• Track Listing

The Boogie Kings began as a three piece band in Mama Ardoin's kitchen. The three young geniuses were Doug Ardoin; founder and guitar player, Bert Miller; drummer and vocalist, and Harris Miller, guitar player. Little did they know at this time that The Boogie Kings would still be playing a half century later. They began playing for high school dances and proms. Rock 'n roll was in it's infancy and the emerging new chart toppers were Fats Domino, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. Very shortly after, the guys decided to add a bass player and a couple of horns. They added Norris Badeaux, Bryan Leger and Mark Jenkins. The band began to perform at local night clubs and developed a huge following. The popularity of the band zoomed and the band staked out a larger territory. They decided that they needed to make a recording. They were to record five or six 45rpm discs. The records began to sell very well and the band was getting very popular. They were playing four or five nights a week, even though they were still in high school. The band continued to get quite popular all over Central and South Louisiana. Their main gig was every Saturday night at the Pelican Club in Marksville, La. Skip Stewart joined the band in the late fifties. Clint West and Tommy McLain, two well known recording artist were added in the early sixties. So now the band had three outstanding vocalists and the horn section was growing. Mike Pollard was also in the group at this time. Doug Ardoin left the group to attend college and Harris Miller took over. When Doug left, the band split in two. So Harris hired Ned Theall, GG Shinn, and Dan Silas. Harris Miller left the group in 1964 and Clint West replaced him as leader. The band recorded their first LP entitled 'Clint West and The Boogie Kings.' Clint left the group in 1965 to form his own group and took a few of the guys with him. When Clint left, Ned Theall became leader of the group. Ned made some more changes in the group. Ned hired Jerry (Count Jackson) Lacroix, great soul singer from Texas. Jerry brought a couple of his players into the group. Dale Gauthier on sax and Gary Dorsey on bass. The band now had six horns, four rhythm players and two great vocalists that also played horns. In 1965 the band was making so much noise that their territory had expanded from Houston to Miami. The band purchased seven new tailor made tuxedos, a different color for every night of the week. The band was now playing seven nights a week on a regular basis. GG Shinn recorded a song called 'The Crying Man' that was a smash hit. Soon after that, the band signed with Montel Michelle Records and recorded their classic LP, 'The Boogie Kings'. To top things off, the Boogie Kings were booked on a west coast tour with The Righteous Brothers. The tour included Hollywood, Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe and San Francisco. The band rolled through the West Coast like a hurricane, burning all other bands in their path. Other musicians would leave their gigs early in order to see the great cajun soul band that had everyone buzzing. The band was approached by every recording company in Hollywood, but the group was now twelve pieces, and as you very well know, twelve cajuns cannot agree on anything. The fact that the band left Hollywood without signing a major record may well be the reason why they are still together today. The internet has proven that the Kings did not need a hit record to survive. The band had some lean years in the seventies and eighties, but they continued to get together for reunion gigs, and for some reason, the band was still a force to be reckoned with. In the early nineties, the Boogie Kings came back like a freight train rolling through butter. Ned Theall had put the group back together for good this time. When the casinos began to open up in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Kings found a venue that was like a gold mine. In the mid nineties, Ned booked $100,000 in contracts with one single phone call. The great saxophone player, Jon Smith was hired as Ned's partner and the band sounded better than it ever had since the sixties. The Boogie Kings were inducted into the Louisiana Hall Of Fame in 1994. Four CD's were recorded and it looked like the group would make it to their 40th anniversary. Now it is twelve years later and the band has made it to their 52nd anniversary, a remarkable accomplishment. The band has played more than 13,000 shows, a record that will never be equaled by any band, anywhere, anytime, anyplace.