Few events can boast as storied a lineup as the 12th annual Ponderosa Stomp, which is slated to return to the Big Easy this weekend. Conceived by New Orleans anesthesiologist and music aficionado Ira Padnos, the one-of-a-kind festival brings one hit wonders, sidemen and other unsung heroes of rock n’ roll together for, in its own words, “3 Days of the Best Music You’ve Never Heard Of.”
As has been in the case in previous years, the 12th annual Ponderosa Stomp will feature a pair of concerts at the Rock n’ Bowl on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3, as well as a conference, a record show and much more. This year’s lineup includes local legends like Irma Thomas, as well as a variety of artists whose names you may not know (though you’re probably familiar with at least one of their songs). I got in touch with Mr. Padnos to discuss the multitude of artists at this year’s Stomp and the idea behind the festival
Can you tell us about some of the artists that will be at the Ponderosa Stomp? Who are you excited about?
We’ve got a lot of things that I’m really excited about. First off, we have P.F. Sloan, who is one of the great songwriters who definitely fits the bill of unsung heroes because he wrote some great songs and then just vanished in the 60s. He was the guy that wrote “Secret Agent Man” and “Eve of Destruction.” He wrote “Let’s Live for Today” for the Grass Roots, he wrote “Tell ‘Em i’m Surfing” for Jan and Dean, and a whole bunch of other stuff. He played guitar on “California Dreamin.” He was just this 19 year old kid that got hired for sessions at that point. He’s this mysterious figure that a lot of people have never seen. He’s got this great body of work, but no one has really seen him, so we’re very excited about him.
We’ve got Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon coming. He cut some great rockers in the early 50s and 60s, even though people tend to think that a lot of his solo stuff didn’t rock out. His very first song, “Tallahassee Lassie,” was covered by a lot of people and basically was rewritten by the Rolling Stones as “Brown Sugar.” He also wrote the song “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” and I believe he has the record for most appearances on American Bandstand.
We also have a great ladies of soul revue. Irma Thomas is going to come and do a great set of her classic material backed by Lil’ Buck and The Top Cats. There’s the triple threat of singer, songwriter and guitarist Barbara Lynn, who’s going to be there. She wrote “My Baby’s Got a Good Thing Going” and her big hit was “If You Lose Me, You Lose a Good Thing,” which was cut at Cosimo Studio back in ‘62 or ‘63. We have Betty Harris, who is known at the unknown soul queen of New Orleans because she cut some records with Allen Toussaint back in the day. People thought she was from New Orleans but she wasn’t. She was from Orlando and she later worked with Otis Redding and James Carr. Then there’s Mable John, who was born in Louisiana. She was the very first female artist signed by Motown. but she never really had a hit until she went to Stax and had a hit with “Your Good Thing’s About to End.” I don’t know if she’s played New Orleans before, but if she has it’s been years and years. We have Brenda Holloway, who cut the Motown classic “Every Little Bit Hurts” and wrote the song “You Made Me Feel So Very Happy,” which was covered by Blood, Sweat and Tears and was a big hit for them later. She was the first female artists from the West Coast to be signed by Motown, but after a while she didn’t like how she was being treated by them so she retired and went to church.
We have a West Side Soul Revue of San Antonio artists. Basically there were all these great records coming out of San Antonio that were influenced by New Orleans. They were swamp-pop records. But not much is known about that scene because there wasn’t much documentation. Obviously the biggest artist was the Sir Douglas Quintet, but a lot of people don’t know the other artists. So for that we have the rhythm section from the Sunlighters and keyboardist Henry Parilla, who cut records as Little Henry Lee. We have Rudy Palacios on guitar, we have Jack Barber, the original bassist for the Sir Douglas Quintet, we have the drummer who played on all of the Royal Jesters songs. They’re basically going to be the core band and they’re going to back Rudy T Gonzalez, who cut records as Rudy and The Reno Bops. We have Augie Meyers. He was the keyboard player for Sir Douglas Quintet and had a long solo career, but he’s best known for putting the Vox Continental organ into rock n’ roll with the stuff he with Sir Doug. We’re basically having him do a special set of song that he hasn’t done in year. There’s not much that is known about that San Antonio scene, so that’s going to be good.
We’ve put together a great Swamp Pop revue. The backing band is going to be The Mamas Mamas Mamas, which is, in essence, Little Band O’ Gold minus Warren Storm. There’s also Tommy McClain, who had a big hit with “Sweet Dreams.” There’s Rob Bernard, who had a huge hit with “This Should Go On Forever,” and who never plays anymore. And then we have Gene Terry, who did “Cindy Lou” and was just a swamp-pop wild man back in the day. That’s on Friday, but on Saturday we have the father of swamp-pop, Warren Storm, showing up.
Next we have Willie Hightower, who is one of the great unknown soul singers from FAME Studios. He had a couple of hits with “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” and “It’s a Miracle” then kind of faded from sight. So he’s going to come sing. With all the Muscle Shoals publicity, it’s good to have one of those amazing singers that never really got his due.
Your website has the tagline “3 Days of the Best Music You’ve Never Heard Of.” What do you guys mean by that?
The deal is this: there were all these great records cut back in the day. Obviously they were made for commercial use and commercial sale, but when these artists started to cut these records, they were actually making great timeless art. Music can be this great piece of art if presented as such. So a lot of people may know a song or may recognize a song, but they never knew who did it. So the basic idea with the Stomp was to recognize these musicians. Everybody knows the basic music history and the super stars with the big hits, but people forget about the one hit wonders, or the guys who were sidemen, or the guys who didn’t sell too many records. So the focus is on the secret history of New Orleans, which is that history. Everybody knows about the top of the building, but they don’t know the foundation of the building. We specialize in the obscure, that’s the idea. You may never know you knew any of these songs, but you will be singing and having a good time. It’s like a great jukebox back in the day, or a great playlist today.
But what were the conditions that led to the song? What was the idea behind it? Why did you do it this way? The idea is also that we get to have this unique rock n’ roll camp during the day. During the day you learn about the music and where it came from, then at night you can see the artist and see what it led to. You can see the performers play the music they talked about. So you get the complete picture. They compliment each other really well.
One of the other taglines we’re using this year is “It’s your favorite band’s favorite band’s favorite band.” If you look at an artist these days, they’re copying someone. It had to come from somewhere. All music is a continuum and, say what you want, but every artist is basing their song off of something. So this is stripping it back and finding out where it started. It’s like back in the day, if you went to a record store and said you like the Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin, they’d say, “oh, well here’s the blues artists that influenced those guys.” And now as time has gone on you have the alt bands, indie bands, punk band, so what did they listen to? They’ll say “oh well I listened to these bands,” but you can track that back further and further. That’s kind of the idea of the Stomp.
This is where that stuff comes from, but we don’t want to view it as nostalgic. We want to recognize that they created great art and view it on its own merits. But it’s also an old time rock n’ roll show. No one plays more than 45 minutes, so it keeps things going.
