NEW ORLEANS (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The Ponderosa Stomp roots, R&B and garage-rock music festival returns to its New Orleans home next year, following a year’s enforced exile in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Memphis. The 6th Annual Stomp is scheduled to take place on May 2, 2007, at the Crescent City’s House Of Blues venue and is slated to feature the proverbial cavalcade of cool.
“Put on your high heel sneakers 'cause were back in New Orleans – the Stomp's spiritual home and the birthplace of rock n roll,” said Ira (“Dr. Ike”) Padnos, executive director of The Mystic Knights of the Mau-Mau, the Ponderosa Stomp production company, in a statement issued last week. Added Terry Stewart, President of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “The Ponderosa Stomp is a one-of-a-kind celebration of the roots, derivatives and other offshoots of the art form that we call rock ‘n roll.”
Founded five years ago, the Stomp has always featured an eclectic array of artists ranging from Scotty More, Link Wray and Tony Joe White to the Sun Ra Arkestra, Eddie Bo and Earl Palmer. Stomp organizers the Mystic Knights of the Mau-Mau have additionally been active producing other shows throughout the year (including a packed Austin version of the Stomp at the 2006 South By Southwest music conference) and have worked with the New Orleans Musicians Hurricane Relief Fund to assist regional musicians in getting back on their feet in the post-Katrina milieu.
For Stomp ’07 the Mystic Knights will be partnering with the House of Blues, New Orleans Fine Hotels, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Music Factory. Among the performers already lined up to play this year’s Stomp, with more to be announced, are Wardell Quezergue and the New Orleans Rhythm & Blues Revue, soul songwriter supreme Dan Penn, rockabilly wild man Dale Hawkins, R&B soprano Little Jimmy Scott, Texas Tornados co-founder Augie Meyers, Stax sessions guitarist Skip Pitts, Gulf Coast guitar empress Barbara Lynn, Mardi Gras king Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, harp master Lazy Lester, Keyboardist extraordinaire Willie Tee, President of soul Rockie Charles, hillbilly bopper Jay Chevalier, Texas shouter Roy Head, and rockabilly wailer Joe Clay.
For more information and line-up updates, go to www.ponderosastomp.com. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
