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Swamp rock is a distinct form of Roots rock
Roots rock

Roots rock is a term recently used to describe "a style of rock music that draws material from various American musical traditions including country music, blues, and folk." The term is sometimes used in a broader sense to encompass other Americana , including early rock and roll, country rock, and other genres of rock with traditional roots....
 that includes influences from such diverse genres as Zydeco
Zydeco

'Zydeco' is a form of American roots or traditional music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 20th century from forms of Louisiana Creole music....
, Cajun music
Cajun music

Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Louisiana Creole people-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin....
, Swamp blues
Swamp blues

Swamp blues is a form of blues music that is highly evolved and specialized. It arose from the Louisiana blues and is known for its laidback rhythms which dominate a music that is simultaneously funky and often lighthearted — for a blues sub-genre....
 and Swamp pop
Swamp pop

Swamp pop is a musical genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s and early 1960s by teenaged Cajuns and black Louisiana Creole people, it combines New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French Louisiana musical influences....
. It first became prominent in American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 rock
Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
 and pop in the late 1960s. Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival was an United States rock and roll band who gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various Studio album....
 defined much of the early "choogling" sound and subject matter associated with swamp rock, but it is also strongly associated with Tony Joe White
Tony Joe White

Tony Joe White is an United States singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for his 1969 hit record "Polk Salad Annie", and for "Rainy Night in Georgia" which he wrote but was firstly made popular by Brook Benton, and "Steamy Windows" - a hit for Tina Turner in 1989....
 and his hit "Polk Salad Annie."

Other musicians such as Larry Jon Wilson, Jim Dickinson
Jim Dickinson

Jim Dickinson is an United States record producer, pianist and singing....
, Travis Wammack
Travis Wammack

Travis Wammack in Walnut, Mississippi, is an United States rock and roll guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee, Tennessee. He began his professional music career when he wrote and recorded his first record at the age of eleven....
, J.






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Swamp rock is a distinct form of Roots rock
Roots rock

Roots rock is a term recently used to describe "a style of rock music that draws material from various American musical traditions including country music, blues, and folk." The term is sometimes used in a broader sense to encompass other Americana , including early rock and roll, country rock, and other genres of rock with traditional roots....
 that includes influences from such diverse genres as Zydeco
Zydeco

'Zydeco' is a form of American roots or traditional music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 20th century from forms of Louisiana Creole music....
, Cajun music
Cajun music

Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Louisiana Creole people-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin....
, Swamp blues
Swamp blues

Swamp blues is a form of blues music that is highly evolved and specialized. It arose from the Louisiana blues and is known for its laidback rhythms which dominate a music that is simultaneously funky and often lighthearted — for a blues sub-genre....
 and Swamp pop
Swamp pop

Swamp pop is a musical genre indigenous to the Acadiana region of south Louisiana and an adjoining section of southeast Texas. Created in the 1950s and early 1960s by teenaged Cajuns and black Louisiana Creole people, it combines New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and traditional French Louisiana musical influences....
. It first became prominent in American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 rock
Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
 and pop in the late 1960s. Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival was an United States rock and roll band who gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various Studio album....
 defined much of the early "choogling" sound and subject matter associated with swamp rock, but it is also strongly associated with Tony Joe White
Tony Joe White

Tony Joe White is an United States singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for his 1969 hit record "Polk Salad Annie", and for "Rainy Night in Georgia" which he wrote but was firstly made popular by Brook Benton, and "Steamy Windows" - a hit for Tina Turner in 1989....
 and his hit "Polk Salad Annie."

Other musicians such as Larry Jon Wilson, Jim Dickinson
Jim Dickinson

Jim Dickinson is an United States record producer, pianist and singing....
, Travis Wammack
Travis Wammack

Travis Wammack in Walnut, Mississippi, is an United States rock and roll guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee, Tennessee. He began his professional music career when he wrote and recorded his first record at the age of eleven....
, J. J. Cale, Bobbie Gentry
Bobbie Gentry

Roberta Lee Streeter , professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American singer-songwriter. Gentry was one of the first female country music to write and produce her own material....
, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd is an United States Southern rock band. The band became prominent in the Southern United States in 1973, and rose to worldwide recognition before several members, including lead vocalist and primary songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, died in a plane crash in 1977....
, Roy Head
Roy Head

Roy Head is an United States singer, best known for his hit "Treat Her Right ."After moving to San Marcos, Texas, in 1955, he and Tommy Bolton formed his first group, The Traits, in 1957....
, and more recently Deadboy and the Elephantmen have contributed to the swamp rock sound.

The music is characterized by funky, soulful bass, twangy reverb guitar and songs that typically concerned themselves with matters of Southern American States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
  folklore. There's a literary, Southern Gothic
Southern Gothic

Southern Gothic is a Subgenre of the Gothic novel writing style, unique to American literature. Like its parent genre, it relies on supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to guide the plot....
 feel to most swamp rock. The lyrics of swamp rock songs often describe life in such locales as along the Mississippi River
Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
, in New Orleans or such rural areas as the bayou
Bayou

A bayou is a small, slow-moving stream or creek, or a lake or pool that lies in an abandoned channel of a stream. Bayous are usually located in relatively flat, low-lying areas, for example, in the Mississippi River River delta region of the southern United States....
.

In 1998, producer Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone

Phil Ramone is a violinist, composer, recording engineer, and innovative record producer born in 1941.As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical child prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom at age ten....
 produced Swamp Boogie Queen. This effort suggested an expansive approach to the genre of swamp rock and pop, and brought this type of music to a wider audience.

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