ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance"-AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM.Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which inATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime.The
book features the epic poem"The
Toiler"as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel
I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves atNOOK
Press(the
Barnes & Noble site),Lulu,
and others.
Swamp Pop is a musical genre indigenous to
the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of
southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s and early 1960s by teenaged Cajuns
and black 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. - Wikipedia
By RAR
If the
musical genre known as "Swamp Pop" is new to you, take a moment to
listen to the seminal, genre-defining record of
Cookie and the Cupcakes' 1958 recording of "Mathilda"
(right column). You will recognize it as the sound of a certain era in
radio history that came and went as a style but burrowed deeply into the
fabric of our shared musical culture.
The flag bearers of this kind of music were
right over the top with raw sincerity and naked emotions. Their sound feels real,
like a working class expression, in which survival is very closely
married to matters of the heart. In that, it was a product of its time, a folk
music sandwiched between the Korean War and Viet Nam, during which class
divisions were showing, and racial divisions were evolving in convergent
ways.
It was not just a Black thing, but also a
Hispanic and what
might affectionately be called a White Trash thing. Listen to
Jonnie Allan's "Promised Land" (right column) and you can feel a level
of desperation that obliterates racial distinctions and delivers a
focused sense of humanity that is exhilarating, and exhilaratingly
familiar. We all grew up with this song and this sound. It was a sound
built for Elvis, the paragon of working class pop music sensibilities,
though Elvis was not a Swamp Pop phenomenon, but more an effective
harvester of the cutting edge sounds of his time. Swamp Pop completely
suited Elvis' melodramatic inclinations.
Swamp Pop was a regional antecedent to a
broader musical force that was sweeping through the western world at the
time, which was Rock'n Roll. Nationwide, Rock music dominated the
airwaves and killed the careers of the Sinatra-era performers. Likewise,
Swamp Pop diverted the attentions of Southern Louisiana and Southeast
Texas kids away from the music indigenous to their region, which was
French Acadian in its origin. Unlike anyplace else in the United States,
Southern Louisiana has a culture that is uniquely its own, created by
French-Canadian exiles, Mediterranean and Southern Blacks, and natives
indigenous to Louisiana. It has instilled the area with a proud
tradition, which maintains a fealty to its traditional music forms,
including songs written in French to be performed in French. A whole
generation of Swamp Pop kids challenged that traditional model,
introducing electric instruments, keyboards and drum sets into what
previously had been a folk arrangement. This would be echoed around the
Southern U.S., influencing other pop permutations, like "Newgrass"
music, which expanded on "Bluegrass" traditions.
Today, Swamp Pop has been incorporated into
the playlists of a whole stable of Southern Louisiana bands that mix
Cajun, zydeco, and Americana with Swamp Pop staples. Many sing
traditional French language lyrics. Steve Riley
and the Mamou Playboys have been around for years doing this.
Others have included the Red Stick Ramblers
and the Pine Leaf Boys, who built
significant followings before the two bands disbanded, with several of
their members coming together to form The
Revelers.
Ghost of Dewey Balfa
The Revelers
The Revelers
are what became of the Red Stick Ramblers
and the Pine Leaf Boys (see below).
They are more or less the brainchild of wunderkind
Blake Miller, who has surfaced as a significant songwriter
of original music in the French Cajun style. The band plays modern styles of Cajun, zydeco,
Swamp Pop, and Americana equally well. The band includes drummer
Glenn Fields, saxophonist
Chris Miller, multi-instrumentalist
Daniel Coolik, guitarist
Chas Justus, and bassist
Eric Frey.
The Revelers have toured the United
States extensively, the UK, Ireland, and Denmark. They are a festival
mainstay having played at the Blackpot Festival, Tønder, Shakori Hills,
both Rhythm and Roots, Wheatland, Sugar Maple Fest, Festival
International de Louisiane, Grey Fox, Clearwater’s Hudson River Revival,
the Red Wing Roots Music Festival and countless others. They are also
in-demand in the music education scene, having been on staff at Ashokan
Fiddle & Dance, Balfa Week, Miles of Music Camp, FiddleTunes, and
Blackpot Camp.
Feufollet
Feufollet consists of musicians Phillippe
Billeaudeaux, Chris Segura, Mike Stafford, Kelli Jones-Savoy, Chris
Stafford, and Andrew Toups.
