Robert Johnson is to the blues as Albert Einstein is to physics. Like some ghostly figure, beamed here from another planet, he is the godfather of rock & roll and blues. He laid the ground work for the intoxicated mythos that is the Delta blues — devil-obsessed, possessed, god-fearing, backroads tramping and crossroads rambling — it’s all there. Born to itinerant sharecroppers on May 8, 1911, in Hazlehurst, Miss. Died: Aug. 16, 1938, at the age of 27, near Greenwood, Miss. Initially regarded by Son House and others as a subpar player, Johnson disappeared for a period only to return playing at a level light years beyond where he was only a few months previous, leading to speculation that Johnson had sold his soul to the devil in order to achieve his legendary mastery of the blues. Recorded in Texas in 1936 and 1937, Johnson’s songs are his greatest legacy, and the most striking historical documents of his existence.
On Jan. 22, Acadiana Center for the Arts will host 100 Years of Robert Johnson, a live retrospective of his music. Slide guitarist Scott Ainslie (who wrote the book on Johnson’s slide playing), Mamou Playboys guitarist Sam Broussard and pianist David Egan will pay tribute to Johnson’s music with live renditions of many of his greatest songs.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to offer shares of its stock to the public for the first time.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
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