Little known in the UK, 88 year old American Doug Kershaw is a Cajun music legend who’s still writing and performing and regarded as the quintessential “Louisiana Man”
Born on a houseboat and subsequently brought up in a one-room chicken coop in a Louisiana backwater called Tiel Ridge, Kershaw taught himself how to play the fiddle at age 5 and by the age 8 had started a shoe-shining business – offering a free song with each 10-cent shoe-shine. In a life marked with struggles, drug addiction and family trauma (his Father died when Doug was just 7 years of age), his determination and drive led him and his brother – known as Dusty & Doug – to became the youngest ever duo to join the Grand Old Opry in 1957 aged just 21 and 18 respectively.
His big break came in 1969 when Johnny Cash asked him to perform on his television show and Kershaw got his first taste of huge audiences, on the back of which he was signed by Warner Bros on a long term contract which stretched to 11 albums. These 4 albums come from his most successful period commercially in the mid ‘70’s and were slanted very much toward the Country market especially on fiddle driven tunes like the risqué ‘Mama’s Got the Knowhow’ and the jaunty ‘Whatcha Gonna Do’ from ‘Mama Kershaw’s Boy’ – both echoing the storytelling smirk of Lee Hazlewood.
Roots rock was, if not big news back in the 70’s at least making a splash. The Dillards had introduced bluegrass to a wider audience and contemporaries like Little Feat and The Flying Burrito Bros were finding favour on college campuses as they melded different genres together. The live album ‘Alive and Pickin’ was perhaps Doug’s way of introducing new flavours as well. Remember Cajun music during this period was very parochial and virtually unknown outside the southern states. From today’s perspective covering a host of Country perennials like ‘Orange Blossom Special’ or ‘Uncle Penn’ with a sprinkling of Cajun fairy dust may seem pedestrian, but nonetheless Kershaw’s scintillating musicianship breathed life into these hoary old tunes and were played with the same manic intensity as Jimi Hendrix had done with the blues.
1976 saw the prolific Kershaw running out of steam with the mixed bag that was ‘Ragin Cajun’. Heavily influenced by Johnny Cash, the title of the album was a misnomer as there was little Cajun or Ragin’, though it did spawn a minor hit via the slight ‘It Takes All Day To Get Over Night’.
‘Flip Flop & Fly’ – named after the old Big Joe Turner song – followed on a year later. Going back to his rock’n’roll roots it was essentially an album of cover versions, though with a nod toward FM radio via cuts like the Charlie Daniels sounding ‘Louisiana Blues’. Delving into the past, he also exhumed Fats Domino’s ‘I’m Walkin’ with a toe-tapping version that scraped the bottom end of the charts.
A man with a colourful past Doug Kershaw was the epitome of the old adage ‘Live Hard, Play Hard’. Whilst he never quite captured his dynamite live act on record – where he could feed off the audience – he brought his music to the masses and flew the flag when Cajun wasn’t hip or cool. These albums may be uneven but when Kershaw was in overdrive he had few peers.
Lyndon Noon
Cherryred.co.uk