The band has a youthful profile that has probably benefited them
with advantages beyond what their Cajun competition can mount. Feufollet
("crazy fire") has received a Grammy nomination for their 2010 En
Couleurs album, and has been recipient of the Big Easy Award for
"Best Cajun Band". If they are not really "the best", they may well be
the "most marketable".
Pine Leaf Boys
The
Pine Leaf Boys have received four Grammy nominations for
their brand of Cajun music. Hailing from the southwest Louisiana, the
Pine Leaf Boys have been described in the New York Times as, "... the
link that connects the young and the old generations," and, "the best
new, energetic, and fun Cajun band in a very long time," the Pine Leaf
Boys play the old fashion dance hall standards while making a priority
to bring many of the more obscure songs of past masters into their
repertoire and play them with gusto." The band has performed on three
U.S. State Department tours, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Jerusalem
in 2009, and again to Latvia, Denmark, and Slovenia in 2010, and a third
time to the "Stan" countries in 2012 (Uzbek, Tajik, and Kyrgz).
Lost Bayou Ramblers
The
Lost Bayou Ramblers was formed in 1999 by
Louis Michot (fiddle and vocals) and
his brother Andre Michot (Cajun
accordion and lap steel guitar) and grew to include producer
Korey Richey (electric bass),
Johnny Campos (electric guitar) and
Eric Heigle (drums). With years of
touring, recording, and collaborating under their belt, the band has
continually integrated new sonic elements to its live performances,
always experimenting and growing the show to what it's become today, an
eclectic mix of modern sounds and rhythms with ancient Cajun melodies
and lyrics.
The Los Bayou Ramblers have done interesting
collaborations with Violent Femmes vocalist and fiddle player
Gordon Gano, and with actress and
wannabe singer Scarlett Johansson
and with Dr. John. They all appeared on the band's breakthrough Mammoth
Waltz album. The band contributed to the soundtrack for the Oscar
nominated film Beasts of the Southern Wild. They have also provided an
opening act for Arcade Fire.
Red Stick Ramblers
Of all
of the Cajun and Zydeco acts to
come out of Louisiana over the past ten years, the
Red Stick Ramblers
may have been the most traditional of the lot. They mixed original French
language interpretations of classics from that canon among with only
slightly more contemporary country songs, but do it all on wooden
instruments, so it sounds authentic in a pre-Fender kind of a way.
Little Freddie King
Born in McComb, Mississippi in 1940, Fread E. Martin grew up
playing alongside his blues guitar-picking father (Jessie
James Martin), then rode the rails to New Orleans during the
early fifties where he crossed paths with itinerant South
Louisiana blues men such as "Poka- Dot" Slim and "Boogie"
Bill Webb whose unique country-cum-urban styles would
influence his own. Honing his guitar chops at notorious
joints like the Bucket of Blood (which he later immoralized
in song), he jammed and gigged with Bo Diddley and John Lee
Hooker, and also played bass for Freddy King during one of
the guitarist's stints in New Orleans. People began
comparing the two musicians' styles, hence Martin's nome-de-plume.
While well-vested in a variety of styles, nowadays Little
Freddie sounds a lot more like his cousin Lightin' Hopkins -
albeit after a three day corn liquor bender! Nevertheless,
the King sobriquet is fitting, as Freddie is undeniably the
monarch of the Crescent City blues scene. - ( from his
Website, pretty much sic)
Forgotten Not Gone
Henry Butler
Henry
Butler has long been one of New Orleans piano-playing native sons, in a
league with the legends, Professor Longhair and Dr. John. Life is all
about the breaks you get and the degree to which one is fortunate enough
to make beneficial connections, and somehow Butler just never got the
breaks. There is a concerted effort these days to promote him and his
legacy, and to get him the attention he deserves. Last year, Butler
released a new album - Viper’s Drag
- with Steven Bernstein and the
Hot 9 band and featuring
Herlin Riley, who some like
Snug Harbor MC Fred Kasten, consider
"the greatest drummer in New Orleans". Kasten has said of Butler's
most recent recording, “Bernstein is a great arranger and knows how to
pick songs that work well with what Henry does. This could be the band
of colleagues that finally brings Henry the mass audience he deserves.”
