“Ponderosa Stomp” Reminder

In you are in the vicinity of New Orleans on April 27-28, don’t forget the Ponderosa Stomp, which we first talked about here. There are even more details available about the show now:

PONDEROSA STOMP 2004
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27-28, 2004
MID CITY LANES ROCK ‘N’ BOWL
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

WHAT:

The Mystic Knights of the Mau-Mau have trolled the backwaters and tributaries of rockabilly, blues, country, swamp pop, garage punk, soul, funk and more sub-genres than you can shake a stick at to present the Third Annual Ponderosa Stomp and we hereby command YOU, dearest music fan, to make the scene and dig the doings.

WHY:

One quarter history lesson, three quarters house party and two nights of flat-out rock ‘n’ roll insanity, this year’s line-up is systematically programmed to viscerally blow your senses to bits!! We’ve got the famous, we’ve got the obscure, but most of all we’ve got the guys and the gals that still deliver the goods, playing the songs that blasted up the charts, influenced the masses or turned their authors into mysterious cult figures – occasionally all at the same time!!

Where the Stomp differs from other festivals is in it’s ALL KILLER, NO FILLER booking policy and take-no-prisoners attention to detail. You’ll see the lost heroes you love doing the songs that have been knockin’ you out for years! It’s what we like to refer to as POETIC JUSTICE.

WHERE:

It’ll all be happening at Mid-City Lanes Rock ‘n’ Bowl, a killer ’40s style bowling alley located directly above a huge thrift store, a Thai Restaurant and the Crescent City’s best Cuban deli, the Union Supermarket. Although we know that there is just something intangibly special about hangin’ out in a parking lot during a rock ‘n’ roll show, those whose heart rates are known to become dangerously critical with continual exposure to a straight dose of non-stop R&R (rock ‘n’ roll, that is) from 5 p.m. till 2 a.m. can grab a bit of the other kind of R&R (rest ‘n’ relaxation, that is) downstairs in the Low Down Lounge, where a full program of R&B, soul and blues bands will be holding forth on both nights. For those who simply can’t make up their mind: schedules will be posted and those stairs make for some good exercise!! Get your tickets now as this blast-to-top-all-blasts is expected to sell out.

WHEN & WHO:

TUESDAY, APRIL 27: “I CAN’T FIND THE DOOR KNOB”

“Door Knob,” you say? This evening’s mind-boggling array of festivities – MC’d by none other than Blaxploitation nexus, R&B howler and comedic legend Rudy Ray Moore a.k.a. Dolemite – will trigger so many head-spinning moments that by the time it’s all over you might not even be able to find the door! Be sure to arrive promptly at 5 p.m. for double-neck guitar wizard Deke Dickerson and his smokin’ band the Ecco-Fonics, who’ll be kicking things off with a set of their own before throwing down with former Bo Diddley side kick Lady Bo, the secret weapon behind such Diddley classics as “Aztec,” and “Road Runner.”

Dickerson and his well-oiled combo will also roll out the red carpet behind an army of blues and rockabilly pioneers including Louisiana Hayride veterans James Burton and Jimmy Lee Fautheree, Bayou State troubadour Jay Chevalier, Texas roadhouse rockers Ray Sharpe and Alvis Wayne, Memphis wild man Matt Lucas and Chicago harp master Billy Boy Arnold. Meanwhile, Al Green’s classic studio band the Hi Rhythm Section – featuring the ever-in-the-pocket Hodges Brothers – are set to lay it on the line for a groovin’ instrumental set before backing tuff Memphis R&B singer Willie Cobbs. Additionally, pianist Dennis Binder, whose band came to Clarksdale, Mississippi in the early ’50s to challenge Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm to a duel and wound up recording at Sun Records, will be backed by The Early Times, a group of young Memphis and New Orleans all stars who take their name from one of his best known R&B rockers.

Topping things off are the grand fathers of garage punk, Tacoma, Washington’s Fabulous Wailers. Authors of countless rock ‘n’ roll anthems, they recorded “Louie Louie” two years before the Kingsmen, while the hard-edged line they drew from R&B to howling garage punk became the defining element of the North West Sound, influencing generations of musicians from the Sonics to Jimi Hendrix to Nirvana.

Downstairs acts include Homesick James, Henry Gray, Joe Clay, King Lloyd, John Ellison, and the inimitable Toussaint “Nothing Takes The Place Of You” McCall.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28: “TAKE IT EASY, GREASY”

When Cajun and Creole teenagers like Bobby Charles and Roy “Boogie Boy” Perkins began picking up on the music of Fats Domino, they wound up unwittingly inventing their own style, originally known as South Louisiana rock ‘n’ roll and later called swamp pop. Charles, in turn, penned several hits for Fats – “Walkin’ To New Orleans” being just one of them – and though his influence on New Orleans R&B is undeniable, his songs reached anthemic proportions in the hands of swamp pop kings Johnnie Allan and Tommy McLain. Charles rarely performs live, so his appearance at the Stomp is not to be taken lightly! He’ll be ably backed by C.C. Adcock and the Mau-Mau Playboys, a crack band anchored by the hypnotic rhythms of his cousin, drummer/ vocalist Warren Storm.

Setting the stage for Charles are a host of other swamp pop pioneers, headed up by the “Sea Of Love” man himself, Phil Phillips, as well as Perkins, Allan, McLain and brakeless Gulf Coast rocker Gene Terry. King Karl and Guitar Gable will also be on hand, as will swamp soul and blues royalty Li’l Bob, Barbara Lynn, Lazy Lester and Carol Fran, who’ll team up for sets with Lafayette guitarist Li’l Buck Sinegal and his Buckaroo Orchestra. And moving ever-so-slightly to the West, Texas meets Louisiana in a glorious head-on collision of El Paso Rock and Creole R&B when Long John Hunter and Classie Ballou hit the stage for a six-string showdown.

Notorious Louisiana garage legends The Bad Roads have only had a smattering of reunions since they broke up after high school graduation in the late ’60s, but they’re ready to crank up the fuzz on classics like “Too Bad” and “Blue Girl” and transport you back to the Catacombs Club in Houston where they used to square off with Billy Gibbons’ Moving Sidewalks. And whether you dig the New Orleans street beat or the Southeast’s Shag, you’ll get the best of both worlds when Meters drummer Zigaboo Modeliste wails out a late night set with New Orleans pianist Willie Tee.

The King Of The Pimps, Fillmore Slim, does the MC honors tonight and though he made his name in San Francisco, Slim’s a New Orleans native and a great gut-bucket blues guitarist in his own right; he’ll be doing a musical set downstairs as well. Other lower-level action includes New Orleans R&B, soul and funk masters Eddie Bo, Ernie “Dap Walk” Vincent, Oliver Morgan, Skip Easterling, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, Rockie Charles, Irving Banister and the All Stars and Little Freddie King.

For tickets, full artist bios and other important details go http://www.ponderosastomp.com
SEE YA IN NEW ORLEANS!
SEE YA LATER ALLIGATOR!

I love all this gritty, gooey, swampy, rootsy stuff and would give a lesser body part to go, but alas, responsibility chains me to my Northeast Ohio desk.