Jay Dardenne’s Recommended Reading List & Songs

Recently Louisiana Secretary of State, Jay Dardenne, gave a presentation at the Jones Creek Regional Branch revealing his top ten  favorite Louisiana books and songs. Here’s the list!

1.Rising Tide by John Barry
Louisiana 1927 by Randy Newman

2. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Way Down Yonder Down in New Orleans by Pete Fountain

3. Huey Long by T. Harry Williams
Every Man a King by Huey Long
3a. Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long by Dr. Richard White

4. The Earl of Louisiana by A.J. Liebling
You Are My Sunshine by Jimmie Davis

5. Bayou Farewell by Mike Tidwell
Lost in Louisiana by Jay Chevalier

6. Any book by James Lee Burke
Jolie Blond by Buckwheat Zydeco

7. Inside the Carnival by Wayne Parent
Second Line

8. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
Louisiana Man by Doug Kershaw

9. The Last Hayride by John Maginnis
Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis

10. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
Cotton Fields by Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter

The Red Hot Jazz Archive

Interested in Jazz? Then you’ll love The Red Hot Jazz Archive, a website about the history of Jazz before 1930. There is information about many of the earliest jazz groups including discographies and biographies of the musicians.

Some of the coolest aspects of the site are the multimedia sections. There are some very early jazz films that you can watch and you can listen to a large number of classic jazz audio recordings.

This site is full of sax appeal, take a look and stay cool!

Woodstock Memories

It’s the Fortieth anniversary of Woodstock, when hundreds of thousands of people attended the legendary three days of peace, love and music in New York state. The festival ran from August 15-18, 1969 and featured artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who.

Woodstock Memories Project

Footnote.com in partnership with the Poughkeepsie Journal have created an online archive of pictures, digitized documents, flyers, band posters and newspapers relating to the event. Take a look and you can contribute your own memories and thoughts.

Monterey Jazz Festival Collection

Hot fun in the Summertime! Summer makes us think of music festivals, and the Monterey Jazz Fest, held since 1958, is one of the best in the world. Stanford University’s Archive of Recorded Sound houses the Monterey Jazz Festival’s collection of performance recordings and provides us with access to clips and audio files of some of the Fest’s great performances.

Monterey Jazz Festival Collection

Listen to and watch these wonderful clips and you’ll be aching for more. Don’t worry, we have plenty of jazz CDs and videos at the library to satisfy your jones. Check the catalog!