2007 Ponderosa Stomp a Huge Hit in New Orleans

Press release
Source: conqueroo / Cary Baker

On Wednesday, May 2, 2007, the Ponderosa Stomp staged its triumphant return to The City that Care Forgot. The Mystic Knights of the Mau-Mau’s trademark insane music festival, held in exile in Memphis, Tennessee in 2006, was distilled to just one night at the House of Blues, which is located on Decatur Street in New Orleans’ fabled French Quarter.

Following Monday and Tuesday kick-off events that included a Wax Poetics-sponsored DJ Showdown at the Dragon’s Den and performances by Eddie Kirkland, Irving Bannister, and Little Freddy King at the Circle Bar, the 6th Annual Ponderosa Stomp began when Muscle Shoals, Alabama songwriter/soul singer Ralph Soul Jackson stormed through a set of rarities that left DJs and record collectors in the audience smiling with glee, and lasted until the wee hours of the morning, after Augie Meyers and a swingin’ Texas band served up the Doug Sahm classic “She’s About A Mover.”

In between, the House of Blues’ three stages (the Main Stage, Parish Stage, and a Patio Stage) featured a staggering array of blues, rockabilly, R&B, soul, garage rock, and rock ’n’ roll stars – legendary performers, all-star musicians, and oft-overlooked composers and songwriters who, together, constituted the most audacious roster in Ponderosa Stomp history, giving an aural lesson that covered every genre in the gamut of great American roots music.

“If you are a devotee of rock’n’roll, R&B, rockabilly, soul, blues, swamp pop, doo-wop, or any variation thereof, the one event that you want to attend every year is the Ponderosa Stomp,” says Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  “The Mystic Knights of the Mau-Mau annually deliver a festival that delights the most jaded music fan and, at some point or another, provides one of those reality altering, transcendent moments when everything is more than alright with the world.”

At the 6th Annual Ponderosa Stomp, “Dark End of the Street” and “Do Right Woman” songwriter Dan Penn, a fixture at Memphis’ American Recording Studio in the late 1960s, played two stripped-down sets on acoustic guitar, accompanied by keyboardist Bobby Emmons. The effect was dazzling, and it left the audience — which included a rapt Bobby Patterson, who recorded at American with Penn so long ago — primed for another acoustic set featuring bluesmen Kenny Brown and Bobby Rush.

Equally astonishing was the hour-and-a-half-plus performance staged by Wardell Quezergue and his New Orleans Rhythm and Blues Revue, a fourteen-man band handpicked by the blind arranger, known as the key architect of the city’s famed in-the-pocket groove sound. Star after star took the spotlight to sing with Quezergue’s brand-new arrangements, written especially for the set, including trumpeter Dave Bartholomew, who sang “The Monkey” and “Who Drank My Beer While I Was in the Rear,” Robert Parker, who crooned “Barefootin’,” and Jean Knight, whose song “Mr. Big Stuff” was a huge hit for Stax Records.

According to Jean Knight, “It felt really good to work with Wardell again. He did a lot of good records, and he doesn’t get the acclaim he deserves.”

“The Ponderosa Stomp was the first time I saw Robert Parker since I could remember! The first time in a long time that I saw Dave Bartholomew, Tony Owens, Barbara Lynn! And there were so many people watching us, it was tighter than a sardine can inside the House of Blues!”

“You can only get so close at Jazz Fest,” says Knight, “but the Ponderosa Stomp is like a family affair.”

The Ponderosa Stomp’s signature performer, Lazy Lester, rockabilly singer Jay Chevalier, blues pianist Henry Gray, and vocalists Al “Carnival Time” Johnson and Rockie Charles made multiple appearances inside the House of Blues and on its more intimate outdoor patio stage, while indoors, backing groups like Lil Buck Sinegal and the Top Cats and Deke Dickerson & the Eccofonics worked overtime with front men that ran the gamut from Little Jimmy Scott, Ernie Vincent, and Dennis Coffey to Joe Clay, Matt Lucas, and Willie Tee. Also lurking onstage: Alex Chilton, who wielded a guitar with the Memphis-meets-New Orleans group the Early Times.

Most of the 1500 music fans who packed the House of Blues were waiting for the midnight hour, when reclusive psych star Roky Erickson took over the main stage with his band the Explosives for a mind-numbing, ear-shattering set that included musical firepower like “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” “Starry Eyes,” and “I Walked with a Zombie.” It was well worth the wait, although fellow Texan Roy Head threatened to upstage Erickson with his propulsive, over-the-top set, which included two show-stopping renditions of “Treat Her Right” and choreography that would put a stripper to shame.

As Cree McCree reported in High Times Magazine, “Boy, was it worth the trip. Just around midnight, under a full Scorpio moon, in front of a crowd of rabid fans who’d waited years and whole lifetimes to see him, Roky Erickson did not disappoint. ‘It’s A Cold Night for Alligators,’ the perfect New Orleans opener, launched a set of ratcheting intensity that left no doubt that Roky was not only back but here to stay.”

“I’ve been doing music festivals for 50 years,” comments Augie Meyers, a first-time Stomp performer. “I don’t go to many concerts. But at the Ponderosa Stomp, I made sure I enjoyed myself. I got there around 9:30 p.m. even though I didn’t perform ‘til 1 a.m. I checked out Roky Erickson, and Little Freddy King and Lazy Lester. If the Ponderosa Stomp folks want me back, I’m there before they ask me!”

Judging by his face-splitting grin, Ira “Dr. Ike” Padnos, the anesthesiologist/music fan who, when May rolls around, trades in his doctor’s coat for a fez, realized that the 6th Annual Ponderosa Stomp — his baby — was a raging success before the night’s final stragglers wandered back onto Decatur Street.

Alternately describing various acts in single-word adjectives like “unbelievable,” “perfect,” and “killer,” Padnos, who was heard on NPR’s All Things Considered earlier in the week highlighting the efforts of the non-profit Mystic Knights of the Mau-Mau, preferred to let the music speak for itself.

Nodding toward people like pianists Allen Toussaint and Jon Cleary, who joined the massive throng paying homage to Quezergue, and producer/performer Ben Vaughn, and Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo, also in the crowd, Padnos finally said, “I think every New Orleans musician who was off tonight showed up for the Ponderosa Stomp!

For more information about the Mystic Knights of the Mau-Mau and the Ponderosa Stomp, go to www.PonderosaStomp.com.

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