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With the Thompsons, it’s a family affair

August 20, 2010 by tomaswell

With the elevation of Brant Thompson to interim commissioner of the Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, the question becomes how many of State Sen. Francis C. Thompson’s family members will end up in high-ranking positions in Louisiana state government?

Brant Thompson, one of Francis Thompson’s two sons who are employed by state agencies, served for a number of years as ATC deputy commissioner. He was promoted to interim commissioner after his boss, Commissioner Murphy J. Painter, resigned last week. Thompson’s salary before his promotion was listed at $84,864 per year. Painter, meanwhile, is under investigation by state police and the state inspector general’s office.

Among other things, Painter is being investigated for hacking into personnel files of employees and strangers alike, of sexual harassment, discrimination, and stalking.

Thompson’s other son, Todd Thompson, works for the Louisiana Department of Agriculture. Sen. Francis Thompson (D-Delhi) served for four years as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee before being term limited for his House seat and subsequently was elected to the Senate seat formerly held by similarly term-limited Charles Jones of Monroe. He now serves as chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture, and Rural Development Committee.

Francis Thompson’s first cousin, J.S. “Bud” Thompson, is director of the Louisiana Office of Risk Management, which is being privatized over a five-year period. Bud Thompson’s wife recently retired from her position with the Louisiana Bond Commission.

An older brother, Clyde “Weasel” Thompson (as he was known when he coached P.E. at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in the 60s and ’70s) served for a time as second in command to Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Paul Hardy during the administration of former Gov. Dave Treen and more recently has been serving as Executive Director of the Madison Port Commission at a salary of $49,207 even though he reportedly rarely leaves home and even more rarely shows up at his office.

Finally, the senator’s younger brother, Mike Thompson, was formerly mayor of Delhi and later served as director of the Poverty Point Reservoir District.

Controversy seems to follow members of the Thompson family in their capacities as public employees. Besides Brant, who received his promotion at ATC by default, his brother Todd was ticketed six years ago for driving while intoxicated in Baton Rouge after being involved in an auto accident at 10:15 p.m. on July 7, 2004 while driving a Department of Agriculture vehicle.

The Baton Rouge city police accident report said that while the accident was not the fault of Todd Thompson, he was nevertheless cited for DWI after refusing a field sobriety test at the scene of the accident. Todd Thompson, despite his driving while intoxicated in a state vehicle at 10:15 p.m., remained in his job.

Francis Thompson has been the subject of considerable controversy with his proposed ground water reservoir feasibility studies around the state, including Poverty Point in Richland Parish, as well as Washington Parish, Lincoln Parish, and others. Poverty Point received appropriations totaling more than $3.1 million in this year’s appropriations and capital outlay bills.

Bud Thompson was the catalyst in the privatization of the Office of Risk Management which was facilitated by what some employees felt was tweaking the evaluations of companies that bid on the contract so that an area private claims adjusting firm might win the contract. The outsourcing of the agency will either force employees into working for the private firm or taking early retirement. Those who move into the private sector will have their retirement seniority interrupted in some cases decades before employees are eligible for retirement though Bud Thompson, in his own words, will still have his job.

Mike Thompson was indicted and subsequently convicted in federal court for using Poverty Point Reservoir District employees to perform work on his private property.

Posted in Ethics, House, Senate, Jobs, Legislature, Legislators, Transparency | 1 Comment »

Earl’s big blunder (no thanks to Leander Perez)

August 11, 2010 by tomaswell

            The fiscal news from Baton Rouge continues to be bad. Besides a projected $319 million deficit for the current fiscal year that ends in seven weeks, there have been moves to privatize state services, a sell-off of state assets, layoffs, and now a massive oil spill that threatens the state’s seafood industry.

            There are those who insist it didn’t have to be that way but 60 years ago, on June 5, 1950, everything changed. That’s the day that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all of the submerged land from the shores of coastal states belonged not to the states, but to the federal government.

            It was a devastating decision that affected coastal states from Texas to Florida. An earlier decision, in 1947, had a similar affect on California. The ultimate cost to the states estimated as high as $300 billion, according to the late Mike Mansfield, former senator from Montana. Mansfield, writing in the May 4, 1953 Congressional Record, was critical of the decision by the Eisenhower administration to returned title of the submerged land back to the states.

            Eisenhower’s action, which was approved by the House on April and by the Senate on May 5, reversed a proclamation by President Truman in 1945.

