January 25

Thomas Andrew Dorsey, the father of gospel music, died on January 23, 1993 in Chicago, Illinois at the age of 93. He is interred there in the Oak Woods Cemetery. Earlier in his life he was a leading b...

Elias “Bo Diddley” Bates-McDaniel is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the second annual induction dinner. The members of ZZ Top are his presenters.

William Thomas Dupree, known to the world as “Champion” Jack Dupree died on January 21, 1992 of complications from cancer at his home in Hanover, Germany at the age of 82. Considered one of the most p...

Blues Legend Charles Mose Brown died of heart failure on January 21, 1999 at the age of 76 in Oakland, California. Mr. Charles Brown was a major musical figure in the pre-rock and roll era of the late...

Huddie Ledbetter, better known to the music world as “Lead Belly” was born January 20, 1889, in Mooringsport, Louisiana (near Shreveport). Lead Belly was the only child of Wesley and Sally Ledbetter....

Jazz saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman died on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at the age of 75 at a hospital in Kingston, New York. According to his wife and manager, Karen Newman, Mr. Newman died after a...

Charles Chavis, son of famed zydeco accordionist Boozoo Chavis and rubboard player in Boozoo’s Magic Sound, died on December 23, 2001 at the age of 45.

Andrus Espreé, known to the Zydeco Nation as Beau Jocque (which means Big Guy), was born on November 1, 1953 in Duralde, Louisiana. Lead singer of the Zydeco group Beau Jocque & the Zydeco Hi Rollers,...

Odetta Holmes, "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement" and "The queen of American folk music", most affectionately known as Odetta, died on December 2, 2008 from heart disease in New York City at the...

Eddie Shuler, renowned pioneering Southwest Louisiana recording engineer and founder of Goldband Records, the nation's longest running independent record label, was born on March 27, 1913 in Wrightsbo...

Cleveland Chenier, rubboard innovator, band member and brother of Clifton Chenier, died Tuesday May 7, 1991 at 11:10 a.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana at the age of 70. He i...

Clinton “Santy” Runyon (b 1907) died on April 4, 2003 in Lafayette, Louisiana at the age of 96. Santy Runyon was a world renowned saxophonist, who played in Al Capone's speakeasy club, The Coliseum, a...