Enhanced Ebook (includes audio) Every Saturday night at the Fais Dodo Thibaudeau, a suave young possum with a Zorro-like moustache takes the stage with his dobro to lead the band. In the audience, a pretty, doe-eyed possum falls for his charms. But just who could these plucky marsupials be? Mama and Papa Poss tell the story of how they first met and where their glory days as a musical duo began! Take a trip to the bayou in this side-splitting, toe-tapping tale that pays homage to Louisiana’s Cajun and Zydeco music traditions. The narrated story is followed by the songs "Alley Cat" and "Oh, When the Saints." "Rockin’ the Bayou Down in Louisiana!" is the first story in the "We’re a Possum Family Band" series, which follows Mama and Papa Poss on their travels that bring them across North America to the birthplaces of Cajun, jazz, country, rock’n’roll, blues, and traditional Quebecois music. At the end of each story, explanatory notes delve into the key figures, instruments, and customs behind each genre.

With Clifton Chenier's amazing life and career as the centerpiece, this collection of profiles gathered across two decades unites some of the world's most innovative creative forces.

During the 1970s on a magic mushroom harvesting adventure in the Bayou, a young, aspiring rock and roll musician discovers the voice of Voodoo, which not only alters his life, but the life of his band, the Divebomberz. When the band is on the verge of making it big, tragedy strikes, and Jesse is confronted with the hard truth that life is often a spiritual obstacle course designed to see if you can get over yourself. A book for rock and rollers of all ages and for restless souls who have chased a dream only to discover that what they really needed was with them all along.

Will Friedwald’s illuminating, opinionated essays—provocative, funny, and personal—on the lives and careers of more than three hundred singers anatomize the work of the most important jazz and popular performers of the twentieth century. From giants like Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland to lesser-known artists like Jeri Southern and Joe Mooney, they have created a body of work that continues to please and inspire. Here is the most extensive biographical and critical survey of these singers ever written, as well as an essential guide to the Great American Songbook and those who shaped the way it has been sung. The music crosses from jazz to pop and back again, from the songs of Irving Berlin and W. C. Handy through Stephen Sondheim and beyond, bringing together straightforward jazz and pop singers (Billie Holiday, Perry Como); hybrid artists who moved among genres and combined them (Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé); the leading men and women of Broadway and Hollywood (Ethel Merman, Al Jolson); yesterday’s vaudeville and radio stars (Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor); and today’s cabaret artists and hit-makers (Diana Krall, Michael Bublé). Friedwald has also written extended pieces on the most representative artists of five significant genres that lie outside the songbook: Bessie Smith (blues), Mahalia Jackson (gospel), Hank Williams (country and western), Elvis Presley (rock ’n’ roll), and Bob Dylan (folk-rock). Friedwald reconsiders the personal stories and professional successes and failures of all these artists, their songs, and their performances, appraising both the singers and their music by balancing his opinions with those of fellow musicians, listeners, and critics. This magisterial reference book—ten years in the making—will delight and inform anyone with a passion for the iconic music of America, which continues to resonate throughout our popular culture.

“…they prove there is no party like a bayou party in America's Sportsman's Paradise.” —Ted Nugent You say grilling and eating a giant rat you killed yourself is uncouth? Between slaying nutria for a Mardi Gras celebration, lying in wait for mallards in Venice, or fighting off a wild hog, these Cajun boys know their way around Louisiana’s bayous. For these home-grown, southern hunters, the swamp really is a land of abundance. The cast of Cajun characters lampoons not just the city dwellers who venture into the swamp seeking a duck-hunting adventure like they’ve seen on TV, but also themselves and the other local residents they encounter. Everyone is fair game in this laugh-out-loud book full of fun, practical advice, and a new Cuban-Cajun recipe in each chapter!

From the concert stage to the dressing room, from the recording studio to the digital realm, SPIN surveys the modern musical landscape and the culture around it with authoritative reporting, provocative interviews, and a discerning critical ear. With dynamic photography, bold graphic design, and informed irreverence, the pages of SPIN pulsate with the energy of today's most innovative sounds. Whether covering what's new or what's next, SPIN is your monthly VIP pass to all that rocks.