and the Cupcakes.
Sidney Brown was a Cajun accordion builder and accordion player. In the 1950s, he recorded with his band, Sidney Brown and the Traveler Playboys. He would eventually be recognized as the first person to build Cajun accordions after World War II in Louisiana. Eventually, other Cajun musicians would play Brown's accordions, including Jo-El Sonnier, Boozoo Chavis and Marc Savoy.
Jimmy Wilson was an American West Coast blues singer, best known for his 1953 hit "Tin Pan Alley".
Elton Anderson was an American singer and swamp pop pioneer who had a chart hit on Mercury Records.
Bogalusa Boogie is a studio album by the American zydeco musician Clifton Chenier. It was released in 1975 via Arhoolie Records. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2016, the album was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.