Get Ready to Stomp!

Press release
Source: conqueroo / Cary Baker

The roll call for the fifth annual Ponderosa Stomp, which benefits the New Orleans Musicians Clinic and MusiCares, reads like DJ Daddy-O Dewey Phillips’ play list blended with a bowl of Louisiana gumbo and filtered through Sam Phillips’ Memphis dream team, with plenty of Northwest garage rock, Gulf Coast psychedelic fuzz, and Bo Diddley-inspired beats thrown in for good measure.

More than 60 legendary artists are slated to play at the event, described as a celebration “of the unsung heroes of blues, soul, rockabilly, swamp pop and New Orleans R&B,” which will take place May 8, 9 & 10, 2006, on the rooftop of the Gibson Guitar Factory in downtown Memphis, overlooking fabled Beale Street and the Mississippi River.

Artists scheduled to appear at Ponderosa Stomp 2006:

Monday, May 8th: Archie Bell, Roy Head, Syl Johnson, the Hi Rhythm Section, Willie Cobbs, Eddie Bo, Willie Tee, Dennis Coffey, Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, the Bad Roads, Jay Chevalier, Chick Willis, Harvey Scales, Joe Clay, Kenny Brown, Tammy Lynn, CC Adcock and Lafayette Marquis, Deke Dickerson and the Eccofonics, the Climates, the Alarm Clocks, Little Buck and the Topcats (featuring Lil Buck Sinegal and Stanley “Buckwheat Zydeco” Dural), and Mike Hurtt and the Haunted Hearts.

Tuesday, May 9th: Scotty Moore, William Bell, the Bo-Keys, DJ Fontana, Sonny Burgess, Travis Wammack, Ace Cannon, Hayden Thompson, James Burton, the Nightcaps, the Fabulous Wailers, Kenny and the Kasuals, Warren Storm, Johnny Jones, Matt Lucas, BB Cunningham, Herb Remington, Arch Hall Jr, Jumpin’ Gene Simmons, Lady Bo, Jody Williams, Bobby Patterson, Billy Boy Arnold, Johnny Jones, Herbert Hardesty, Little Buck and the Topcats (featuring Lil Buck Sinegal and Stanley “Buckwheat Zydeco” Dural), Deke Dickerson and the Eccofonics and Eddie Bond.

Wednesday, May 10th: Clarence Frogman Henry, Scotty Moore, Billy Swan, Boots Randolph, Bobby Patterson, Barbara Lynn, Fillmore Slim, the Tennessee Three featuring WS Holland and Bob Wootten, Rayburn Anthony, the Zakary Thaks, Sleepy LaBeef, James Blood Ulmer, Billy Boy Arnold, Lady Bo, Dennis Binder, Jody Williams, Johnny Jones, Henry Gray, Little Freddy King, Rockie Charles, Rebirth Brass Band, Big George Brock, Mem Shannon and the Membership, Wiley and the Checkmates, Little Buck and the Topcats (featuring Lil Buck Sinegal and Stanley “Buckwheat Zydeco” Dural), the Rockabilly Country Band, Barrance Whitfield, Herbert Hardesty and Bob Moore.

Showtime each night is at 5 p.m. sharp. Admission is $40 per night, with advance tickets available at www.buyolympia.com/events/index.php?details=170 . More information about the line-up and the venue can be found at www.ponderosastomp.com.

The 2006 Ponderosa Stomp will also feature ancillary events including a Record Show, a DJ Dance Party hosted by Buck Wilders and the Hook-Up, and special tours of Sun Studios and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, ground zero for many of the Ponderosa Stomp performers. Sandwiched between the Memphis In May Beale Street Music Festival and the Blues Music Awards, this event makes for one of the exciting weeks of music in Memphis history.

CNN has declared the Ponderosa Stomp “history in the making,” while New York Times music critic Jon Pareles calls it a “dream” event that “plunges into the obscure byways of rock’n’roll past.” Of the 2005 festival, Gambit magazine joined MSNBC, the Associated Press, Mojo, the Christian Science Monitor, High Times, Living Blues, the Chicago Sun-Times, and more, with praise, writing, “For roots aficionados, the Stomp was nirvana; you almost had to pinch yourself to make sure it wasn’t a dream.”

Ponderosa Stomp organizers the Mystic Knights of the Mau Mau Mau (a social club-turned-501.c3 non-profit organization) are also presenting monthly concerts at the Circle Bar and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, both located in New Orleans. The non-profit, volunteer-run organization, founded by a group of rock’n’roll fanatics to celebrate the pioneers of blues, country, swamp pop, jazz, soul, and R&B, has presented more than forty shows, helping to resurrect the careers of dozens of “lost” musical legends, including Howard Tate and Jody Williams, over the past five years.