Rod Bernard
| Rod Bernard | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Rodney Ronald Louis Bernard |
| Born | August 12, 1940 |
| Origin | Opelousas, Louisiana, United States |
| Genres | Swamp pop, Country and Rockabilly |
| Occupation(s) |
Television Advertising Salesman Radio Advertising Salesman Disc Jockey |
| Instruments |
Rhythm guitar Vocals |
| Years active | 1958–present |
| Labels | Carl, Jin, Argo, Crazy Cajun, La Louisianne, Arbee, CSP, etc. |
| Associated acts | The Twisters, The Shondells, Warren Storm |
Rod Bernard (born August 12, 1940) is an American singer who helped to pioneer the musical genre known as "swamp pop", which combined New Orleans-style rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun and black Creole music. He is generally considered one of the foremost musicians of this south Louisiana-east Texas idiom, along with such notables as Bobby Charles, Johnnie Allan, Tommy McLain, and Warren Storm.
Bernard was born on August 12, 1940, in Opelousas, Louisiana. His parents were French-speaking Cajuns from working-class backgrounds, and as a child he imbibed the traditional Cajun French music performed in his grandfather's dancehall, the Courtableu Inn, located in nearby Port Barre, Louisiana. There he heard the music of noted Cajun musicians Aldus Roger, Papa Cairo, and Jimmy C. Newman, as well as zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier, all of whom would exert a strong influence on Bernard's music.
Around age eight Bernard obtained his first guitar (an acoustic Gene Autry model) and around 1950 he began to perform with the Blue Room Gang, a Cajun-country troupe sponsored by local Red Bird brand sweet potatoes. During this period Bernard also hosted his own live music radio program on KSLO in Opelousas, singing Cajun and country tunes while strumming his guitar in emulation of his musical hero, Hank Williams, Sr.
In the mid-1950s, however, Bernard came under the influence of rock and roll and rhythm and blues music, especially the sounds of Fats Domino and Elvis Presley. Around 1957 he helped to form a rock 'n' roll band made up of fellow Opelousas teenagers. Calling themselves The Twisters, they recorded two singles for the obscure Carl label of Opelousas. The next year Bernard and his group recorded the sultry ballad "This Should Go On Forever" for recordman Floyd Soileau’s Jin label of Ville Platte, Louisiana. Leased to Argo Records of Chicago, the song became a national hit in 1959, propelling Bernard onto Dick Clark's American Bandstand, The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beechnut Show, and The Alan Freed Show, as well as onto tours with Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Avalon, Chuck Berry, and B. B. King, among others.
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