Swamp pop is a music genre indigenous to the
Acadiana region of south
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
and an adjoining section of
southeast Texas
Southeast Texas is a cultural and geographic region in the U.S. state of Texas, bordering Southwest Louisiana and its greater Acadiana region to the east. Being a part of East Texas, the region is geographically centered on the Greater Houston ...
. Created in the 1950s by young
Cajun
The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
While Cajuns are usually described as ...
s and Creoles, it combines
–style
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
,
country and western, and traditional
French Louisiana
The term French Louisiana refers to two distinct regions:
* first, to colonial French Louisiana, comprising the massive, middle section of North America claimed by France during the 17th and 18th centuries; and,
* second, to modern French Louisi ...
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
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, and
Northern Europe
Characteristics
The swamp pop sound is typified by highly emotional, lovelorn lyrics, tripleting
honky-tonk
A honky-tonk (also called honkatonk, honkey-tonk, or tonk) is both a bar that provides country music for the entertainment of its patrons and the style of music played in such establishments. It can also refer to the type of piano (tack piano) ...
pianos, undulating bass lines, bellowing horn sections, and a strong rhythm and blues backbeat. It is exemplified by slow ballads like
Cookie and the Cupcakes
Cookie and his Cupcakes was an Americans, American swamp pop band from south Louisiana, best known for their 1959 hit "Mathilda", the unofficial anthem of Swamp pop, swamp pop music.
History
The band originally started as the Boogie Ramblers, led ...
' "Mathilda" (recorded 1958), considered by many fans as the unofficial swamp pop "anthem". But the genre has also produced many upbeat compositions, such as
Bobby Charles
Robert Charles Guidry (February 21, 1938 – January 14, 2010), known as Bobby Charles, was an American singer-songwriter.
Early life
An ethnic Cajun, Charles was born in Abbeville, Louisiana, United States, and grew up listening to Cajun mus ...
' "
Later Alligator" (1955), popularly covered by
Bill Haley & His Comets.
During the genre's heyday (1958–1964), several swamp pop songs appeared on national U.S. record charts. These included
Jimmy Clanton
Jimmy Clanton (born September 2, 1938) is an American singer who became known as the " swamp pop R&B teenage idol". His band recorded a hit song "Just a Dream" which Clanton had written in 1958 for the Ace Records label. It reached number fo ...
's "Just A Dream" (1958),
Warren Storm's "
Prisoner's Song" (1958),
Phil Phillips
John Philip Baptiste (March 14, 1926 – March 14, 2020), known as Phil Phillips, was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1959 song, " Sea of Love".
Biography
Baptiste was encouraged to pursue a career as a singer after a scho ...
' "
Sea Of Love Sea of Love may refer to
* ''Sea of Love'' (film), a 1989 American thriller film
* "Sea of Love" (Phil Phillips song), a 1959 song by Phil Phillips and The Twilights, covered by many performers
* "Sea of Love" (The National song), 2013
* ''The S ...
" (1959),
Rod Bernard's "
This Should Go On Forever" (1959),
Joe Barry's "I'm a Fool to Care" (1960), and
Dale and Grace's "I'm Leaving It Up to You" (1963).
In swamp pop's south Louisiana–southeast Texas birthplace, fans regarded many songs that never became national hits as classics. These include
Johnnie Allan's "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" (1958), Buck Rogers' "Crazy Baby" (1959), Randy and the Rockets' "Let's Do the Cajun Twist" (1962), T. K. Hulin's "I'm Not a Fool Anymore" (1963), and Clint West's "Big Blue Diamond" (1965), among numerous others.
Roots and early history
The musicians who went on to birth swamp pop listened to (and often performed) traditional
Cajun music
Cajun music (french: Musique cadienne), an emblematic music of Louisiana played by the Cajuns, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Although they are two separate genres, Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem ...
and Creole music (which later developed into
zydeco
Zydeco ( or , french: Zarico) is a music genre that evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers which blends blues, rhythm and blues, and music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native American people of Louisiana. Al ...
