Silas Hogan (September 15, 1911 – January 9, 1994) was an American blues musician who played

swamp blues Swamp blues is a type of Louisiana blues that developed in the Black communities of Southwest Louisiana in the 1950s.Malone, Evelyn Levingston, "Swamp Blues: Race And Vinyl From Southwest Louisiana" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertatio ...

and Louisiana blues. His most notable recordings are "Airport Blues" and "Lonesome La La". He was the

front man The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of th ...

of the Rhythm Ramblers. Hogan was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame.

Biography

Hogan learned to play the guitar as a teenager and was performing regularly by the late 1930s. He was influenced by

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

, as were

Lazy Lester Leslie Johnson (June 20, 1933 – August 22, 2018), 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 h ...

and

Slim Harpo Slim Harpo (born James Isaac Moore; January 11, 1924 – January 31, 1970) was an American blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spiri ...

. He had relocated to

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

, by the early 1950s and, equipped with a Fender electric guitar, formed the Rhythm Ramblers, with Isaiah Chapman (lead guitar), Jimmy Dotson (drums), and Sylvester Buckley (harmonica). They stayed together for almost ten years and contributed to the development of the Baton Rouge blues sound, In 1962, when Hogan was 51,

introduced him to J. D. "Jay" Miller, a record producer based in

Crowley, Louisiana Crowley (Local pronunciation: ) is a city in, and the parish seat of, Acadia Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 United States census, Crowley had a population of 11,710. Crowley is the principal city of the Crowley micropolitan ...

. Miller, through the offices of

Excello Records 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. History It recorded such artists as Lonnie Brooks, Lightnin' Slim ...

, started Hogan's recording career, at a time when interest in variations of swamp blues was waning. Several singles by Hogan were nevertheless released until 1965, when Miller's disagreement with the record label's new owners brought the recording contract to an abrupt end. On some of his recordings, Hogan was backed by the harmonica player Moses "Whispering" Smith. Hogan had to disband the group and returned to his full-time job at the Exxon

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

. In the late 1970s, he recorded additional tracks for Arhoolie and Blue Horizon. Hogan died in January 1994 of heart disease, at the age of 82.

Discography

Albums

Compilation albums

References

External links