Introduction to Delta Pieces: Northeast Louisiana Folklife

Introduction to Delta Pieces: Northeast Louisiana Folklife – Susan Roach – Susan Roach

Map: Cultural Micro-Regions of the Delta, Northeast Louisiana

Map: Cultural Micro-Regions of the Delta, Northeast Louisiana – H.F. Pete Gregory

The Louisiana Delta: Land of Rivers

Musings on the Louisiana Delta from a Native Son – H.F. Pete Gregory as told to Dayna Lee

Reflections on the Delta – Delta and the River – H.F. Pete Gregory

Reflections on the Delta – The French Delta – H.F. Pete Gregory

Reflections on the Delta – Places – H.F. Pete Gregory

Reflections on the Delta – An Owl Calls – H.F. Pete Gregory

Cane Brakes, High Water, Drought: The Mississippi Delta – Tom Rankin

Ouachita River Mounds: A Five Millennium Mystery – Lori Tucker

Noms de Bayou: French Place Names in North Louisiana – Kelby Ouchley

The Flood of 1927 and the Great Depression: Two Delta Disasters – Betty Jo Harris

Ethnic Groups

Reflections on the Delta – The Delta is an Indian Place – H.F. Pete Gregory

Reflections on the Delta – Indian Mounds – H.F. Pete Gregory

Choctaw Heritage of Louisiana and Mississippi – Deborah Boykin

The Invisible Population: Mexicans and Central Americans in Northern and Central Louisiana – Lisa Abney

Italians in the Delta: "Pioneers of Monroe" – April Honaker

Delta Folks – Sausage Maker M. J. Varino – Stephanie Pierrotti with Susan Roach

The St. Joseph's Day Altar Tradition In Monroe – Stephanie Pierrotti and Madelyn Boudreaux

Delta Folks – Guy Serio: "They Had a Rough Go": Italians in the Delta – Madelyn Boudreaux

Delta Folks – Qin Lin: Chinese Paper Crafts – Susan Roach

Jewish Folklore in Northeastern Louisiana – Ben Sandmel

Working in the Delta

Working in the Delta – Susan Roach

Nets and Net Making in the Delta – Sheila Richmond

"Willing to Take A Risk": The Folklore of Cropdusting – Susan Roach and Janet Ryland

Big River Traditions: Folklife on the Mississippi – Ben Sandmel

Delta Folks – Hunter And Fisherman Kenneth Hebert: "Love It More Than Anything" – Sylvia Frantom

Traditional Boats of Catahoula Lake – Dayna Bowker Lee

Reflections on the Delta – Traditional Boats in the Delta – H.F. Pete Gregory

The Rolling Store – John L. Doughty, Jr.

Delta Folks – Judge Alwine Louise Smith Ragland: Louisiana's First Woman Judge – Betty Jo Harris

Delta Folks – Ike Hamilton: From Rodeo Clown to Auctioneer Colonel – Susan Roach

Delta Folks – Whitey Shockley: Mississippi River Fisherman – Susan Roach

Delta Folks – Oren Russell: Mississippi River Boat Pilot – Susan Roach

Homemaking in the Delta

Making a Home in the Delta: Women and the Domestic Environment – Deborah Boykin

Delta Folks – Jelly Maker Maye Torrey: "Berries In The Winter" – Sylvia Frantom

Delta Folks –Hazel Dailey: "To Make Something Each Day That I Am Here" – Sylvia Frantom

Delta Folks – Helen Lyke: Passing On Family Traditions From Needlework To Stories – Sylvia Frantom

Delta Folks – Folk Medicine Remedies Of Virginia Roberts: "For Tummy Aches" – Sylvia Frantom

Reflections on the Delta – Christmas Customs – H.F. Pete Gregory

The Fabric of Family: Preserving the Parker Family's Quilting Heritage – Kerry Davis

Worshiping in the Delta

"Like a River Flowing with Living Water": Worshiping in the Mississippi Delta – Joyce Marie Jackson

Delta Folks – Penola Caesar: Maintaining Old Gospel Singing Traditions – Susan Roach

Sacred Music in the Delta: From Shaped Note to Quartet Singing – Susan Roach

"Take Me to the Water": African American River Baptism – Annie Staten and Susan Roach

Delta Folks – Lucille Stewart: Making Baptismal Gowns – Susan Roach

"Everyone Rockin' Together": Continuity and Creativity in the Louisiana Delta Easter Rock – Susan Roach

Asserting Tradition: The Building and Maintenance of African-American Baptist Rock Ceremony in Northeast Louisiana – Janet L. Sturman

Making Music in the Delta

At Play in the Delta, From Memphis to Natchez – Michael Luster

Delta Folks – Thomas Edison "Brownie" Ford: Cowboy, Storyteller, and Ballad Singer – Susan Roach

Delta Folks – Po' Henry and Tookie: Delta Blues Duo – Susan Roach

Brownie Ford: Lifelines of a Woods Cowboy – Nicholas R. Spitzer

Since Ol' Gabriel's Time: Hezekiah and the Houserockers Liner Notes – David Evans

