Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues

by Shane K. Bernard

Here is the exciting story of swamp pop, a form of Louisiana music more recognized by its practitioners and their hits than by a definition. Drawing on more than fifty interviews with swamp-pop musicians in south Louisiana and southeast Texas, Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues finds the roots of this often overlooked, sometimes derided sister genre of the wildly popular Cajun and zydeco music. In this first book to be devoted entirely to swamp pop, Shane K. Bernard, son of the notable swamp-pop musician Rod Bernard, uncovers the history of this hybrid form invented in the 1950s by teenage Cajuns and black Creoles. Putting aside the fiddle and accordion of their parents' traditional French music to learn the electric guitar and bass, saxophone, upright piano, and modern drumming trap sets of big-city rhythm-and-blues, they created a spicy new music that arises from the bayou country.

Genres: Music, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

About the author

A Cajun from Lafayette, Louisiana, Shane K. Bernard holds degrees in English and History from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and a doctorate in History from Texas A&M University.

Bernard serves as historian and curator to McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand products since 1868. He has appeared on the History Channel, CNN, CNBC, the BBC, and NPR, as well as in National Geographic.

Bernard lives in New Iberia, Louisiana.

His website is www.cajunculture.com and his blog is Bayou Teche Dispatches.

Click to hear him discuss his book The Cajuns: Americanization of a People on NPR's "Morning Edition".

Click to hear him discuss the history of Tabasco brand pepper sauce on NPR's "Morning Edition".

Reviews

[Phil Overeem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative, and pretty authoritative, considering the author is Rod's son and had great access. However, I found the writing a little repetitious. Good appendix.

[Chadwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very apparently an expansion of a graduate thesis. There is a lot of "The purpose of this chapter..." and "To summarize." There are some great stories in this book, and if you are unfamiliar with the genre, your musical life will definitely be enriched by following up the artists it chronicles. Unfortunately, the prose is clunky and dry, and the voices of the principals are encysted therein in such a way as to rob them off their vitality.

[Garrett Cash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like other reviewers have pointed out, this book is obviously the product of a graduate thesis with its repetitions, formal structure, and scholarly tone. However, if you were as unfamiliar with this subgenre of R&B as I was before reading it you will appreciate that it opens up your ears to a whole new field of music to explore. If you're a fan of Louisiana music like New Orleans R&B, Cajun, and Zydeco but you don't really know what swamp pop is or how it fits into the South Louisiana music story this is a serviceable read to get a vibe for it.