Rock 'n' Soul all Night

PONDEROSA STOMP
Memphis, Tenn. May 8-10

Herb Hardesty sounds genuine, not deliberately tactful, when he declines to voice a preference for either the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival, which he played last weekend, or the Ponderosa Stomp, where he’s playing tonight. “I have a good time at both,” Fats Domino’s longtime sax man said, sitting behind a table where he’s quietly selling CDs. “It’s just nice to play for the people.”

The Ponderosa Stomp, a five-year-old roots-music fest that celebrates “the unsung heroes of rock and soul,” has traditionally bridged Jazz Fest’s gap, taking place at New Orleans’ Mid-City Lanes Rock ’n’ Bowl on weekday nights between the two Jazz Fest weekends. Its booking also fills in the blanks left by the bigger fest, running the gamut from legendary sidemen like Hardesty to cult heroes like the late Link Wray to obscure Louisiana garage bands unearthed from the swamps by the Mystic Knights of the Mau Mau, the group behind the event.

This year, the Stomp relocated temporarily to Memphis’ Gibson Guitar Factory Showcase in a move that took some expected flak; post-Katrina, some said, keeping large-scale events and the dollars they generate for the city should be paramount. But in September, when Ira “Dr. Ike” Padnos and his fellow (all-volunteer) Knights had to start making decisions, the city was in soggy chaos. The downstairs showroom at the Rock ’n’ Bowl, which held the Stomp’s second stage, was multiple feet deep in filthy water. So the Mau Maus looked north.

As it turned out, the Stomp’s temporary new home afforded some opportunities New Orleans couldn’t before—during the day, music historians Peter Guralnick and Robert Gordon hosted sold-out tours of Sun Studios and the Stax Museum. And the musical through-line between Memphis and New Orleans is impossible to miss. For every old-school Excello and Minit artist on the roster, there was plenty of representation from Memphis’ Stax and Hi Records. In the genres the Stomp showcases—soul, R&B, rockabilly, blues and garage—the conversation between the Bluff City, the Crescent City and parts in between is deep and complex. And in the end, according to Dr. Ike, “the bands killed. And at the end of the day, we just want to see these heroes, these pioneers, working.” Proceeds from the charity event benefited MusiCares and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic.

If there was any pall cast over the show by events of the previous August, the Stomp’s barn-burning sets evaporated it like fog over the Mississippi in the morning sun. Texas’ Roy Head writhed on the floor during his hit “Treat Her Right.” Lady Bo—Bo Diddley’s right-hand guitar woman from the late ’50s/early ’60s—tore through a fierce set on the second night, scolding the crowd between songs: “Why aren’t you clapping? Get involved!” Pompadoured B-movie star Arch Hall, Jr., showed up, Excello bluesman Lazy Lester and Japanese garage-blues artist Rockin’ Enocky played surprise sets, and former Elvis Presley drummer D.J. Fontana kept the beat for 75-year-old soul singer Sonny Burgess. The Stomp will return to New Orleans in May 2007, but this detour to Memphis was no disappointment.