) as children, as well as popular country and western (
hillbilly) songs by musicians like
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although ...
,
Moon Mullican
Aubrey Wilson Mullican (March 29, 1909 – January 1, 1967), known professionally as Moon Mullican and nicknamed "King of the Hillbilly Piano Players", was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and pianist. He was associated with t ...
, and
Hank Williams. However, like other American youth in the mid-1950s, they discovered the alluring new sounds of
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...
and
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
musicians like
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
,
Little Richard and
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New O ...
. As a result, these teenaged Cajuns and Creoles shifted away from
Louisiana French
Louisiana French ( frc, français de la Louisiane; lou, françé la lwizyàn) is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisi ...
folk compositions like "''
Jolie Blonde''", "''
Allons a Lafayette
Allons may refer to:
* Allons, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, a commune of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence ''département'' in France
* Allons, Lot-et-Garonne, a commune of the Lot-et-Garonne ''département'' in France
* Allons, Tennessee, US
See also
...
''", and "''Les flammes d'enfer''" in favor of singing rock and roll and rhythm and blues compositions in English. At the same time, they switched from
folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fo ...
instruments like the
accordion,
fiddle, and iron triangle to modern ones such as the
electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...
and bass, upright
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
,
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
, and drumming trap set.
By the late 1950s, swamp pop musicians had developed their own distinct sound and repertoires. They performed to receptive crowds in local dancehalls like the Southern Club in
Opelousas :''Opelousas is also a common name of the flathead catfish.''
Opelousas (french: Les Opélousas; Spanish: ''Los Opeluzás'') is a small city and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190 were ...
, Landry's Palladium in
Lafayette
Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to:
People
* Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette
* House of La Fayette, a French noble family
** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757� ...
, the OST Club in
Rayne, and the Green Lantern in Lawtell. In addition, they released recordings on local record labels, such as
Floyd Soileau
James Floyd Soileau (born November 2, 1938) is an American record producer.
Biography
Soileau was born in Faubourg, a small community between Ville Platte and Washington, Louisiana. He grew up speaking Cajun French and did not speak English ...
's Jin label of
Ville Platte, Eddie Shuler's
Goldband of
Lake Charles, Carol Rachou's La Louisianne of Lafayette, Huey Meaux's Crazy Cajun label of
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
, and a number of labels owned by J. D. Miller of
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 ...
(who also recorded swamp pop tunes for larger national labels, such as Ernie Young's
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 ...
label of
Nashville).
Swamp pop musicians often adopted Anglo-American stage names that masked their Cajun
surnames. John Allen Guillot, for example, became
Johnnie Allan, Robert Charles Guidry became
Bobby Charles
Robert Charles Guidry (February 21, 1938 – January 14, 2010), known as Bobby Charles, was an American singer-songwriter.
Early life
An ethnic Cajun, Charles was born in Abbeville, Louisiana, United States, and grew up listening to Cajun mus ...
, Joe Barrios became
Joe Barry, Elwood Dugas became Bobby Page, and Terry Gene DeRouen became
Gene Terry
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian inheritance#History, Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanin ...
. Some of these musicians changed their names because they were ashamed of their rural French heritage—a feeling shared at the time by a segment of the Cajun population. But economics motivated most swamp pop musicians: They wanted to sell records not only in southern Louisiana and southeast Texas, but beyond, where the pronunciation of
ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
surnames like Guillot, Barrios, and DeRouen eluded
record promoters,
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...
s, and consumers.
Despite its obvious rock and roll and rhythm & blues influences, swamp pop was not devoid of folk characteristics. For example, Bobby Page and the Riff Raffs recorded "
Hippy-Ti-Yo Hippy Ti Yo (also spelled Hippy To Yo, Hip Et Taiau, Les Huppes Taiauts, Hippy-Ty-Yo, Hippy-Tai-Yo, Hippitiyo, Tayeaux Dog Tayeaux) is a traditional melody that was first recorded as ''Ils La Volet Mon Trancas'', sung by Cajun musician Cleoma Breaux ...