Truman, in his Continental Shelf Proclamation, said that federal government had jurisdiction over all the mineral resources in the lands beneath the oceans out to the end of the U.S. Continental Shelf. Immediately after he issued the proclamation, the federal government initiated litigation against the states, claiming sovereignty over all offshore resources. Truman reasserted that position on Jan. 16, 1953, just before leaving office when he issued an executive order that set aside the submerged lands of the Continental Shelf as a naval petroleum reserve.

The issue of tidelands mineral rights didn’t appear of major importance to either Louisiana or the federal governments other than shrimpers and oystermen, until technology progressed sufficiently to drill in offshore waters. In November of 1947, the first such well was completed in 16 feet of water in the Ship Shoal area in the Gulf of Mexico, about 12 miles south of Terrebonne Parish. After that, all bets were off.

            Just as with California, litigation soon followed as the federal government filed suit against both Texas and Louisiana over control of more than four million acres of submerged land. Then, in the early fall of 1948 came one of the biggest negotiating blunders in the history of Louisiana politics that ultimately led to the landmark Supreme Court decision that will in all probability go unnoticed by most on its 60th anniversary on June 5.

            The players included President Truman, Speaker of the U.S. House Sam Rayburn, Gov. Earl K. Long, Lt. Gov. Bill Dodd, and Plaquemines Parish boss Leander Perez. Lurking in the shadows was the man who would emerge central to the decision by Long to refuse a generous offer from Truman that would cost Louisiana upwards of $100 billion, according to Dodd. That man was 29-year-old Russell Long, Earl’s nephew and the son of Huey P. Long.

            Dodd, in his book Peapatch Politics, laid out the details of a deal gone bad as a result of Russell Long’s political ambitions and Perez’s determination to protect his questionable control of mineral-rich Plaquemines Parish with Earl Long and Dodd caught in the tug-of-war between the federal government and Louisiana.

            In 1948, Russell Long was a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Perez, who was also head of the Democratic State Central Committee, ran his own less sophisticated but equally prosperous version of Huey’s old Win or Lose Oil Company in Plaquemines and, according to Dodd, was not above a little blackmail and extortion to protect his fiefdom. Rayburn was Truman’s emissary who was instructed by the president to make what in hindsight was a more than generous offer to Louisiana to settle the federal lawsuit against the state.

            In that fateful autumn of 1948, Rayburn called Dodd and Louisiana Attorney General Bolivar Kemp to a Washington meeting. Also in attendance in Rayburn’s office were Perez, Texas Attorney General Price Daniel, several representatives of the Department of Interior, as well as others.

            Rayburn, without fanfare or ceremony, offered to settle the Tidelands dispute with Louisiana by offering the state two-thirds of all revenues accruing from mineral bonuses, leases, and royalties in the two-thirds of a three-mile band extended from the Louisiana coastline outward into the Gulf of Mexico. Rayburn also offered the state 37.5 percent of all revenues in the Tidelands outside the three-mile band. In addition, Rayburn said the federal government would drop its lawsuit against the state. It was a much better offer than the state had anticipated and everyone present except Perez was ready to jump at the offer.

            Perez told Rayburn that he would recommend to Gov. Long that the offer be rejected, prompting Rayburn to explode. “This ain’t no compromise,” he said. “It’s a gift, and you better take it while the president is in the mood to give it to you.”

            Perez, who as attorney for Plaquemines Parish’s various levee boards, was in a position to dictate how and to whom the levee boards leased their lands. Many of those leases went to corporations he and his family controlled, reaping him millions in much the same manner in which Huey Long had structured his Win or Lose Oil Co. With no intention of losing any of his power, he got to Earl Long first and convinced the governor that the state was being sold a bill of goods by Truman and Rayburn. He insisted, moreover, that the state would prevail in the federal litigation against the state even though California three years earlier had lost an identical lawsuit.

            Perez, who was backing States’ Rights presidential candidate Strom Thurmond for president, controlled the state Democratic ticket and threatened to take Russell off the States’ Rights ticket, which would, in effect, hand the U.S. Senate seat to Shreveport Republican Clem Clarke. Earl wanted his nephew to win the election and eventually capitulated to Perez’s demands to reject Truman’s offer, prompting Baton Rouge Morning Advocate Editor Maggie Dixon, a close friend of the governor, to remark, “Earl is gonna trade our chances to be a tax-free state in order to elect that little tongue-tied nephew of his to the U.S. Senate.”

