[UPDATED] In its nine-year evolution, the Ponderosa Stomp has become important in more ways than just celebrating the largely unsung architects of rock ’n’ roll. The event that returns to House of Blues September 24-25 began as Stomp creator Ira “Dr. Ike” Padnos’ elaborate wedding party morphed into a wild bowling alley get-down before becoming the ambitious non-profit organization it is today.
The festival really began when formerly-local musician and OffBeat contributor Michael Hurtt crashed Padnos’ wedding and was blown away by the line-up of bands. It was Hurtt who pushed Padnos to recreate the event, sans nuptials. The organizers called themselves The Mystic Knights of the Mau Mau (named after Screaming Jay Hawkins’ “Feast of the Mau Mau”): Padnos, his wife Shmuela, Hurtt, Jim Marshall and late Circle Bar owner Kelly Keller. “I was even processing the tickets myself,” Padnos says, laughing. Since then, the staff has grown, but not much considering all the new events the Mau Maus have taken up since forming the non-profit Ponderosa Stomp Foundation in 2005.
In recent years, the foundation has collaborated with the Ogden Museum’s “Ogden After Hours” series of concerts and interviews. “We’ve been video taping, transcribing and archiving all those—as well as the Ponderosa Stomp Music History Conference during the festival—as part of an ongoing oral history project,” says Padnos, who recently utilized some of these archives to partner with the Louisiana State Museum for “Unsung Heroes: The Secret History of Louisiana Rock ’n’ Roll” at the Cabildo on Jackson Square. The Stomp’s education initiative has in the past worked at local Good Shepherd School, and with Xavier University freshman classes, bringing in various important music types—from Dave Bartholomew to New Orleans rap producer Precise—for further oral history projects. The foundation has spread the Stomp gospel at conferences during Austin’s South By Southwest, and more recently in New York City, where Padnos and company curated the Detroit Breakdown music festival, featuring Mitch Ryder, Dennis Coffey of the Funk Brothers’ studio band, plus garage rock bands Death and the Gories, among many others.
Padnos himself still handles much of the talent hunt. “It started out pretty organic, going around town seeing June Victory and the Bayou Renegades, and you’d find out one of June’s cousins played sax with Rockie Charles, and then another cousin would turn out to be Big Chief Roddy of the Black Eagles,” says Padnos. “I remember, in looking for Phil Phillips, me and Lil’ Buck Sinegal drove to Jennings, Louisiana, and Buck was joking, ‘I’ll bet he lives by some railroad tracks.’ And sure enough, when we found his house, he did! He wasn’t answering though. His neighbors said he was a hermit. So we left a note.” These days, artists contact Padnos, as do other festivals, hoping to pick through his now-impressive Rolodex.
One day I am sleeping in my bed,” Padnos remembers, “and I get this call: ‘This is Roky Erickson’s drummer. Roky would like to play The Stomp.’ I thought someone was pulling my leg, but he called back later. Roky wasn’t far enough along in his recovery to play out at that time; it took two years to actually make it happen.”
The venue has also changed several times throughout the years. The first Stomp, in 2001, happened over the course of a week at the Circle Bar, then the next year moved to the Fine Arts Center, then to the Rock ’n’ Bowl bowling alley. Many fans of the Stomp still consider Rock ’n’ Bowl its ideal venue. Still, after the flood, the Stomp moved to the Live Nation-owned House of Blues, where it continues this year.
“People forget that even before Katrina, Rock ’n’ Bowl had lost the lease to the downstairs, so we lost our second stage,” explains Padnos, who himself worried that moving to House of Blues might change the festival’s house party atmosphere. “But in the end, we focused on our mission statement,” he says. “We were trying to reinvigorate artists’ careers and present these world-class musicians in the best possible light. The House of Blues’ production value makes the artists feel proud. And honestly, some artists just wouldn’t come all this way to play a bowling alley. If we hadn’t moved, we wouldn’t have ever gotten Roky Erickson or Little Jimmy Scott or Dave Bartholomew.” In the end, House of Blues relaxed its many rules— such as no photography—in order to help preserve the Stomp’s vibe.
The Ponderosa Stomp Conference takes place at the Cabildo during the days of September 24 and 25, with oral history presentations with Duane Eddy, the Trashmen and more and the Ponderosa Stomp “record hop.” At the same time, One Eyed Jacks hosts the two-day Clandestine Celluloid Film Series of obscure and long-lost films, which this year includes a movie the Washington Post called, “the best film ever made about rock ‘n’ roll,” yet is so secret The Stomp can’t list its name.
We were never trying to make any of this happen though,” Padnos says, “and we don’t want it to distract from the original mission of having fun helping musicians, and educating people on the true history of rock ’n’ roll. We never want to lose sight of where we came from.”
Update September 2, 10 a.m.
It’s Roky Erickson, not Rockie Charles, who wouldn’t play the Rock ‘n’ Bowl, and the Detroit Breakdown was in New York City, not Michigan. The text has been changed to reflect these corrections.