Born
near Mamou, Louisiana, Dewey Balfa
was a Cajun fiddle player and singer who helped to popularize Cajun
music. His father had been a fiddle player, and he taught Dewey the
traditional repertoire. He and his brothers formed a couple bands after
returning from WWII, one of which got a lot of attention at the 1964
Newport Folk Festival.
Balfa was a music educator, in a
documentary film titled "Les Blues de Balfa" he provides the following
explanation of the Cajun culture:
"We are here to tell you a little bit about what a
Cajun is. A Cajun is a person who his homeland was France. Went into
Nova Scotia, at the time Acadia, and settled there and was there for
about a hundred years, and afterwards the British took over the
territory and then the French-speaking people, the French descendants,
known as the Acadians, came down to the South-Western part of Louisiana,
and that was back in 1755. So over all of these years, your language,
and your music has been preserved from daddy to son or daddy to daughter
or momma to daughter."
Swamp Pop Honor Roll
The list below, found on Wikipedia, provides what
somebody considered to be the essential Swamp Pop recordings to have
come out of Louisiana. There is some pretty arcane references here, and
fun to look through. You can search for the recordings.
Johnnie Allan,
Promised Land, Ace 380, 1992 [UK]. Johnnie Allan, Swamp Pop Legend:
Johnnie Allan – The Essential
Collection, Jin 9044, 1995. Rod Bernard, Swamp Pop Legend: Rod
Bernard – The Essential Collection, Jin 9056, 1998.
Rod Bernard, Swamp Rock 'n' Roller,
Ace 488, 1994 [UK]. The Boogie Kings, Swamp Boogie
Blues, Jin 9045, 1995. Van Broussard, The Early Years, CSP
1007, 1993. Bobby Charles, Bobby Charles, 1971 Cookie & The Cupcakes, By Request,
Jin 9037, 1993. Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, But I
Do(EP) 1961. Dale Hawkins, Susie Q(EP), Checker
1957 Toussaint McCall, I'll Do It for
You(EP), 1967 Charles Mann, Swamp Pop Legend:
Charles Mann – The Essential Collection, Jin 9060, 1998. Randy & The Rockets, A Blast From
the Past – The Essential Collection, Jin 9059, 1998. Phil Phillips, Sea of Love,(EP)
Mercury, 1959. Phil Phillips, Sea of Love,album ,
Bear Family, 2008. Warren Storm, Night After Night, Jin
9039, 1995. Tommy McLain, Swamp Pop Legend:
Tommy McLain – The Essential
Collection, Jin 9054, 1997. Slim Harpo, Raining in My Heart,
Excello, 1961. Bettye Swann, Make Me Yours,(EP)
1967. Clint West, Swamp Pop Legend: Clint
West – The Essential Collection, Jin 9055, 1997. Tony Joe White, Tony Joe White,
Warner 1971. The Uniques (Louisiana Band), Don't
Miss Your Water Various Artists, Eddie’s House of Hits:
The Story of Goldband Records, Ace 424, 1992 [UK]. Various Artists, Swamp Gold, Vol. 1
- Vol.8, Jin(1991-2006).
Popular artists listed as having
represented the Swamp Pop sound include:
Leon Russell
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Delayney and Bonnie
Duane Allman
Gregg Allman
Derek and the Dominos
Joe Cocker
The Rolling Stones
What Happened to the Grammys?
Cajun music and the Grammy Awards have not necessarily
been partners in crime.
For years there were
Cajun supporters who lobbied the National Academy of Recording Arts and
Science to create a special category of awards for this unique brand of
American music. And from 2008 to 2011 the academy did pass out awards
for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album. After that, the genre was
relegated to the status of "regional music" and bands interested in
winning Grammy's have competed under that umbrella title ever since.
Louisiana acts that have benefitted from lobbying on
their behalf have included the following award recipients:
Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience,
BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Chubby Carrier and
the Bayou Swamp Band.
The group Pine Leaf Boys
holds the record for the most nominations, with four. Though nominated
each year the honor was presented, the group failed to receive an award.
Doucet and Cedric Watson each received three nominations. 2009 marked
the only year in which a musician received more than one nomination as
well as the only time two artists were nominated for works appearing on
the same album—Doucet was nominated as a member of BeauSoleil for
Live at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival as well as for
his solo album From Now On, and Steve
Riley and the Mamou Playboys were also nominated for their
contribution to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival compilation
album. Many nominated artists were from Louisiana, specifically
Lafayette.