            Dodd, in his book, speculated that the immediate loss to the state was $66.5 billion, not including billions more paid in bonuses and leases, plus the severance taxes that would have amounted to about a fourth of the total value of production. Dodd said the cost as of 1986, when he wrote his book, was “$100 billion plus,” with future losses as much as $10 billion a year.

            Still, given the track record of the legislature to fritter away past “embarrassments of riches,” one would have to wonder how such an influx of revenue might have taken legislators from embarrassment to humiliation in emptying the state coffers.

Posted in Budget, Contract, Contracts, Earl Long, Huey Long, Economy, Ethics, Exemptions, Incentives, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Revenue, Taxes, Transparency | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Ex-DOA Commissioner Angelé Davis moves to Arkel

August 5, 2010 by tomaswell

            In the constantly-shifting tides of Louisiana politics, it seems the same personalities keep bobbing to the surface over and over in a never-ending parade of appointments, resignations, and re-appointments, always ushered in or bid adieu with words of laudatory praise and expressed optimism.

            Such is the case of Angelé Davis, who until this week served as Commissioner of Administration for Gov. Bobby Jindal. Before being brought on board by Jindal, she served as Secretary of the Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism and prior to that, she was Deputy to Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennan in the administration of Jindal’s mentor, former Gov. Mike Foster.

            On her way out the door, it was announced that Davis would enter the employ of politically-connected Arkel International of Baton Rouge as vice president of strategic programs. She will be in charge of “identifying and evaluating strategic acquisitions and business partnerships and alliances, business development strategies and capitalization and overseeing strategic planning,” according to an Arkel press release.

            In 2007, the First Circuit Court of Appeal overturned a ruling favorable to Arkel during litigation initiated by Arkel against the state. The trial court judge who ruled in Arkel’s favor on a key motion was Tim Kelly of the 19th Judicial District. Kelly is married to Davis. One of Arkel’s attorneys was Murphy J. Foster, son of former Gov. Mike Foster. Kelly’s ruling was handed down before Davis joined Jindal’s administration.

            “Angelé led us through some unprecedented budget challenges and our state is in a better posture today because of her cost-cutting approach and dedication to streamlining government,” Jindal said. “Paul Rainwater will be an effective leader at DOA, as he was at LRA and as Deputy Chief of Staff. The budget challenges facing our state are historic and his dynamic thinking and quick action will be essential to moving our state forward,” the governor added.

            As soon as it was announced that Davis was leaving the state, speculation began as to the reason for her sudden departure. Some equated her and other top Jindal administration officials’ recent exodus to “rats deserting a sinking ship” in anticipation of impending budgetary shortfalls next year estimated by some as approaching $2 billion to $3 billion.

            Others felt that agency privatization and the controversy surrounding the awarding of the contract for health coverage to Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Louisiana led to her resignation, or ouster.

            Considerable controversy resulted from the handling of the privatization of the Office of Risk Management when Davis appeared before the Joint Committee on the Budget with no supporting documentation from her or agency Director Bud Thompson. Both were chided by committee members and told to return later with information requested by lawmakers. Lawmakers didn’t learn until after the privatization contract was approved that the state would actually be obligated to an increase in state funding the first year of the contract.

            A month later, when Blue Cross was awarded the contract for health coverage for 114,000 state employees, dependents, and retirees, Humana, which had previously held the contract, appealed to Davis to block the contract. Davis refused and Humana filed suit against the state claiming that the Office of Group Benefits made a “mockery” of the contract process by “awarding a contract that was never bid,” according to Humana attorney Phil Franco.

            Tommy Teague, executive officer of the Office of Group Benefits, said the Blue Cross contract, which took effect on July 1, would save the state $34 million in the first year.

            But on June 21, Judge Mike Caldwell, who serves with Davis’s husband, Judge Kelly, in the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge, ordered the state to reconsider its award of the contract to Blue Cross. Caldwell said Humana had raised some valid issues over the Blue Cross contract. Within a matter of days following Caldwell’s order, Davis announced her resignation, which takes effect this Friday.

            But when Davis decided to leave the state for Arkel, she did not leave controversy behind.

            When former Congressman William Jefferson was convicted on 11 of 16 federal counts of racketeering, conspiracy, solicitation, and money laundering, the second count for which he was found guilty was for conspiracy to bribe officials of Arkel Sugar, one of Arkel International’s many interests. That charge involved Arkel’s efforts to build a $500 million sugar mill in Kenya for which Jefferson allegedly demanded a 4-percent cut in exchange as “consulting fees” for his brother, Mose Jefferson.

