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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.
Swamp blues is a type of Louisiana blues that developed in the Black communities of Southwest Louisiana in the 1950s. It incorporates influences from other genres, particularly zydeco and Cajun. Its most successful proponents include Slim Harpo and Lightnin' Slim, who enjoyed national rhythm and blues hits.
The music of Louisiana can be divided into three general regions: rural south Louisiana, home to Creole Zydeco and Old French, New Orleans, and north Louisiana. The region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms. The music of the northern portion of the state starting at Baton Rouge and reaching Shreveport has similarities to that of the rest of the US South.
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, was an American Creole musician known as a pioneer of zydeco, a style of music which arose from Creole music, with R&B, blues, and Cajun influences. He sang and played the accordion and won a Grammy Award in 1983.
Slim Harpo was an American blues musician, a leading exponent of the swamp blues style, and "one of the most commercially successful blues artists of his day". He played guitar and was a master of the blues harmonica, known in blues circles as a "harp". His most successful and influential recordings included "I'm a King Bee" (1957), "Rainin' in My Heart" (1961), and "Baby Scratch My Back" (1966), which reached number one on Billboard's R&B chart and number 16 on its broader Hot 100 singles chart.
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, and Northern Europe
Maison de Soul is a Louisiana-based Zydeco and blues record label. It was founded in 1974 in Ville Platte, Louisiana by Floyd Soileau and remains under his ownership. It is one of four record labels under Soileau's Flat Town Music Company umbrella, and combined the Flat Town labels make up "the largest body of Cajun, zydeco, and swamp music in the world". Living Blues magazine has called Maison de Soul "the country's foremost zydeco label".
Wilson Anthony "Boozoo" Chavis was an American accordion player, singer, songwriter and bandleader. He was one of the pioneers of zydeco, the fusion of Cajun and blues music developed in southwest Louisiana.
Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!.
Leslie Johnson, better known as Lazy Lester, was an American blues musician who sang and played the harmonica and guitar. In a career spanning the 1950s to 2018, he pioneered swamp blues, and also played harmonica blues, rhythm and blues and Louisiana blues.
Otis Verries Hicks, known as Lightnin' Slim, was an American blues musician who played Louisiana blues and swamp blues for Excello Records. The blues critic ED Denson ranked him as one of the five great bluesmen of the 1950s, along with Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson.
Joseph Denton "Jay" Miller was an American record producer and songwriter from Louisiana, whose Cajun, swamp blues, and swamp pop recordings influenced American popular culture.
New Orleans blues is a subgenre of blues that developed in and around the city of New Orleans, influenced by jazz and Caribbean music. It is dominated by piano and saxophone, but also produced guitar bluesmen.
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.
The culture of Louisiana involves its music, food, religion, clothing, language, architecture, art, literature, games, and sports. Often, these elements are the basis for one of the many festivals in the state. Louisiana, while sharing many similarities to its neighbors along the Gulf Coast, is unique in the influence of Louisiana French culture, due to the historical waves of immigration of French-speaking settlers to Louisiana. Likewise, African-American culture plays a prominent role. While New Orleans, as the largest city, has had an outsize influence on Louisiana throughout its history, other regions both rural and urban have contributed their shared histories and identities to the culture of the state.
Silas Hogan was an American blues musician who played swamp blues and Louisiana blues. His most notable recordings are "Airport Blues" and "Lonesome La La". He was the front man of the Rhythm Ramblers. Hogan was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame.
Gabriel Perrodin, known as Guitar Gable, was an American Louisiana blues, swamp blues and swamp pop musician. He was best known for recording the original version of "This Should Go On Forever", and his part in the vibrant swamp blues and pop scene in Louisiana in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Herman E. Johnson was an American country blues guitarist. He was recorded by folklorist Harry Oster in Louisiana, in 1961.
James Dent Dotson, sometimes known as Jimmy "Louisiana" Dotson, was an American blues singer, guitarist and drummer. His best known track was "I Need Your Love", a song he co-wrote with Jerry West. Over a sixty-year career, Dotson played alongside Silas Hogan, Lightnin' Slim, Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Albert King, O. V. Wright, Rufus Thomas, Ivory Joe Hunter, Buddy Guy, Son Seals, and Isaac Hayes. He released three singles on different record labels between 1959 and 1963.
References
- ↑ Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music. Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p. 161. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.
- ↑ Koda, Cub. "New Orleans blues". AllMusic . Archived from the original on June 23, 2011..
- 1 2 Unterberger, R. (2003). "Louisiana blues", in V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra, S. T. Erlewine, eds., All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues. 3rd ed. Milwaukee: Backbeat Books. pp. 687–688. ISBN 0-87930-736-6.
- ↑ Koda, Cub. "Swamp blues". AllMusic . Archived from the original on May 14, 2011..
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