KMRC, The Swamp Dog

In the 1950s in Louisiana, a lot of musicians began playing rock 'n' roll. Nothing unusual there, as this was happening all over the country. But in Louisiana, these artists created their own distinctive, emotion-laden sound in a genre that has become known as swamp pop.

Along with Cajun, zydeco, jazz and New Orleans R&B, swamp pop is one of the great contributions to popular music to come out of the fertile state of Louisiana. It is probably the least known outside the boundaries of the state, though.

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Rather than try to explain swamp pop, I will give you two links. First, there is this Wikipedia article, which is a pretty accurate summary of its style, history, key performers and some of its signature recordings. Second, here you can listen to Cookie and the Cupcakes singing "Mathilda," the quintessential swamp pop song; if you do not like this, your prospects for being a swamp pop fan are slim to none!

Although a number of swamp pop records became national hits (e.g., "I'm Leaving It Up to You" by Dale and Grace,"Just A Dream" by Jimmy Clanton, "Sea Of Love" by Phil Phillips), I never realized that this was considered its own genre until I heard a radio program about it. Then I began searching out the more obscure records and performers -- obscure outside of Louisiana, that is.

I am forever grateful to some friends who took me to a club in Lafayette, Lousiana to hear Warren Storm, one of the original swamp pop performers, play. The name of the club escapes me, but it was an interesting place -- a building divided into two big sections. You could pay to go in one side and hear Cajun music, or pay to go in the other and hear swamp pop.

I am also grateful to have discovered KMRC, "the Swamp Dog," and its Internet stream. KMRC is an actual radio station (1430 AM) in Morgan City, Louisiana, that plays swamp pop music almost exclusively. In this it might be unique. As well as the standard swamp pop classics, both in their original renditions as well as in interpretations by current artists, KMRC plays songs that pay tribute to the joys and miseries of working on the offshore oil rigs, a nice touch of local flavor.

Of the 13,000+ stations available to me on my Internet radio device, I currently have about 300 tagged as favorites. Out of these I've created a "#1 Favorites" list for quick access to the ones I enjoy listening to the most. That list has 7 stations on it at this time, and KMRC is one of them.

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