            Deborah Haggard, who was Arkel Sugar’s vice president when the deal was consummated in 2001, said the extent of Mose Jefferson’s consulting was when he appeared to receive his pay, which totaled just over $21,000. “To the best of my knowledge, he didn’t do anything,” Haggard said. Arkel did secure an $8 million feasibility and engineering contract with a Nigerian sugar company, according to the William Jefferson indictment documents.

            Arkel, an infrastructure and construction services company employing some 300 people and which works with government agencies, had about $85 million in sales in 2008 and boasts of having constructed the world’s largest sugar refinery in Sudan. Besides sugar mills, the company engages in the design, engineering, and construction of biomass power generation, ethanol plants, warehouses, and port facilities as well as offering food service solutions to government agencies and commercial organizations during times of disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, and sustained catering operations for longer duration missions in remote regions.

            In April, Arkel International was awarded a $6.4 million federal contract by the Kandahar Air Field Regional Contracting Center in Afghanistan to set up electrical power and force protection barriers at 16 buildings at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Posted in Contract, Contracts, Governor's Office, Transparency | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

Enough Already!

July 31, 2010 by tomaswell

            Apparently oblivious to the state’s spiraling financial plight, 22 Louisiana legislators accounted for the expenditure of more than $47,000 in state funds attending legislative conferences in Kentucky, South Carolina and California—with each receiving $159 per day in per diem payments over and above travel, lodging, and registration fees.

            The travel comes at a time of shrinking state budgets and on the heels of state employee layoffs, program eliminations, and deep budget cuts to higher education and health care, coupled with runaway pork barrel spending during the recently completed regular legislative session.

Most of the expenses—registration fees, lodging, and travel—purportedly came from legislators’ $1,500 per month supplemental expense accounts which is part of the pay package for lawmakers. But with registration fees accounting for nearly half of that amount, the addition of travel and lodging expenses almost certainly pushed costs well beyond the $1,500 allocated per lawmaker.

Should all 22 legislators attend each day of the respective conferences, per diem payments would add another $16,854 to the cost paid by Louisiana taxpayers.

            State Rep. Joe Harrison (R-Napoleonville) and Baton Rouge Sen. Yvonne Dorsey, in fact, registered to attend two conferences with Dorsey scheduled for back-to-back conferences. She was signed up for the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) in Charleston, S.C., scheduled for July 31-Aug. 4 and for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in San Diego Aug. 5-8.

            Harrison attended the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) in Louisville, Ky. July 25-28 and the ALEC conference in San Diego.        Besides Harrison, those attending the NCSL event in Louisville included Reps. Jonathan Perry (R-Abbeville) and Patricia Smith (D-Baton Rouge).

            Those attending the ALEC conference in San Diego besides Harrison and Dorsey included Reps. Robert Johnson (D-Marksville), Austin Badon (D-New Orleans), Bernard LeBas (D-Ville Platte), Tim Burns (R-Mandeville), Thomas Carmody (R-Shreveport), John LaBruzzo (R-Metairie), Kirk Talbot (R-River Ridge), Thomas Wilmont (R-Kenner), and Sen. Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe).

            Joining Dorsey in Charleston were Reps. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro), Jeff Arnold (D-New Orleans), Walker Hines (D-New Orleans), and Sens. Francis Thompson (D-Delhi), Butch Gautreaux (D-Morgan City), Gerald Long (R-Winnfield), Ed Murray (D-New Orleans), Buddy Shaw (R-Shreveport), and John Smith (D-Leesville).

            In Charleston, delegates, when not attending business meetings, attended a beach party and participated in a golf tournament at the Dunes West Golf & River Club sponsored by Reynolds American, the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

            One has to wonder just how arrogant and fiscally irresponsible our elected officials in Baton Rouge must become before the state’s citizenry draws the proverbial line in the dust and cries out in unison: “ENOUGH ALREADY!”

Posted in Budget, Ethics, House, Senate, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Revenue, Transparency | Leave a Comment »

The true Genesis of rock & Roll: Louisiana Rocks!

July 28, 2010 by tomaswell

 

About Louisiana Rocks!

