Swamp pop king Warren Storm RIP

It's been a terrible week for the world of Louisiana swamp pop and blues. First it was the death of Carol Fran. And now we hear of the death, at the age of 84 from COVID, of possibly the best known swamp pop artist of them all, Warren Storm. Warren was a vocalist and a drummer and enjoyed a long career both as a solo artist and as a member of the Shondells, the Cajun super group Lil Band of Gold and his later band Cypress. He was born in Abbeville and had success aged 21 when he recorded at Jay Miller's Crowley studio. His recording of 'The Prisoner's Song' was released at the Nashville based Nasco label backed by 'Mama Mama Mama' and made it into the Billboard top 100. He recorded for various labels including Rocko, Zynn, American Pla-Boy, Top Rank, and Dot, and joined up with Rod Bernard and Skip Stewart to form the Shondells, who had great local success. I remember seeing Warren at the Grant Street Dancehall in Lafayette in 1998 when he was playing alongside several other South Louisiana artists, including C C Adcock, Steve Riley and David Egan, in a group which a year or two later became the Lil Band of Gold. They were a must see band whenever I was in Louisiana and I saw them, and was mightily impressed, on various occasions in New Orleans and Lafayette. In 2011 they played at the Shepherds Bush Empire when they were invited to the UK to play at Lily Allen's wedding and Warren was superb on his ration of numbers, which included 'Seven Letters', 'Blue Monday' and 'These Lonely Lonely Nights'. Warren left the band in what seemed to be a dispute with C C and played with his own band Cypress, but I saw him several times after that, the last occasion being the Ponderosa Stomp in 2017 (see photo above). The photos below show Warren at Grant Street in 1998 and one with me (eyes closed) and John Howard on the same day. There's also a photo from a single issued in 1983 and one from a Shondells LP recorded for La Louiaianne.

By coincidence, I went to my first live gig in over 18 months on Sunday and it featured two of the great swamp pop artists still performing - guitarist and singer C C Adcock and 81 year old singer Tommy McLain. The evening was a delight, with Tommy on good form despite having played a couple of festivals and other gigs in the preceeding few days. Nick Lowe's son played drums behind them, as he did when I saw them in 2019 when he was just 14. Tommy included favourites such as 'Sweet Dreams', 'Before I Grow Too Old' and 'Baby Doll', as well as several new songs.This was their third show at the tiny Laylow bar in Ladbroke Grove in the last couple of years - the last one was just before lockdown (I wasn't there) and apparently led to several cases of COVID emerging. C C described Tommy and himself as 'spreadnecks'. This time, hopefully, there will be no repeat. It's good to see Tommy, and C C, still doing their thing, but sad news about Warren. RIP.

Finally, here's a photo of Tommy McLain at the Shepherds Bush Empire with Warren Storm on the drums.