All Y'all

Episode four of Once Upon a Time in Shreveport takes listeners deep into the piney woods of Mansfield, Louisiana to Rock Chapel—a tiny, stone church with a violent and mysterious past. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Rhino Coffee, Putman Restoration, Sartin Law Firm, and Sainte Terre. From host, writer and producer Chris Jay: I became fascinated by Rock Chapel while researching its origins for this article in 64 Parishes magazine. I began by reading dozens of old newspaper clippings about Rock Chapel, then by conducting my own research and visiting the chapel several times. As you'll hear in the podcast, unsettling questions persist to this day about the true identities and nature of the men who built Rock Chapel in 1891. For this episode, I was joined on a road trip to Rock Chapel by Krystle and Bethany from the Bayou Chronicles podcast, which is a true crime and macabre/paranormal history podcast based right here in Shreveport. If you enjoy the podcast, please share it! If you'd like to support the production of future episodes, you can do so by leaving Chris a tip via PayPal, joining the Stuffed & Busted Patreon, or sponsoring future episodes by contacting OnceinSHV at gmail dot com. Thank you for listening, and for supporting grassroots media in Shreveport. Like Once Upon a Time in Shreveport on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OnceinSHV). Follow Once Upon a Time in Shreveport on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/onceinshv/). Subscribe to the All Y'all podcast feed (https://www.allyallblog.com/subscribe/).

Episode three of Once Upon a Time in Shreveport _is a deep dive (pun intended) into the tale of the Elvis Presley Swimming Pool at Camp Forbing. The pool, which was paid for by funds raised at the concert where the phrase "Elvis has left the building" was first uttered, was constructed in April 1957 at a YMCA facility in South Shreveport called Camp Forbing. Host Chris Jay and guest Winston Hall explore the past, present and surprising future of "the Elvis pool" in this history-heavy episode of _Once. Listen to "Winston Hall: Look at All of the Little Black Dots," (https://www.allyallblog.com/2017/07/26/i-just-work-here-winston-hall-look-at-all-of-the-little-black-dots/) the story of how Winston became a professional piano entertainer. Want to support the creation of future episodes of this podcast? Leave us a tip via PayPal (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/allyall)—even a few bucks helps! Like Once Upon a Time in Shreveport on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/OnceinSHV) or give us a follow on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/onceinshv/).

Episode two of Once Upon a Time in Shreveport explores the extraordinary life and career of Shreveporter Andy Sidaris. By the time he began producing and directing low-budget action movies in the late 1970s, Sidaris had already concluded a decades-long career in sports television. He won an Emmy (presented by Joe Namath) for directing live television coverage of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, helped create ABC’s Wide World of Sports, and directed two NASA spacecraft landings as well as a Muhammad Ali title fight. If you’re a Shreveporter (especially one who listens to podcasts and/or cares about local history) and this is the first time that you’re hearing of Andy Sidaris...don’t you wonder why that is the case? Despite being one of the most accomplished entertainment industry professionals in Shreveport history, Sedaris has mostly gone uncelebrated by his hometown. That is likely due to the fact that he dedicated the last few decades of his life to making direct-to-video action flicks that—due to their near-constant stream of gratuitous nudity, sex and violence—have been dubbed the “Bullets, Bombs and Babes” movies. This episode features excerpts from an interview with Christian Drew Sidaris, son of Andy (who died in 2007). Also, we asked Shreveport-based comic and all-around hilarious person Molly Hiers to share their take on three of the Sidaris films shot in Shreveport, and they provided a smart, foul-mouthed take on these outrageous movies. For maximum enjoyment of this episode, check out a couple of Sidaris movie trailers before listening. Special Guest: Molly Hiers.

Once Upon a Time in Shreveport is a new comedy and history podcast from All Y'all Media LLC featuring (and making fun of) strange, true tales from the history of Shreveport, La. The series is produced, written, hosted and edited by All Y’all co-creator Chris Jay (https://www.chrisjay.org/) with original music by the Brothers Treme, original episode artwork by Nate Treme of Highland Paranormal Society (https://natetreme.com/), and graphic design by Sara Hebert (http://www.tastyshebert.com/). The first, six-episode season of Once Upon a Time in Shreveport will be released weekly during the summer of 2021, with a two-week break between episodes three and four. The first episode, “Shreveport Monkey Paw,” explores the events of Dec. 12, 2012, when the discovery of mysterious severed hands and feet caused the temporary shut-down of a dog food factory located on North Market Street in Shreveport. To discuss this bizarre incident, we corresponded with Louisiana State Representative Cedric Glover as well as Monroe-based rock n’ roll singer and funny person Billy Vidrine. This podcast would not have been possible without the financial support of three sponsors who stepped up to underwrite production by advertising: Sartin Law Firm, Putman Restoration and Sainte Terre. Want to support the creation of future episodes through advertising? Email [email protected] and let's talk! Plans are in the works for more episodes, but we’ll only make them if the first six are well-received. To receive all episodes, subscribe to the All Y’all podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts. Find links to subscribe (https://www.allyallblog.com/subscribe/). Special Guest: Billy Vidrine.

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. 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 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

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. 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 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

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

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 (https://www.amazon.com/Cradle-Stars-KWKH-Louisiana-Hayride/dp/1455624454) and co-authored Elvis Presley: The Hayride Years, 1954-56 (https://www.elvis-collectors.com/book%20review_hayrideyears54-56.html). 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. 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 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

Growing up poor in Marthaville, Louisiana in the 1940s, Big Rob Gentry considered only four things in his hardscrabble world to be indispensable: Jesus Christ, Earl Long, the Sears and Roebuck catalog, and KWKH. The latter was brought into his home courtesy of a cabinet-sized radio that his father saved up to purchase for the family. Each morning and evening, the Gentrys would gather ‘round the radio to listen to country music, news and entertainment beamed out of Shreveport, Louisiana. His favorite program was The Louisiana Hayride. For the second episode in our six-part series produced in partnership with Louisiana Public Broadcasting, All Y’all spoke with Gentry about how the country music showcase—which broadcast live from Shreveport Municipal Auditorium from 1948 until 1960—shaped his life. Gentry is the retired editor and publisher of The Sabine Index and a Louisiana Political Hall of Fame inductee who donated a sizable collection of Hayride-related artifacts, documents and memorabilia to The Cammie G. Henry Research Center at Northwestern State University in 2014. If you’ve not heard the first episode in this series, give it a listen to hear country music historian and author Dr. Tracey Laird discuss some of the same things that Gentry brings up in this episode, including the “hooping and hollering” that set the Louisiana Hayride apart from its more hidebound competitor, the Grand Ole Opry: https://www.allyallblog.com/2020/08/10/louisiana-hayride-dr-tracey-laird/ 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 Shreveport Times article on the "Robert Gentry Collection" at Northwestern State University: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2014/09/18/former-newspaper-publisher-donates-collection/15858011/ 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