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Louisiana Sounds Across the Country Introduction "You can find Louisiana in everything," Landreth once told me during an interview, after demonstrating how to play Jimi Hendrix's "Crosstown Traffic" as blistering Cajun blues. Here is more proof--a dozen dispatches from way down in the state, by a writer who has done the miles and vividly caught the people he's heard and met along the way. It is not the Louisiana in everything. But it's close."~ David Fricke -Rolling Stone July 14th 2015

Swamp Pop

"As a recording artist and particularly as a songwriter, Bobby Charles exerted a profound influence on swamp pop, especially during its formative years. Although best known for penning such memorable tunes as "Later Alligator"... Charles inspired numerous south Louisiana imitators, who in turn expanded the swamp pop repertoire and impacted regional and national charts." An Abbeville, Louisiana native like Warren Storm, Charles said that he was influenced by artists such as Fats Domino, Hank Williams, Sr., Nat King Cole, and Louis Armstrong. In 1994, Charle's composition of "I Don't Know Why but I Do," appeared on the popular Forrest Gump motion picture soundtrack. Bobby Charles' hit later Alligator.~

Warren Storm, another Abbeville Louisiana native was a top selling "swamp popper." "Most swamp poppers are praised solely as vocalists, but Warren Storm is renowned for both his vocals and drumming, recording several swamp classics and backing other musicians in the studio and on the American Bandstand." Storm's music is still being played in Louisiana Texas where he has some truly dedicated fans. Storm's hit "Prisoner's Song" made it on the charts nationally growing his fan-base. Storm toured the country promoting his music and appeared on several national TV dance shows including a Memphis program hosted by future game show emcee Wink Martindale. Martindale even gave storm a handwritten pass to Graceland, the estate of one of Storm's (and many others) musical heroes.
"And he [Elvis] was there [at the mansion] and they had a little party going on and he was sitting at a piano. And when the chauffeur brought us in, he [Elvis] told me to come sit by the piano while he was playing. And he had seen our show that afternoon. It was a Saturday...he sang a little bit of "The Prisoner's Song."-Warren Storm

Warren Storm on Drums~

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