New Orleans' Dew Drop Inn a vital piece of Black music history is set

In this second installment of Hallowed Sound, journalists from the USA TODAY Network examine the state of race in country music, scour the South in search of untold stories and shine a light on a new, eclectic generation of Black artists. NEW ORLEANS – Curtis Doucette Jr. unlocked the front door of a long-vacant building in New Orleans' Central City neighborhood. Covered in plywood and a crumbling brick veneer, it looked like so many other buildings in this area far from the French Quarter and the genteel mansions of St. Charles Avenue. Only a fading sign outside lets you know this was once the Dew Drop Inn. Inside, Doucette walked past a reception desk and into hotel rooms that appeared not to have been touched since Hurricane Katrina filled them with three feet of water in 2005. The hotel was once listed in the Green Book, the guide for Black travelers in segregated America. Doucette plans to turn these rooms into a boutique hotel that will open in summer 2022.“I’ve been doing real estate development for a long time,” said Doucette, who built his career creating affordable housing around New Orleans. “And I’m steadily falling in love with this building in a way that I never have.”Doucette walked around the corner and swept his arm across an open space. Near the entrance, he said, will be the bar. And here, in the back corner, will be the stage. After decades of silence, music will return to one of the most important stops on the Chitlin’ Circuit, the network of clubs and theaters that booked Black musicians in the 1930s through the 1960s. New Orleans Councilman Jay Banks, who represents the Dew Drop Inn’s neighborhood, is too young to have visited the Dew Drop in its heyday. But he walked by it once a week to attend church down the block. He heard his parents talk about it.“Everybody in the world knows about the Apollo,” he said. “But the Dew Drop was, in essence, New Orleans’ Apollo.”The Dew Drop Inn booked Bobby “Blue” Bland, Big Joe Turner, Solomon Burke, Earl King, Ike and Tina Turner, Sam Cooke and James Brown. The Dew Drop was where New Orleans pianist and producer Allen Toussaint got his first major gig in 1956 playing with the house band. Toussaint would go on to write “Fortune Teller,” “Lipstick Traces,” “Mother-in-Law,” “Working in a Coal Mine” and “Southern Nights" and work with The Meters, Dr. John, Paul McCartney and The Band. The Dew Drop Inn was where Ray Charles lived for months in 1947 and 1948, soaking up the New Orleans rhythm that would become a permanent part of his sound. The Dew Drop Inn was where Roy Brown sang his composition “Good Rocking Tonight,” which some call the first rock ’n’ roll record, into a telephone and landed a deal with DeLuxe Records. After a lackluster morning in the recording studio, it’s the place where Little Richard went to take a break. He saw the piano and an audience, hopped on stage and belted out a rollicking ode to sexual rendezvous called “Tutti Frutti.


All data is taken from the source: http://usatoday.com
Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/entertainment/music/2021/10/01/new-orleans-dew-drop-inn-revival-green-book-hotel/5900873001/


#dew #newsmusic #usanewstoday #newsworldbbc #newstodaylocal #bbcworldnewstoday #