The first comprehensive study of Louisiana popular music, from R&B to rockabilly, from blues to Cajun/zydeco, Louisiana Rocks is the culmination of years of research. Inspired by a suggestion from the late John Fred, Tom Aswell explores the very roots of rock. His findings: despite claims to the contrary, rock & roll was born in New Orleans a full four years before Ike Turner’s 1951 recording of Rocket 88.
A Little History…

It was 1947 when Roy Brown, still stinging from the rejection of his song by Wynonie Harris, entered Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio to record his own version of Good Rockin’ Tonight, a song Elvis Presley would cover in 1954. As soon as it became evident that Brown’s song was a hit, Harris had a sudden change of heart and rushed into the studio to record it himself and it was his version that was selected by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as One of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock & Roll.
Then, in 1949, two years before Rocket 88, two more songs were recorded by Louisiana artists that signaled a revolution in popular music was on the horizon. In the same J&M studio in New Orleans, Fats Domino recorded The Fat Man. That same year, Hank Williams, a member of the Louisiana Hayride who resided at the time in Bossier City, recorded Lovesick Blues. While not rock & roll, Lovesick Blues was a radical break from the traditional country music of the day and it cracked open the door to a genre called rockabilly that the likes of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Gene Vincent would soon kick down, much to the delight of bored teenagers and to the chagrin of perplexed parents and concerned clergy.

With the merger of blues and country, the floodgates were thrown open and the country was suddenly made aware of artists like Smiley Lewis, Irma Thomas, Benny Spellman, Ernie K-Doe, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Clanton, Dale & Grace, Johnny Rivers, Guitar Slim, Slim Harpo, Joe Tex, Joe Simon, Rod Bernard, Professor Longhair, Johnny Allan, T.K. Hulin, Tommy McLain, the Dixie Cups, Deacon John, Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, Johnny Horton, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Buffett, LeRoux, Tab Benoit, Tabby Thomas, Chris Thomas King, Barbara Lynn, Van Broussard, the Fabulous Boogie Kings, Edgar and Johnny Winter, Huey Meaux, Dale Hawkins, Johnny Adams, and the inspiration for this book, John Fred.

The songwriter who wrote Hit the Road Jack for Ray Charles is from Louisiana as is the composer of both Abraham, Martin & John and Snoopy & the Red Baron. Larry Henley, who wrote Wind Beneath My Wings, previously worked in the oil fields of New Iberia and was a member of the Newbeats. The other two members of the Newbeats were from Bossier City. Merle Kilgore of Shreveport co-wrote with June Carter the Johnny Cash mega-hit Ring of Fire. King also wrote Wolverton Mountain, a huge hit for Shreveport’s Claude King.

Then there are the sidemen, or session artists, musicians who labored in obscurity but whose contributions to Louisiana music are priceless. Four guitar players (Duke Bardwell, Gerry McGee, Fred Carter, Jr., and James Burton), a pianist (Floyd Cramer), and a drummer (D.J. Fontana) all are from Louisiana and each either recorded with or toured with Elvis. Earl Palmer is one of the most recorded drummers in the history of popular music, playing on recordings of artists too numerous to mention. Jon Smith of the Fabulous Boogie Kings played sax on almost all of the Doobie Brothers’ recordings. Floyd Cramer had a gigantic hit of Last Date which made it all the way to number 2 on the Billboard charts. The song that kept out of the number 1 position was It’s Now or Never, a song by Elvis on which Cramer also played piano.
© 2009 Tom Aswell.  All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Tom Aswell grew up in Ruston an avid baseball fan. Following his graduation from Ruston High School, he put off college to enlist in the U.S. Air Force. Upon his discharge, he started working at the Ruston Daily Leader as sports editor before enrolling at nearby Louisiana Tech University with an eye to becoming a baseball coach. Fate intervened, however, when Wiley Hilburn, only recently appointed head of Tech’s Journalism Department, convinced Aswell to give up his aspirations of coaching in favor of a writing career.

Following his graduation with a degree in journalism in 1970, Aswell worked for a number of papers, including the Shreveport Times and Journal, the Monroe News-Star, Morning World, the Baton Rouge State-Times, and three more stops at the Daily Leader. He won numerous awards for breaking news coverage, feature writing, and investigative reporting. In 1980, he opened his own news bureau in the State Capitol in Baton Rouge where he provided coverage of state government for about forty weekly and small daily newspapers throughout the state.
 
