Louisiana Saturday Night: Looking for a Good Time in Louisiana’s Juke Joints, Honky Tonks and Dancehalls

Louisiana Saturday Night

Louisiana Saturday Night
Looking for a Good Time in South Louisiana's Juke Joints, Honky Tonks, and Dance Halls

By Alex V. Cook

256 pages / 6.12 x 8.00 inches / 38 halftones, 1 map
Paperback / 9780807144565 / March 2012 / $24.95

Buy it from LSU Press - Amazon - Barnes & Noble

From backwoods bars and small-town dives to swampside dance halls and converted clapboard barns, Louisiana Saturday Nightoffers an anecdotal history and experiential guidebook to some of the Gumbo State’s most unique blues, Cajun, and zydeco clubs.

Music critic Alex V. Cook uncovers south Louisiana’s wellspring of musical tradition, showing us that indigenous music exists not as an artifact to be salvaged by preservationists, but serves as a living, breathing, singing, laughing, and crying part of Louisiana culture.Louisiana Saturday Night takes the reader to both offbeat and traditional venues in and around Baton Rouge, Cajun country, and New Orleans, where we hear the distinctive voices of musicians, patrons, and owners—like Teddy Johnson, born in the house that now serves as Teddy’s Juke Joint. Along the way, Cook ruminates on the cultural importance of the people and places he encounters, and shows their critical role in keeping Louisiana’s unique music alive.

A map, a journal, a snapshot of what goes on in the little shacks off main roads, Louisiana Saturday Night provides an indispensable and entertaining companion for those in pursuit of Louisiana’s quirky and varied nightlife.

Events: 

Louisiana Saturday Night Launch Party
March, 10, 2012 7 PM
Teddy's Juke Joint
17001 Old Scenic Hwy.
Zachary, LA 70791 (Map)
(225) 892-0064

The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival
Panel discussion on writing about music with John Swenson, Keith Spera, and Alison Fensterstock
Friday, March 23, 2012, 2:30 PM
Hotel Monteleone 
214 Royal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130-2201 (Map)
(504) 523-3341

Sundays at 4

March 25, 2012 4PM
Baton Rouge Gallery Center for Contemporary Art
1515 Dalrymple Drive 

Baton Rouge, LA 70808 (Map)
(225) 383-1470