Louisiana

Louisiana,

Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, the home of Jazz, and a port in a storm for the Delta Blues there's not too many truly American music genres that haven't either been formed, or influenced by the streets of NOLA, and the french inspired culture of Louisiana by and large.

In recent history, we have lost much of the story of what Louisiana has meant to the culture of our nation, instead focusing on the devastation of the state's gulf region at the hands of Hurricane Katrina. We all know what happened, we all know the aftermath it produced. Now is the time to remember the Louisiana and New Orleans of pre-Katrina, and celebrate what Louisiana continues to bring the rest of our nation now that the efforts to recover from nature's fury are mercifully in motion.

Before we dig too deeply into a jambalaya of musical expressionism, first, we should explore the other fascinating factoids our friends at Wikipedia can dig up about The Bayou State.

- Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes rather than counties. What's the difference? I have no idea, but I blame France.

- Actually, the Louisiana parishes are the result of both French and Spanish colonial design, and were doled out based on Roman Catholic ecclesiastical division throughout the state when it was initially settled. How un-separated-church-and-state-ey!

- Louisiana was purchased from the French in 1803. Oddly, not all of current Louisiana was included in The Louisiana Purchase as the eastern portion of the current state was included in the Mississippi Territory, added to the union in 1804 and disputed until 1819 when a Spanish treaty made it official. The western portion of the state was also in dispute until the 1819 Spanish Cession. Hindsight being twenty-twenty, they probably should have called it the LouisianaArkansasOklahomaMissouriKansasIowaMinnesotaNebraskaWyomingNorthDakotaSouthDakotaandmostofMontana purchase, but that just doesn't roll of the tongue quite the same way...

- So instead of North and South Dakota forming the one state of Dakota, perhaps they should join to form North Louisiana...

- The purchase price of all this land, when subtracting the outstanding debts of France toward the US resulted in a purchase price of $8,831,250, or less than Rafael Furcal will likely make to play shortstop in 2009.

- CC Sabathia would run you about 32 states a season...

- In French History, what we know as 'The Louisiana Purchase' they refer to as 'Vente de la Louisiane' or 'The Sale of Louisiana'. Funny, I thought they'd call it a Royale with Cheese...

- In spite of 200+ years of rule under the US, Louisiana culture still revolves heavily around French influence, including 7% of Louisiana's residents speaking French, almost 5% as their only language. This influence has also lead the the awesomeness of cajun and creole cuisine.

- The climate of Louisiana is mostly warm, most of the time, leading to a dearth of sweater sales throughout the state. If you plan to open a business selling sweaters, try Maine.

- Portions of the city of New Orleans currently sit eight feet below sea level and continue to sink literally as well as figuratively. Way to go FEMA!!

- According to a 2007 CNN poll, New Orleans was voted the best U.S. city for live music, cocktail hours, flea markets, antique shopping, nightlife, "wild weekends," "girlfriend getaways," and cheap food.

- Truman Capote, Kitty Carlisle and Cokie Roberts are all famous people from Louisiana, and if you invited them all to the same party, some body's probably going to end up dead.

- Don't dismiss the unfathomable power of Cokie Roberts' shoulder pads. Besides, she works for NPR, and the LAST thing you want is to end up on Michele Norris' bad side...

- All Things Considered, she'll kick your ass...

- I'm not sure why you should fear the passed Kitty Carlisle, except for the fact that she held on for 96 years, and was on an episode of Kojak. That gives you serious cred in a party-brawl...

- Truman Capote likely wouldn't have killed anyone, but he would probably have sat in the corner, "dreamily contemplating some outrage against conventional morality." Which in Louisiana, is a bigger crime than murder...

- Seriously, I don't know who's dead, but Cokie did it, Truman watched, and Kitty is still trying to find out which one is Donna Myers...

- Most of Louisiana was at one time under water, and was created by the silt left from the Mississippi river as it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. Just in case the sinking land, consistent hurricanes and large number of alligators didn't already have you feeling uncomfortable...

- It's totally worth it for the gumbo...

Enough with the pithy snippets! There's music in these here swamps!