Delta Folks – Performer and Songwriter Kenny Bill Stinson: "Mixing Country Music with the Blues" – Susan Roach

Delta Folks – Instrument Builder Hilton Lytle: "I've Always Worked with Wood" – Susan Roach

Delta Folks – Vidalia's One-Man Band, Gray Montgomery: "Several Different Musicians Rolled into One."– Ben Sandmel

Delta Folks – Laymon Godwin: Pedal Steel and Dobro Master – Susan Roach

Playing in the Delta

Reflections on the Delta – Hunting and Fishing: Delta Life– H.F. Pete Gregory

Reflections on the Delta – Gigging – H.F. Pete Gregory

Delta Folks – "Horns and Dogs Just Go Together": James LeCroix's Revival of the Hunting Horn Making – Marcy Frantom

Delta Folks – Moses Poole on Pen Hunting in Catahoula Parish: "You've Got to Know Your Dog's Mouth" – Marcy Frantom

Delta Folks – Blowing Horn Maker Nalda Gilmore: "The Horn Man" – Sylvia Frantom

Gambling Money Don't Have No Home: Playing Poker and Shooting Dice in the Louisiana Delta – Don W. Hatley

Reflections on the Delta – Night Clubs in the Delta – H.F. Pete Gregory

Telling Stories in the Delta

"The Big One": Deer Hunting in Northeast Louisiana – Janery Wylie

The Hub Lake Gold: An Analysis of A Legend – John L. Doughty, Jr.

Landmark of the Koroa – Sam Dickenson

Delta Archival Materials

Delta Archival Materials: An Inventory

Bibliography

Selected Bibliography on Northeast Louisiana's Delta

Thomas Edison "Brownie" Ford

Caldwell Parish

Ford lived his ninety-two years rodeoing, cowboying, and singing old Anglo ballads, cowboy songs, and blues.

Thomas Edison "Brownie" Ford: Cowboy, Storyteller, and Ballad Singer

By Susan Roach

Editor's Note: With assistance from Nick Spitzer, a version of this biographical statement was prepared for the nomination of Ford for the Louisiana Governor's Arts Awards for Folk Artist of the Year in 1996. Ford received the award just months before his death August 27, 1996. While he was not a native of the Delta region, he spent his last 24 years there in rural Caldwell Parish, where he became a celebrated folk artist. His music and biographical details are presented in the liner notes for his 1990 CD Brownie Ford: Stories from Mountains. Swamps, and Honky-Tonks.

Thomas Edison Ford, better known as "Brownie," was one of the last real old-time in Louisiana woods cowboys and one of Louisiana's few documented traditional singers of the old Anglo ballads, cowboy songs, and blues. Ford lived his ninety-two years rodeoing, cowboying, and singing in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. He had a vital presence on the cultural scene, performing his music, stories, and crafts untiringly at festivals, both large and small and representing Louisiana across the country in national presentations and exhibitions. But even before these contemporary performances, he spent much of his life with his artistic musical performances in contexts ranging from the Wild West Show to country honky-tonks.

Born in Oklahoma Indian Territory on January 9, 1904, of Comanche and Anglo-American ancestry, he experienced both cultures and, consequently, also the pain of racial inequities. When he was a boy, his family moved to East Texas. During these years, Ford learned to play guitar from his father and began playing guitar and singing at house parties and local jamborees. He also learned to break horses, and because of his skill went back to Oklahoma to help an uncle who was a horse trader and rodeo promoter, supplying horses for the U. S. government (Spitzer).

After 1917 when government demand for horses had decreased, Ford and his uncle joined a Wild West Show, the M. L. Clark Great Combined Wagon Show, out of Alexandria, Louisiana. First caring for the stock, Ford soon began trick riding and acting in Buffalo Bill skits. During the next twenty years, Ford travelled across the South and Southwest with various shows such as Slim Jackson's Wild West and Dr. Tate's Medicine Show and occasional circuses, performing as a bronc rider, musician, clown, escape artist, and marksman. During the 1930s Ford began to work on his own on the rodeo circuit. Some of his most entertaining stories reflect this period of his life. For example, he recounts trying to drive a herd of circus elephants across the Atchafalaya River in central Louisiana and the time in Port Arthur rodeo when he was almost killed by a bucking horse that kicked him in the head (Spitzer). He survived that near death experience and another one in 1990 when he had surgery and went into a three-month coma. According to his story, he woke up, and reportedly asked the nurse, "Where's my boots?" and was told "that he'd been unconscious, that he might never walk again," to which he replied, "Hide and Watch" (DeRiso "Rodeo").

Brownie Ford putting a cowhide bottom on a chair. Photo: Susan Roach.

During the forties and fifties Ford had jobs in rodeo, music, and ranching, where he continued to perfect his cowboy crafts such as leather tooling, saddle making and repair, girth weaving and domestic crafts such as cowhide chair bottoming—crafts that he would later demonstrate at folklife festivals.