The following year Aswell approached Baton Rouge singer John Fred Gourrier (Judy in Disguise, Agnes English) with a unique proposition. Aswell suggested that the two work to produce a video of Louisiana rock & roll singers. Fred was enthusiastic about the project but it was 1981; the oil patch had just dried up and interest rates were off the charts so there were no investors to be found. Fred, in a moment of inspiration told Aswell, “You’re a writer so why don’t you write a book?” Aswell didn’t act on the suggestion until April 15, 2005. That was the day John Fred passed away in Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans. Aswell started writing Louisiana Rocks! The True Genesis of Rock & Roll the next day. The book is dedicated to John Fred’s memory.

In 1967, while attending Tech, Aswell met and fell in love with a Tech student from nearby Simsboro. He and the former Betty Gray were married in 1968. They and their chiweenie dog reside in Denham Springs—within 10 miles of their three lovely daughters, two special sons-in-law, and seven beautiful grandchildren. He continues to write when not spending time with family or attending LSU baseball games.
Email Tom Aswell
© 2009 Tom Aswell.  All Rights Reserved.

They’re all here, the winners, the losers, the inside stories. You’ll read:

What Ernie K-Doe did with his first royalty check from Mother-In-Law.

How Bill Haley “cleaned up” the lyrics to Big Joe Turner’s Shake Rattle & Roll but inadvertently left in the most risqué line.

About actor Robert Mitchum’s getting arrested in New Orleans for “mingling” at the Dew Drop Inn and about how Allen Toussaint nearly got arrested in Dallas for simply buying a new car.

How Dale & Grace got a number-1 hit even though the strings were laid down on the recording track in the wrong key.

How a future rock, R&B, jazz, blues, country, and pop legend produced and played piano on Guitar Slim’s classic The Things That I Used to Do.

How a $25 recording session in Shreveport’s KWKH studios produced one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock & Roll.

How a singer born in Pascagoula, Mississippi started out as a street performer in New Orleans and went on to become a one-man multi-million dollar entertainment conglomerate.

About where Kris Kristofferson was when he wrote the memorable line “Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose” for Janis Joplin’s Me and Bobby McGee.

How Janis Joplin got her musical education in the honky tonks and road houses of southwest Louisiana.

How a Lake Charles hotel bellhop wrote and recorded an all-time classic hit with the instrumental backing of Cookie & the Cupcakes.

How a singer wore his full baseball uniform when he recorded his very first record and that record became the first debut record by any singer to hit number 1.

How an obscure Louisiana singer outsold Patsy Cline’s version of the same song and how that song became a certified WHH (whorehouse hit).
The first comprehensive study of Louisiana popular music, from R& to rockabilly, from blues to Cajun/zydeco, Louisiana Rocks is the culmination of years of research. Inspired by a suggestion from the late John Fred, Tom Aswell explores the very roots of rock.   Learn more…
 
Praise for Louisiana Rocks! 
“Could not put it down once I started reading. It brought back a lot of old memories. -Bob Robin, retired disc jockey, WTIX (New Orleans) and producer for record labels Stax, Tower, Bell, Warner Bros., Capitol, and ABC Paramount
“Tom Aswell has gotten it right! Louisiana’s contributions to rock and roll have been ignored far too long, but now the secret is out…Louisiana Rocks! is a must read for any serious student of rock and roll. -Mike Shepherd, director, Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
 
Special Thanks To:
  Pelican Publishing
  Louisiana Music Hall of Fame
About Louisiana Rocks!

The first comprehensive study of Louisiana popular music, from R&B to rockabilly, from blues to Cajun/zydeco, Louisiana Rocks is the culmination of years of research. Inspired by a suggestion from the late John Fred, Tom Aswell explores the very roots of rock. His findings: despite claims to the contrary, rock & roll was born in New Orleans a full four years before Ike Turner’s 1951 recording of Rocket 88.
A Little History…

It was 1947 when Roy Brown, still stinging from the rejection of his song by Wynonie Harris, entered Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio to record his own version of Good Rockin’ Tonight, a song Elvis Presley would cover in 1954. As soon as it became evident that Brown’s song was a hit, Harris had a sudden change of heart and rushed into the studio to record it himself and it was his version that was selected by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as One of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock & Roll.
Then, in 1949, two years before Rocket 88, two more songs were recorded by Louisiana artists that signaled a revolution in popular music was on the horizon. In the same J&M studio in New Orleans, Fats Domino recorded The Fat Man. That same year, Hank Williams, a member of the Louisiana Hayride who resided at the time in Bossier City, recorded Lovesick Blues. While not rock & roll, Lovesick Blues was a radical break from the traditional country music of the day and it cracked open the door to a genre called rockabilly that the likes of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Gene Vincent would soon kick down, much to the delight of bored teenagers and to the chagrin of perplexed parents and concerned clergy.