The Selections:

Solo Artist: Louis Armstrong

Aside from being a killer trumpet player, the singer of the original and most recognizable version of one of history's most covered tunes, and possessing a truly unique vocal instrument to go along with his mad horn skills, I honestly had no choice but to go with Satchmo because had I not, CSD Julie likely would be filing divorce papers...

Pops came to prominence in the 1920's by virtue of his incomparable trumpet playing, and is subsequently one of the artists held responsible for influencing and laying the foundation for modern jazz by putting prominence on a single solo artist rather than the group collective, common in Dixieland variations of jazz popular in New Orleans at the time of Armstrong's rise to fame.

This, his stage presence, and his late career influence on other forms of popular music have lead music critic Steve Leggett to refer to Armstrong as "perhaps the most important American musician of the 20th century." Aside for the obvious qualification of 'perhaps' that's still a strong statement, although one you're far more likely to see in a music review of a specific artist than say a treatise on music history by and large.

Regardless, I'm not here to split hairs, and I don't even disagree with Leggett's statement that perhaps-maybe-if-you-look-at-it-in-the-right-light-and-kind-of-sort-of-squint Louis Armstrong is maybe sort of one of best people ever to draw breath...

It's indubitable however that he knew how to blow said breath into the business end of a trumpet. Here's Louis, blowin' the crap out of When The Saints Go Marchin' In...

Band: Buckwheat Zydeco

There must be a deep seeded streak of individuality amongst Louisiana born and bred musicians, because these folks just do NOT form musical groups. Throw a stick and you'll hit a known solo artist from down on the bayou, but good luck getting two or more of them to play together.

And when they DO, you wouldn't know it, because they play collectively under the name of one key band member... Hence, Buckwheat Zydeco...

Buckwheat the dude, was born Stanley Dural Jr. presumably in Louisiana. Buckwheat Zydeco the Worlds Greatest Party Band was most definitely formed in Lafayette, Louisiana and exists mostly as a touring group for the aforementioned Buckwheat the dude.

Regardless just how many Buckwheats it takes to properly Zydeco, he/they have managed to take a staple of traditional creole folk music and go mainstream, or at least as mainstream as accordion-heavy dance tunes can get without accompanying vocals from Weird Al...

Buckwheat cut his zydeco teeth playing with the grand daddy of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier earning enough zydeco cred to support himself and whatever backing musicians he chooses to bring with him as he barnstorms around this mad, mad world playing party music to the masses.

If you can get over your preconceived notions of what the accordion's place in modern music should be (usually tucked safely in a closet), you'll likely find yourself losing your accordibitions and getting down to the power of the hand held wind piano (that's not some 'official' slang term for the accordion, it's my own personal invention. feel free to try it on for size and see if you can make it stick). Here's Buckwheat's most well-known tune, Ya Ya.

Honorable Mention: Jerry Lee Lewis

If you ever find yourself trapped in a discussion that requires you to give a personified example of rebellion, you needn't look any further than Jerry Lee Lewis. Lewis was Rock and Roll when Rock and Roll was still the music of miscreants and thugs. Lewis bucked the religious traditions of his strict Christian mother to take his songs out of the church and on to the radio with a swagger and panache rarely rivaled even to this day. He was cousins with preacher Jimmy Swaggart, his nickname was 'The Killer', he married his second wife twenty three days BEFORE he'd officially divorced his first, and he married his third wife, also his first cousin, BEFORE she turned fourteen years old.

The resulting scandal was too much, even for the leather wearing, motorcycle riding, jean-cuff-rolling, cigarette-pack-in-the-tee-shirt sporting rock fans of 1950's America. Lewis was a musical exile until eventually mounting a modest country music comeback in the late 1960's. In more recent years The Killer has made a foray back into the 50's style rock recordings he made his name on, and still releases albums to this day.

I guess by the time your thirteen year old bride is your middle-aged ex wife and a tell all biographer, most folks will forgive your past sins and let you rock like you did when you were the definitive rebel. In 1986 Lewis was inducted as an original member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, meanwhile, Pete Rose can't get into MLB's hall, and all he did was place a bet or two... Charlie Hustle should have spent that gaming dough on a guitar instead.

Here's The Killer, singing Great Balls of Fire

Next time, we head north, and I mean WAY north... I hope you have your business model ready for that sweater retailer, because the next stop on this misinformation super highway is Maine...