After a move to Baton Rouge in 1960, he worked as a truck driver, construction worker, and musical performer. He performed regularly at the Cut-Rate Lounge and also at other clubs, where he met and married his wife—whom he usually referred to as "Miss Cody." In 1972 he moved to Hebert, Louisiana, in Caldwell Parish, where he raised and sold cattle until major area floods forced him out of the woods cowboy business. He opened a grocery and bait shop and continued to make his cowboy crafts for members of the community (Spitzer).

His cowboy crafts and music led to a new career as a folk artist. His initial experience in this area was at the Louisiana Art and Folk Festival in Columbia, where he demonstrated his crafts and performed his music. Through the efforts of festival organizers Greg and Jorenda Stone and Jenny Crump, he became involved in the region's artists-in-schools program. Folklorist Nicholas Spitzer recorded him in 1981, and by 1983, he was asked to perform and contribute material for The American Cowboy Exhibit at the Library of Congress. His songs, "Streets of Laredo" and "Banks of the Ponchatrain" were also featured in The Cowboy Tour, produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts. In 1984, he was invited to perform at the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans. The following year, he performed at the first Louisiana Folklife Festival in Baton Rouge. Also in 1985 and again in 1986, he was invited to sing and demonstrate his crafts nationally at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife. Also in the state scene, he was invited to place some of his cowboy crafts in The Creole State: An Exhibition of Louisiana Folklife, an exhibit in the state capitol for 17 years and now online; additionally, he performed numerous times at the Louisiana Folklife Festival over the past ten years in co-sponsoring cities Kenner, Eunice, and Monroe. In 1987 for the rich heritage he represented, he received the highest national honor bestowed on folk artists—the National Heritage Award, from the National Endowment for the Arts Folk Arts Program. Even after receiving this prestigious award, he continued to play even the smallest of festivals and major festivals including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. At all these festivals, he sang sensitive ballads and gutsy blues with his powerful bass voice, unaffected by his ninety-plus years. His 1990 compact disc Stories from Mountains, Swamps, and Honky Tonks, released by Flying Fish Records was well received. According to Nicholas Spitzer's liner essay, the work is "an oral scrapbook. . . containing "the rough edges, polished surfaces and soul" of Ford: "bronc rider and craftsman, honky-tonk man, and gentlemen, raconteur, singer of songs, and Indian cowboy of the woods" (Spitzer). The recording presents Ford's wide range of musical performance from traditional ballads such as "Barbara Allen" and "The Knoxville Girl," to country songs such as "This Old House" and "Satisfied Mind," to cowboy songs such as "The Streets of Laredo" and "When the Work's All Done This Fall." The CD liner notes were introduced by Rodney Crowell, singer/songwriter, who has many number one country hits such as "Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight" and "After All this Time." Crowell calls Ford a "gentleman cowboy" who "stands up straight and proud in honor of his tradition" (Brownie Ford).

With the release of this recording, Ford received even more attention from the media and folklorists, which culminated in his concert at Carnegie Hall on April 17, 1994. He followed this up a couple weeks later with a performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival—a feat that for a ninety-year-old represents true dedication to his art and his audience. Following these presentations a few weeks later on Memorial Day Weekend, for the 1994 Louisiana Folklife Festival, Ford participated in a memorable narrative stage presentation on "Black and White and the Blues," which discussed the interaction of blues and country music in Louisiana. He joined other black and white musicians such as Jesse Thomas, Henry Dorsey, Tookie Collom, and Kenny Stinson and discussed his memories of Blind Lemon Jefferson and his effect on Ford's country music. Stinson says of Ford, "He was such a great storyteller. . . Just to hear him sing was enough, not to mention the great songs he had. . . Playing with him was a real thrill. Being next to somebody like him, you always pick up a few sparks" (DeRiso "Rodeo"). Nicholas DeRiso hailed Ford as the "elder statesman in the history of Louisiana's contribution to the blues" who knew as many as 2,000 songs ("The Hiding and Watching," "Rodeo"). In an expanded obituary article, Mike Luster, Director of the Louisiana Folklife Festival in Monroe, said that Ford "was part of the Louisiana Folklife Festival from its very beginning, and has probably appeared at more of them than any other performer" (DeRiso "Rodeo").

Because of the difficulties and the richness of Ford's Native American/Anglo upbringing and his frontier experiences, Ford has been able to understand and deeply feel the blues as well as heartbreaking honky-tonk music. He was able to reach out across cultural divides through his performances as a folk artist. His delight in sharing his skills with younger generations shone through in all his performances. His sensitivity and gentlemanly qualities are reflected in his soulful Anglo-American ballads delivered in his deep baritone and his moving explications of them. He embodied all the qualities that folklorists seek to nourish and cherish in their work among traditional artists. Ford dedicated his life to these traditions and to preserving this important part of Louisiana's heritage.

Works Cited

© 1999-2019

Louisiana Division of the Arts | Office of Cultural Development | Dept. of Culture, Recreation & Tourism

Louisiana Folklife Program, PO Box 44247, Baton Rouge, LA 70804, tel 225-342-8180

CREDITS • CONTACT US/LINK TO US