Swamp pop

Although a fairly obscure genre, swamp pop maintains a large audience in its south Louisiana and southeast Texas homeland, and it has acquired a small but passionate cult following in the United Kingdom, and Northern Europe[1] The swamp pop sound is typified by highly emotional, lovelorn lyrics, tripleting honky-tonk pianos, undulating bass lines, bellowing horn sections, and a strong rhythm and blues backbeat.

These included Jimmy Clanton's "Just A Dream" (1958), Warren Storm's "Prisoner's Song" (1958), Phil Phillips' "Sea Of Love" (1959), Rod Bernard's "This Should Go On Forever" (1959), Joe Barry's "I'm a Fool to Care" (1960), and Dale & Grace's "I'm Leaving It Up to You" (1963).

However, as with other American youth in the mid-1950s, they discovered the alluring new sounds of rock and roll and rhythm and blues musicians such as Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Fats Domino.

At the same time, they switched from folk instruments such as the accordion, fiddle, and iron triangle to modern ones including as the electric guitar and bass, upright piano, saxophone, and drumming trap set.

For example, Bobby Page and the Riff Raffs recorded "Hippy-Ti-Yo", a bilingual rock and roll version of the traditional Cajun French song "Hip et Taiaut" and Rod Bernard did the same with "Allons danser Colinda", another folk composition.

[14] Leon Russell, Delaney & Bonnie, Dale Hawkins, Tony Joe White, John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival were influenced by swamp pop.

[18] Although swamp pop began a slow decline with the onslaught of the mid-1960s British Invasion, the genre continues to draw devoted fans to south Louisiana and southeast Texas festivals and nightclubs.