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AJ Haynes, a Shreveport native and founder of the acclaimed rock group Seratones, is not one to mince words. For the sixth and final episode in our podcast series exploring the cultural impact of The Louisiana Hayride, Haynes joined All Y’all co-host Sara Hebert for a free-wheeling conversation that covers the history of Texas Avenue, racial erasure in pop culture, Shreveport music venues, the state of modern country music, and more.

To Haynes, the idea of “reviving The Louisiana Hayride” sounds anachronistic, exclusionary and dull. She’d rather re-imagine the Hayride than re-create it, and daydreams of a Louisiana Hayride lineup featuring genre-hopping artists like Margo Price, Black Pumas, Sturgill Simpson, and The Suffers.

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On the afternoon that Mr. Alton Warwick, widowed husband and business partner of Margaret “Maggie” Lewis Warwick, sat down with All Y’all and LPB to share his memories of The Louisiana Hayride, only seven months had passed since Maggie’s death. For decades, he and Maggie had worked side-by-side to promote the Hayride as a potential economic driver for Shreveport. Her absence loomed large over our conversation.

Maggie had been a fixture in Alton’s life since his youth in Shreveport; he’d met her through his record-producing, electric guitar-playing cousin, Mira Smith, owner of Shreveport’s Ram Records. Alton saw firsthand how the music industry limited the opportunities of female performers and producers like Smith and Lewis.

“Girl singers were just to sing,” Alton said. “They weren’t supposed to make waves, they weren’t supposed to produce records. They were not supposed to lead the band. But her and Mira, they were not going to go quietly into the night. So, in Nashville and all of those places, they made a mark in a man’s world.”

What began as a conversation about country music history quickly became an oral history of a match made in country music heaven.

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Kix Brooks, the Shreveport native and bona fide country music superstar, was only five years old when the original Louisiana Hayride produced by KWKH came to an end in 1960. He grew up in the Highland and Shreve Island neighborhoods, graduated from Louisiana Tech University, and honed his songwriting chops at downtown Shreveport nightclubs like Humpfrees.

These days, Brooks calls Nashville home, but visits Shreveport often. During one of those visits, he sat down with All Y’all and Louisiana Public Broadcasting to discuss how his hometown shaped his career in music. Brooks reminisces on his early days gigging in Shreveport, shares some incredible advice for aspiring songwriters, and sings the praises of his favorite Shreveport eatery, Herby-K’s.

Brooks believes in the work of songwriting. Over the course of his 40-year career, he has written and recorded thousands of songs and forged lifelong friendships with the likes of Guy Clark and Jerry Jeff Walker. During our conversation, Brooks reflects on these friendships and the lessons they taught him. It is an intimate, inspiring conversation about roots music, life in Shreveport, and the daily habits of a working songwriter.

The All Y'all podcast is supported by Marilynn's Place, Rhino Coffee and Maccentric. Please support these outstanding local businesses!

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Joey Kent grew up backstage at The Louisiana Hayride—just not the version of the Hayride that you may be thinking of. His father, Shreveport media executive David Kent, launched a second installment of the Hayride after the original iteration of KWKH’s influential barn dance program fell silent in 1960. David Kent’s Louisiana Hayride, produced in partnership with emcee and radio personality Frank Page, moved the show from Shreveport Municipal Auditorium to a more modern venue on Benton Road and added an onsite restaurant and bar.

Joey Kent often corrects those who insist that the Hayride ended in 1960.

“There were so many talented musicians on my father’s show,” Kent said. “Most Hayride history books tend to end in 1960, but that doesn’t really do service to performers like (Nat Stuckey, Shoji Tabuchi, Micki Fuhrman, Linda Davis, and others).”

Kent authored Cradle of the Stars: KWKH & The Louisiana Hayride and co-authored Elvis Presley: The Hayride Years, 1954-56. He is also responsible for donating a large archive of recordings and materials related to The Louisiana Hayride to the Library of Congress. But perhaps his most unbelievable contribution to the story of The Louisiana Hayride came about completely by accident.

While clearing out an office at KWKH, Kent says that he happened upon a reel-to-reel recording wedged between a desk and a wall. That reel-to-reel turned out to contain a previously unknown recording of Elvis Presley’s Hayride debut on Oct. 16, 1954. Kent tells the jaw-dropping story of that discovery, along with many others, during his insightful conversation with All Y’all hosts Sara Hebert and Chris Jay.

