If you're a fan of country music in the last 20 plus years, you know who Sammy Kershaw is. But like all stars, he wasn't always a "national" artist.

For Sammy, those of us of at least a certain age remember when he would cut his teeth in the honky-tonks across south Louisiana.

One of the bands Sammy fronted was a group called Roundup. It was simply billed as Sammy Kershaw & Roundup.

You may have enjoyed watching the band back in the day at Cowboys or The Yellow Rose in Lafayette or The Roundup in Duson. You could have even seen them at the Texas Club in Baton Rouge.

Well, our good friend Steve Grisaffe just posted a video of the band playing at the latter back in 1988. It's the first time this footage has seen the light of day and boy is it fantastic.

The group featured some very prominent local musicians in the aforementioned Steve Grisaffe on bass (who of course would later front River Road) the dreamy Kip Sonnier on lead guitar and the great Eddie Bodin on drums.

As you'll see in the video, they're performing the Hank Williams, Jr. 1987 hit "Born to Boogie."

I have thoughts on this video.

  1. Sammy had long hair?! And if you watch long enough he comments about it. Yep, that didn't last long.
  2. Kip Sonnier has apparently always been an amazing guitar player.
  3. Steve Grisaffe, nice shoes.
  4. Eddie Bodin has been playing with Sammy off and on for over 30 years. (He's currently in Sammy's touring band.)
  5. The Texas Club stage logo appears to be the same in 2019 as it was in 1988.
  6. There were tables on the dance floor of the Texas Club in 1988. Drinking and dancing, ah, the good ole days.

Do you have old footage of local musicians singing back in the day? Man, I sure would love it if you shared.

More From 97.3 The Dawg