Bayou Underground

A veteran music journalist explores rock-n-roll's bayou roots in "a jolting 18-track joy ride [that] unlocks secrets and back-stories worth savoring" -- The Wall Street Journal

The bayou of the American south -- stretching from Houston, Texas, to Mobile, Alabama -- is a world all its own, with a rich cultural heritage that has had an outsized influence on musicians across the globe. In this unique study of marsh music, Dave Thompson goes beyond the storied stomping grounds of New Orleans to unearth secret legends and vivid mythology.

In Bayou Underground, the people who have called the bayou home -- such as Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, a one-armed Cajun backwoodsman, and a gator hunter named Amos Moses -- are revealed through their own words, their lives and music, and interviews with residents from the region. Including interviews with legendary musicians like Jerry Reed and Bo Didley, Bayou Underground is part travelogue, part social history, and part lament for a way of life that has now all but disappeared.