", a bilingual rock and roll version of the traditional
Cajun French
Louisiana French ( frc, français de la Louisiane; lou, françé la lwizyàn) is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louis ...
song "''
Hip et Taiaut Hippy Ti Yo (also spelled Hippy To Yo, Hip Et Taiau, Les Huppes Taiauts, Hippy-Ty-Yo, Hippy-Tai-Yo, Hippitiyo, Tayeaux Dog Tayeaux) is a traditional melody that was first recorded as ''Ils La Volet Mon Trancas'', sung by Cajun musician Cleoma Breau ...
''" and
Rod Bernard did the same with "''Allons danser Colinda''", another important folk composition. Joe Barry re-recorded his swamp pop hit "I'm A Fool To Care" in French under the title "''Je suis bête pour t'aimer''". And Randy and the Rockets issued "Let's Do The Cajun Twist", an English remake of the Cajun French favorite "''Allons a Lafayette''".
Legacy
From 1950s to 1960s, swamp pop songs have appeared in the ''
Billboard'' TOP 40. While swamp pop drew heavily on
New Orleans rhythm and blues, it reciprocated by making a detectable impact on songs like
Lloyd Price
Lloyd Price (March 9, 1933May 3, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter, record executive and bandleader, known as "Mr. Personality", after his 1959 million-selling hit, "Personality". His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", was a hit for S ...
's "Stagger Lee"(#1, 1959), and
Clarence "Frogman" Henry
Clarence Henry II (born March 19, 1937), known as Clarence "Frogman" Henry, is an American rhythm and blues singer and pianist, best known for his hits " Ain't Got No Home" (1956) and " (I Don't Know Why) But I Do" (1961).
Career
Clarence Henry ...
's "
(I Don't Know Why) But I Do
"(I Don't Know Why) But I Do" is an R&B song written by Paul Gayten and Bobby Charles (as Robert Guidry), and performed by Clarence "Frogman" Henry.
Original version
It was Henry's biggest U.S. hit, reaching No. 4 in early 1961. The B-side on ...
"(#4, 1961) (Bobby Charles compositions). Swamp pop also left its imprint on the related but distinct genre known as "
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 ...
", including
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 ...
's classic "
Rainin' in My Heart".
Bobby Charles
Robert Charles Guidry (February 21, 1938 – January 14, 2010), known as Bobby Charles, was an American singer-songwriter.
Early life
An ethnic Cajun, Charles was born in Abbeville, Louisiana, United States, and grew up listening to Cajun mus ...
released album "Bobby Charles"(1972) include Small Town Talk".
Leon Russell, Delaney & Bonnie,
Dale Hawkins
Delmar Allen "Dale" Hawkins (August 22, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was a pioneer American rock singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist who was often called the architect of swamp rock boogie. Ronnie Hawkins was his cousin.
Biography
He bega ...
,
Tony Joe White
Tony Joe White (July 23, 1943 – October 24, 2018), nicknamed the Swamp Fox, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his 1969 hit " Polk Salad Annie" and for " Rainy Night in Georgia", which he wrote but which was first ...
, John Fogerty and C.C.R were influenced by swamp pop. Swamp pop's impact on popular music is heard in
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
' cover of
Barbara Lynn
Barbara Lynn (born Barbara Lynn Ozen, later Barbara Lynn Cumby, January 16, 1942) is an American rhythm and blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, " You'll Lose a Good Thing" ( ...
's "You'll Lose a Good Thing" and "Oh Baby (We Got A Good Thing Goin')",
the Honeydrippers
The Honeydrippers were an English rock and roll band of the 1980s, deriving their name from Roosevelt Sykes, an American blues singer also known as "Honeydripper". Former Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant formed the group in 1981 to sati ...
