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.
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.
Johnny Rivers is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His repertoire includes pop, folk, blues, and old-time rock 'n' roll. Rivers charted during the 1960s and 1970s but remains best known for a string of hit singles between 1964 and 1968, among them "Memphis", "Mountain of Love", "The Seventh Son", "Secret Agent Man", "Poor Side of Town", "Baby I Need Your Lovin'", and "Summer Rain".
Percy Tyrone Sledge was an American R&B, soul and gospel singer. He is best known for the song "When a Man Loves a Woman", a No. 1 hit on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B singles charts in 1966. It was awarded a million-selling, Gold-certified disc from the RIAA.
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.
Kenny Neal, is an American blues guitar player, singer and band member. Neal's father is Raful Neal, and he comes from a musical family. He has often performed with his brothers in his band.
Leslie Johnson, better known as Lazy Lester, was an American blues musician who sang and played the harmonica and guitar. His career spanned the 1950s to 2018.
Otis Verries Hicks, known as Lightnin' Slim, was an American Louisiana blues musician, who recorded for Excello Records and played in a style similar to its other Louisiana artists. 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.
Excello Records was an American blues independent record label, started by Ernie Young in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, in 1953 as a subsidiary of Nashboro, a gospel label.
Cockadoodledon't is an LP released by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers on April 22, 2003.
"I'm a King Bee" is a swamp blues song written and first recorded by Slim Harpo in 1957. It has been performed and recorded by numerous blues and other artists and in 2008, Slim Harpo's original received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.
"Baby Scratch My Back" is a 1965 rhythm and blues song by blues singer Slim Harpo. It is mostly an instrumental piece with occasional monologue and harmonica fills by Harpo. Although it had some success with rock audiences, "Baby Scratch My Back" was a number one hit in 1966 on the magazine's Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. It was Harpo's most commercially successful single and was subsequently recorded by several musicians.
Silas Hogan was an American blues musician. 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.
Moses "Whispering" Smith was an American blues harmonicist and singer. He recorded tracks including "A Thousand Miles from Nowhere" and "Texas Flood" and worked with Lightnin' Slim and with Silas Hogan. He was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame.
Baton Rouge was an American hard rock band, formed in 1986 in Pearl River, Louisiana. The band produced two albums and enjoyed limited success during the final part of the hair metal explosion in the early 1990s, before disbanding. All the band members went on to work with other hard rock recording artists Lance Bulen. Vocalist and guitarist Kelly Keeling performed with Michael Schenker Group and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
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.
Bobby Henderson Powell is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and pianist.
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.
Kentrell DeSean Gaulden, known professionally as YoungBoy Never Broke Again, is an American rapper. Between 2015 and 2017, he released six independent mixtapes and steadily garnered a cult following through his work. In late 2017, Gaulden was signed to Atlantic Records. In January 2018, he released the single "Outside Today", which peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song became the lead single for his debut studio album Until Death Call My Name (2018) which peaked at number 7 on the US Billboard 200.
