Swamp Pop tales

A variety of individuals ranging from Swamp Pop legends to the die hard fans who use to fill local hot spots like The Evangeline Club as these musicians played, came to the Swamp Pop Museum last Friday to celebrate five years of educating and informing the public on a Louisiana style of music that we call Swamp Pop.
The Louisiana Swamp Pop museum opened its doors to the public five years ago, which made it the only museum in the state that features the career and success of the local artist that created this genre of music in the late 1950’s.
At the celebration, Swamp Pop music played through the museum as crowds of people mingled while viewing the exhibits that showcase the local musicians that have played a part in making Swamp Pop what it is today.
The celebration gave visitors the chance to not only see artifacts from the career of our local Swamp Pop musicians, but also offered them the chance to hear stories about Swamp Pop directly from the mouth of the musicians themselves.
Jay Randall, of Cherry Pie fame, told visitors stories from when the Swamp Pop genre was just emerging. As he looked at the displays in the museum that featured his music career, he shared an intimate story about the time he met Swamp Pop artist Fats Domino. “Fats was my idle,” Randall said. “The first time I met him I was wearing a shirt that had buttons down the front that looked like records and when I went introduce myself to him he told me he wanted my shirt. I told him that was the only shirt I had with me, but he really liked the shirt. He was my idle, so of course I gave him the shirt.”
Randall, who has sold over one million records of his hit song Cherry Pie, said, “I have had a successful career, but honestly if it weren’t for Floyd Soileau my career and the career of many other Swamp Pop musicians would be non-existent.”
Floyd Soileau along with his wife Jinver, who attended the anniversary celebration, produced many Swamp Pop musicians’ records. Randall said, “We owe everything to this man.”
Many of the visitors who remember the beginning days of Swamp Pop spoke a lot about the dancing that went on all night when a band was playing at one of the local bars. Warren Storm, of Prisoner’s Song fame, said, “Swamp Pop is the absolute best dancing music they have in the world.”
Although there was no one dancing at the celebration, there was plenty of music to be heard through the speakers in the museum and also from the artist themselves. The artist did not actually sing at the event but when people would ask some of the artists about a particular song you would every once in a while hear the artist begin singing a portion of that familiar tune.
The artists were glad to share at the anniversary celebration, and everyone else loved hearing what they had to say. Visitor to the museum Linda Fontenot said, “This is the second year that I have come to the museum for the anniversary and each year it just gets better and better.”
The celebration has continued to grow each year. So much so that Museum Director Janie Knighten said, “We are already planning on making next year’s event bigger because of how great the turn out was this year.”