Music with a Mission: Ponderosa Stomp Foundation Launches Short Film, Fall Fund Drive

Music with a Mission: Ponderosa Stomp Foundation Launches

Short Film, Fall Fund Drive

“It’s not just about music, it’s about life itself, you know what I mean? The Stomp’s for real, man.”
Lil’ Buck Sinegal

Watch the Stomp Film here: www.PonderosaStomp.org

The Ponderosa Stomp was founded to showcase and honor the world’s most authentic performers of rockabilly, R&B, jazz, blues, garage, soul, funk, and swamp pop. 2009 has been a banner year for the Stomp – in the grip of a national recession two huge nights of music transpired in New Orleans. The Stomp then staged three July shows at Lincoln Center in New York City. The New York Times, New York Post, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone Online, Sirius and WNYC all covered the east coast Stomps, which showcased the rockabilly and soul genres as well as the work of New Orleans producer and arranger Wardell Quezergue. Simultaneously, the finishing touches were being put on the first Ponderosa Stomp film a labor of love for a crew of music lovers including Brian Gourley, the Butler Brothers and acclaimed director Jeff Nichols.

Classie Ballou, Lil’ Buck Sinegal and Roy Head are integral Stomp performers – these three exemplary artists enjoyed early success, but found themselves toiling in obscurity later in life. Their first person remembrances of their careers, their experiences playing on the Stomp and working with its founder Ira Padnos are the core of this riveting short work. Live footage and additional interviews with the likes of musicologist Peter Guralnick round out this peek inside the Ponderosa Stomp Foundation, illustrating the triumphs and ongoing challenges it faces.

Classie Ballou made his recording debut as the guitarist on Boozoo Chavis’ first single, “Paper In My Shoe,” the record that put zydeco music on the map. His band the Tempo Kings proceeded to release a series of singles showcasing patented Creole/Afro/Latin rhythms on weird guitar instrumentals like “Crazy Mambo,” “Confusion,” and “Hey! Pardner!.” Later, Classie led the bands of Big Joe Turner and Rosco Gordon, playing guitar on Rosco’s well-known Vee-Jay hit “Just a Little Bit.”

The best guitar slinger South Louisiana has to offer, Paul “Lil’ Buck” Sinegal honed his chops as an Excello session man and Clifton Chenier’s longtime guitarist. Revered for his work with Lil’ Bob (of “I Got Loaded” fame), Rockin’ Dopsie, and Fernest Arcenaux, Lil’ Buck also recorded his own killer instrumentals - including “Cat Scream” and “Monkey in a Sack” - for the La Louisiane label in the late ’60s. In 1999, Lil’ Buck was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame.

Texas soul man Roy Head epitomizes Gulf Coast cool like no one else. In 1965 he crashed the rock n’ roll gates with “Treat Her Right,” which rose to number two on the Billboard Pop charts. Roy rolled on, cracking the top 100 with “Just A Little Bit” and “Get Back Part 1,” and laying down other material that was just too wild for any chart, including the fabulous “You’re (Almost) Tough.” He continued to record for decades, even fronting the Texas Tornadoes for a time.

The origins of the film project are simple: when music fan Brian Gourley attended the Stomp, he was transfixed by the music and amazed that such a small group was able to bring so much music and cultural information to the fore on a shoestring. After offering to executive produce the film, he began fundraising and working with acclaimed director Jeff Nichols (Shotgun Stories won the Grand Jury Prize at the Austin Film Festival) and the Butler Bros production team. The film was shot in Austin during 2009’s SXSW and in New Orleans at the Stomp Conference and Concert, where Gourley and the crew captured the musicians and Stomp leader Dr. Ike Padnos sharing thoughts about the value of the Stomp mission. Gourley explains, “The film presented itself at the right time; it let me pour my love of music into a project that I thought would help give props to its roots. Without roots, there are no trees.”

After seeing this moving film, it is easy to see the importance of the Stomp’s mission and the impact of its work. Continuing to recognize influential artists like Ballou, Sinegal and Head and hundreds of others and documenting their stories is a fundamental part of the Foundation’s mission. Plans to expand an oral history archive are moving forward and the “Secret History of Rock n’ Roll” is currently on exhibit at the Louisiana State Museum.

The Stomp is launching a fall fundraising drive to build upon their recent successes and to continue to expand their unique and vital work. Cultural preservation efforts require the technical skill, time and expertise of our small, committed staff to be successful. Even a lean machine like the Mystic Knights of the Mau Mau, the mysterious krewe who work behind the scenes to make the magic happen, need additional resources to turn the mission into action. “We are on a crusade to convert the masses of music fans and vinyl junkies to the gospel of the Ponderosa Stomp. We hope a visit to www.ponderosastomp.org will create a disturbance in your mind and that you will get up off your thing and get involved with the Stomp,” explained Padnos.

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