Nashville’s Excello Records had a blues pipeline to J.D. Miller’s studio in southwest Louisiana. From 1955 through 1965, Miller produced swamp blues records for Excello, and many of the label’s ...

Louisiana-based guitarist and harpist Leslie Johnson got the nickname “Lazy Lester” in 1957, ostensibly because Excello Records producer Jay Miller thought it suited Johnson’s relaxed style, ...

Eventually, the personnel changed – she's now the only woman in the band, which consists of Tim King on bass, Gerry Parisi on drums, Doug McCutcheon on keys and Jeff Hurd on guitar. All of them are ...

Tony Joe White is one of those rare artists whose music isn’t enlarged, per se, by adding layers—different voices and instrumentation merely give his undiluted swamp soul a different tint. When ...