' rendition of
Phil Phillips
John Philip Baptiste (March 14, 1926 – March 14, 2020), known as Phil Phillips, was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his 1959 song, " Sea of Love".
Biography
Baptiste was encouraged to pursue a career as a singer after a scho ...
' "
Sea of Love Sea of Love may refer to
* ''Sea of Love'' (film), a 1989 American thriller film
* "Sea of Love" (Phil Phillips song), a 1959 song by Phil Phillips and The Twilights, covered by many performers
* "Sea of Love" (The National song), 2013
* ''The S ...
",
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
's cover of
Lloyd Price
Lloyd Price (March 9, 1933May 3, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter, record executive and bandleader, known as "Mr. Personality", after his 1959 million-selling hit, "Personality". His first recording, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", was a hit for S ...
's "
Lawdy Miss Clawdy
"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" is a song by New Orleans singer/songwriter Lloyd Price that "grandly introduced '' The New Orleans Sound''".
It was first recorded by Price in 1952 with Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew during his first session for Art Rupe ...
", and even
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
' swamp-inspired "
Oh! Darling
"Oh! Darling" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, appearing as the fourth song on the 1969 album ''Abbey Road''. It was composed by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon–McCartney). Its working title was "Oh! Darling (I'll Never Do Y ...
".
Swamp pop influenced
Tejano music
Tejano music ( es, música tejana), also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences. Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres – particular ...
, particularly the recordings of
Freddy Fender
Freddy Fender (born Baldemar Garza Huerta; June 4, 1937 – October 14, 2006) was an American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. He was best ...
's early swampy songs like "
Before The Next Teardrop Falls" and "
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
"Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" is an American country and pop song recorded by Freddy Fender. It is considered by many to belong to the swamp pop idiom of south Louisiana and southeast Texas that had such a major musical impact on Fender.
Son ...
" in 1975. (South Louisiana and southeast Texas audiences generally consider Fender a full-fledged swamp pop musician.)
Although swamp pop began a slow decline with the onslaught of the mid-'60s
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...
, the genre continues to draw devoted fans to south Louisiana and southeast Texas festivals and nightclubs. Some younger non-swamp musicians, such as Cajun artist
Zachary Richard
Ralph Zachary Richard (born September 8, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter and poet. His music is a combination of Cajun and Zydeco musical styles.
Biography
Zachary Richard began his musical career at the age of 8, as soprano in the Bish ...
and
C. C. Adcock
C. C. Adcock (born Charles Clinton Adcock, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and blues rock musician, noted for his cajun, zydeco, electric blues and swamp pop-influenced sound and for his efforts to preserve and promote swamp ...
, have acknowledged a strong swamp pop influence.
[Adcock co-produced a 2009 documentary, ''Promised Land: A Swamp Pop Journey'', on his swamp pop group Lil' Band o' Gold, which featured swamp pop pioneer Warren Storm on drums and guest vocals by ]Tommy McLain
Tommy McLain (born March 15, 1940) is an American swamp pop musician, best known as a singer but who also plays keyboards, drums, bass guitar, and fiddle.
Career
McLain first began performing in the 1950s, along with country singer Clint West ...
See also
*
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 ...
*
Swamp rock
Swamp rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the mid-1960s as a fusion of rockabilly and soul music with swamp blues, country music and funk. The genre originated in Louisiana by artists such as Tony Joe White, but was subsequently po ...
Notes and references
Further reading
*Shane K. Bernard, ''Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues'' (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996).
*John Broven, ''South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous'' (Gretna, La.: Pelican, 1983).
*Ryan A. Brasseaux & Kevin S. Fontenot, ''Accordions, Fiddles, Two-Step & Swing: A Cajun Music Reader'' (Lafayette, La.: Center for Louisiana Studies, 2006).
{{Blues
Louisiana Creole culture
Music of Louisiana
Pop music genres
American styles of music
Rhythm and blues music genres