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The Louisiana Hayride was a live country music jamboree that was broadcast weekly via Shreveport, Louisiana’s 50,000-watt powerhouse station KWKH beginning in 1948. The lifespan of the Hayride was brief (the original program ended in 1960) but consequential, with artists like Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, and Kitty Wells changing the look and sound of American pop music from the stage of Shreveport Municipal Auditorium.

For our six-episode series exploring the lasting impact of The Louisiana Hayride, All Y’all partnered with Louisiana Public Broadcasting. Over the course of the series, you’ll hear from a wide range of interview subjects, including musicians Kix Brooks and AJ Haynes, historians Joey Kent and Rob Gentry, entrepreneur Alton Warwick, and this episode’s guest: Shreveport native, music professor and author Dr. Tracey Laird.

Dr. Laird is the author of Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music Along the Red River and co-author of Shreveport Sounds in Black and White. Dr. Laird joined All Y’all’s Sara Hebert for an interview by phone from Decator, Georgia, where Laird serves as professor of music at Agnes Scott College. Her books are the best place to start for anyone seeking a well-researched, smart, and fun primer on the mythology, music and meaning of The Louisiana Hayride.

In the first episode of our six-part series, Dr. Laird describes Shreveport as “a kind of a crossroads of cultural impulses” where music that fell “outside of the canonical understanding of country music” could find a more receptive audience.

The All Y'all podcast is supported by Marilynn's Place, Rhino Coffee and Maccentric. Please support these outstanding local businesses!

Want more conversations like this? Help us by sending a few bucks our way at Paypal.me/AllYall

Links:
Louisiana Hayride on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Hayride
Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music Along the Red River: https://www.amazon.com/Louisiana-Hayride-Radio-American-Musicspheres-ebook/dp/B000WMF7FY
Shreveport Sounds in Black and White: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001M4HZGA/

Like All Y’all on Facebook http://facebook.com/allyallblog
Follow All Y’all on Twitter http://twitter.com/allyallpodcast
Follow All Y’all on Instagram http://instagram.com/allyallpodcast

The Louisiana Hayride was a live country music jamboree that was broadcast weekly via Shreveport, Louisiana’s 50,000-watt powerhouse station KWKH beginning in 1948. The lifespan of the Hayride was brief (the original program ended in 1960) but consequential, with artists like Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, and Kitty Wells changing the look and sound of American pop music from the stage of Shreveport Municipal Auditorium.

For our six-episode series exploring the lasting impact of The Louisiana Hayride, All Y’all partnered with Louisiana Public Broadcasting. Over the course of the series, you’ll hear from a wide range of interview subjects, including musicians Kix Brooks and AJ Haynes, historians Joey Kent and Rob Gentry, entrepreneur Alton Warwick, and this episode’s guest: Shreveport native, music professor and author Dr. Tracey Laird.

Dr. Laird is the author of Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music Along the Red River and co-author of Shreveport Sounds in Black and White. Dr. Laird joined All Y’all’s Sara Hebert for an interview by phone from Decator, Georgia, where Laird serves as professor of music at Agnes Scott College. Her books are the best place to start for anyone seeking a well-researched, smart, and fun primer on the mythology, music and meaning of The Louisiana Hayride.

In the first episode of our six-part series, Dr. Laird describes Shreveport as “a kind of a crossroads of cultural impulses” where music that fell “outside of the canonical understanding of country music” could find a more receptive audience.

The All Y'all podcast is supported by Marilynn's Place, Rhino Coffee and Maccentric. Please support these outstanding local businesses!

Want more conversations like this? Help us by sending a few bucks our way at Paypal.me/AllYall

Links:
Louisiana Hayride on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Hayride
Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music Along the Red River: https://www.amazon.com/Louisiana-Hayride-Radio-American-Musicspheres-ebook/dp/B000WMF7FY
Shreveport Sounds in Black and White: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001M4HZGA/

Like All Y’all on Facebook http://facebook.com/allyallblog
Follow All Y’all on Twitter http://twitter.com/allyallpodcast
Follow All Y’all on Instagram http://instagram.com/allyallpodcast