With the merger of blues and country, the floodgates were thrown open and the country was suddenly made aware of artists like Smiley Lewis, Irma Thomas, Benny Spellman, Ernie K-Doe, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Clanton, Dale & Grace, Johnny Rivers, Guitar Slim, Slim Harpo, Joe Tex, Joe Simon, Rod Bernard, Professor Longhair, Johnny Allan, T.K. Hulin, Tommy McLain, the Dixie Cups, Deacon John, Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, Johnny Horton, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Jimmy Buffett, LeRoux, Tab Benoit, Tabby Thomas, Chris Thomas King, Barbara Lynn, Van Broussard, the Fabulous Boogie Kings, Edgar and Johnny Winter, Huey Meaux, Dale Hawkins, Johnny Adams, and the inspiration for this book, John Fred.

The songwriter who wrote Hit the Road Jack for Ray Charles is from Louisiana as is the composer of both Abraham, Martin & John and Snoopy & the Red Baron. Larry Henley, who wrote Wind Beneath My Wings, previously worked in the oil fields of New Iberia and was a member of the Newbeats. The other two members of the Newbeats were from Bossier City. Merle Kilgore of Shreveport co-wrote with June Carter the Johnny Cash mega-hit Ring of Fire. King also wrote Wolverton Mountain, a huge hit for Shreveport’s Claude King.

Then there are the sidemen, or session artists, musicians who labored in obscurity but whose contributions to Louisiana music are priceless. Four guitar players (Duke Bardwell, Gerry McGee, Fred Carter, Jr., and James Burton), a pianist (Floyd Cramer), and a drummer (D.J. Fontana) all are from Louisiana and each either recorded with or toured with Elvis. Earl Palmer is one of the most recorded drummers in the history of popular music, playing on recordings of artists too numerous to mention. Jon Smith of the Fabulous Boogie Kings played sax on almost all of the Doobie Brothers’ recordings. Floyd Cramer had a gigantic hit of Last Date which made it all the way to number 2 on the Billboard charts. The song that kept out of the number 1 position was It’s Now or Never, a song by Elvis on which Cramer also played piano.

About The Author

Tom Aswell grew up in Ruston an avid baseball fan. Following his graduation from Ruston High School, he put off college to enlist in the U.S. Air Force. Upon his discharge, he started working at the Ruston Daily Leader as sports editor before enrolling at nearby Louisiana Tech University with an eye to becoming a baseball coach. Fate intervened, however, when Wiley Hilburn, only recently appointed head of Tech’s Journalism Department, convinced Aswell to give up his aspirations of coaching in favor of a writing career.

Following his graduation with a degree in journalism in 1970, Aswell worked for a number of papers, including the Shreveport Times and Journal, the Monroe News-Star, Morning World, the Baton Rouge State-Times, and three more stops at the Daily Leader. He won numerous awards for breaking news coverage, feature writing, and investigative reporting. In 1980, he opened his own news bureau in the State Capitol in Baton Rouge where he provided coverage of state government for about forty weekly and small daily newspapers throughout the state.
 
The following year Aswell approached Baton Rouge singer John Fred Gourrier (Judy in Disguise, Agnes English) with a unique proposition. Aswell suggested that the two work to produce a video of Louisiana rock & roll singers. Fred was enthusiastic about the project but it was 1981; the oil patch had just dried up and interest rates were off the charts so there were no investors to be found. Fred, in a moment of inspiration told Aswell, “You’re a writer so why don’t you write a book?” Aswell didn’t act on the suggestion until April 15, 2005. That was the day John Fred passed away in Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans. Aswell started writing Louisiana Rocks! The True Genesis of Rock & Roll the next day. The book is dedicated to John Fred’s memory.

In 1967, while attending Tech, Aswell met and fell in love with a Tech student from nearby Simsboro. He and the former Betty Gray were married in 1968. They and their chiweenie dog reside in Denham Springs—within 10 miles of their three lovely daughters, two special sons-in-law, and seven beautiful grandchildren. He continues to write when not spending time with family or attending LSU baseball games.
Email Tom Aswell
 
© 2009 Tom Aswell.  All Rights Reserved.

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