Elevator Music is for Elevators

Listen to Something New in Louisiana

Jazz was born in New Orleans at the turn of the last century, and it's still growing up here. The roots of rock also grow deep, with homegrown stars such as Fats Domino, Irma Thomas, Ernie K-Doe, Frankie Ford, the Dixie Cups, and others who call the city home.

But New Orleans is just one page in the Louisiana songbook. Before the Grand Ole Opry gave them notice, Hank Williams, Sr. and Elvis Presley hit it big in Shreveport on the "Louisiana Hayride" radio show. At the Stage of Stars Music Museum there, you can hear the first time the words "Elvis has left the building" were uttered. (It was at the Hirsch Coliseum in Shreveport.)

Louisiana is also home to the Liberty Theater in Eunice, home of the Rendez-vous des Cajuns radio and TV program, a kind of Cajun "Prairie Home Companion." If you're lucky enough, you could find yourself sitting in the audience on a Saturday night.


Louisiana is the birthplace of Louis Armstrong, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tim McGraw, Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr., Mahalia Jackson, Aaron Neville, Allen Toussaint, and countless others. What inspired them may inspire you.

To see what's happening on the music scene, visit www.louisianatravel.com/music.