ROUSES_MayJun2019_Magazine-Print

Photo by Gene Tomko

“That’s it! That’s it!” a man shouts. “You all remember Dale & Grace?”

Huston stand by the stage. “I’m still kind of decompressing from the studio,” Romero admits. “Warren kept us on our toes. It’s all about listening and playing, and communicating with each other with our eyes.” Romero faces the setting sun, arms wrapped around his guitar. He was just 14 when his parents first brought him to play with Warren Storm. “It’s up to us and to the people behind us to keep this music sounding like it should,” he says. Rows of folding chairs form a semicircle around the stage. They’re occupied by an older crowd, sporting mostly cowboy boots or sen- sible sneakers. Some huddle under LSU blankets. There are little con- versations here and there, and occasional bursts of laughter. Children are taking advantage of their grandparents’ inattention to down bags of potato chips. But mostly it’s quiet. Looking over the crowd, it’s dif- ficult to imagine that a rock and roll show is about to start. Then Landry walks up to the microphone. “You might know these songs,” she says, and starts singing. Betty told Dupree I want a diamond ring … An older man and woman, both chewing gum to the beat, walk arm in arm to the front of the stage. They instantly and effortlessly fall into a groove. More couples join them, and soon the dance floor is filled. “You all remember Bobby Charles?” Landry says to the crowd, and suddenly the crowd is back in high school, learning the ways of the world to a swamp pop beat. The band launches into “Take it Easy Greasy,” Charles’ follow-up to his hit “See You Later, Alligator.” It goes on like this all night. “You all remember Cookie and the Cupcakes?” Landry says.

Swamp Pop’N & Pop-A-Top’N One of my favorite deejays, Swamp Pop and French music show host Bobby Richard, grew up in the swamp town of Pierre Part ( Swamp People star Troy Landry lives there). Music is in his blood. Don Rich is his first cousin, and his dad and uncles played music as the Richard Brothers. Richard was inducted in the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 1995 for his work in preserving and popularizing Louisiana music. Tune in to the Swamp Pop Show Saturdays, 5am and 1pm and the French Music Show Sundays 11am-1pm or stream it online at www.gumbo949.com. —Donny Rouse, CEO, 3 rd Generation There is another roar. Landry launches into “I Need Somebody Bad,” the song of lost love and found lust. Hands touch arms and dancers guide each other to the floor, again and again. They’ll stay like this, just as long as the music keeps playing. Darkness settles over Abbeville, but the songs don’t stop. Landry steps to the microphone again. “I got a new best friend, his name is Warren Storm,” she says.

57 WWW.ROUSES.COM

ROUSES