October 8

Joe Simien, esteemed Creole Accordionist, was born on October 3, 1923, in Le Beau, Louisiana. He moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1950's where he pioneered and kept Louisiana Creole music alive...

On Wednesday, October 2, 1929, Douglas Bellard and Kirby Riley became the first rural Afro-Creoles from Southwest Louisiana to commercially record Louisiana Creole music on Vocalion and Columbia Recor...

Talented blues and jazz singer Alton "Big Al" Carson was born on October 2, 1953 in New Orleans, Louisiana. At the urging of his mother and grandmother, Big Al started his blues journey by learning to...

Freddie "Big Roger" Collins, native of Bayou Chicot, Louisiana and Houston Bluesman died on October 2, 2001 at the age of 66."Big Roger" Collins hosted a blues show on KPFT in Houston, and organized "...

Baldemar Huerta, known to the world as Freddy Fender, transitioned at 12:14 PM on October 14, 2006 at the age of 69 of lung cancer at his home in Corpus Christi, Texas. Hi is buried in his hometown of...

Lee Allen Zeno was born on Saturday, October 16, 1954 in Carencro, Louisiana. An accomplished, world-renowned, and two-time Grammy winning Louisiana zydeco and blues bassist started his career at age...

Eartha Kitt, world renowned singer and actress died on Thursday morning, December 25, 2008 of colon cancer at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital at the age of 81. Mostly know for her roles as catwoman in...

Southern Soul and Blues artist, Aubles “O.B.” Buchana was born to L.C. and Marina Buchana on January 17, 1972 in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

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...

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...

On October 18, 2007, South African reggae singer, Lucky Dube was killed in the Johannesburg, South Africa suburb of Rosettenville shortly after dropping two of his seven children off at their uncle’s...