Classie Ballou (August 21st 1937 - 27 July 2022) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter.
Classie Ballou was born in the tiny country town of Elton, Louisiana. His folks sharecropped cotton, potatoes, and corn, he was one of two children, although his younger sister passed away at the age of six months, leaving him an only child. Classie learned to play accordion from an uncle, and joined his first band at age nine, playing the rubboard.
He soon picked up the guitar, and in 1952 the family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana. In Lake Charles he acquired a Fender Telecaster and hooked up with a drummer named Kee-Dee, and soon the two were appearing in night clubs in Lake Charles, although Classie also had a day job in construction.
Technically he was still too young to play in clubs but nobody seemed to notice, and he found regular work plentiful, even putting in a stint with Clifton Chenier's band for six months. Lake Charles had a rich R&B scene at the time, and young Classie was soon playing with Shelton Dunaway and Ernest Jacobs (later of Cookie & the Cupcakes of Mathilda and I'm Twisted fame).
He then formed his first band - Classie Ballou and the Tempo Kings which featured Dunaway on sax and vocals, another sax player known simply as Biscuit, and eventually Cookie Thierry himself joined the group. They played John's Bar and Ball's Auditorium, doing covers of tunes by Fats Domino, Guitar Slim and Gatemouth Brown. Soon he was the hottest thing in Lake Charles. Eddie Shuler, owner of the Lake Charles based Goldband label, one of the greatest recording companies of all time with a mind numbing number of great records (blues, R&B, cajun, country, rockabilly) and artists (including a young Dolly Parton), got wind of Classie through Guitar Gable and hired him to play guitar on Boozoo Chavis' chaotic classic Paper In My Shoe (the recording of which ended with Boozoo falling off his stool, accordion and all), the record that would be the blue print for all zydeco music to come.
Classie cut his first disc for Goldband 1956-- Lovin' Huggin' Kissin' My Baby. A year later he was recorded by Jay Miller in the studio in the back of his Crowley, Lousiana record store. This session was sold to Nasco who issued two tunes--- Confusion b/w Crazy Mambo the same year. Both tunes are wild guitar dominated instrumentals with pronounced Afro-Cuban feel to them. In 1958 he recorded one last time for Miller, in a session that included the great Jockey Etienne on drums and Tal Miller on piano, these sides were released on Nasco's sister label Excello with it's classic blue and orange label-- Hey! Pardner b/w Dream Love .These three singles are the entire 50's output of Classie Ballou, he would not record again under his own name until 1968 when he cut Classie's Whip b/w Soul Philly (Soulsville 1001) for a tiny, San Antonio based label.
From there Classie headed for Dallas where he went to college and worked for a promoter named Howard Lewis who had him backing up touring artists like Floyd Dixon, Wilbert Harrison, Chuck Berry, Etta James, and whoever else came through town without their own band. He put in some time touring in Rosco Gordon's band, playing on his Vee Jay hit-- Just A Little Bit, that's Classie playing the classic guitar lick, as well as Gordon's remake of No More Doggin. The Blues Discography credits Lefty Bates with playing on Just A Little Bit, but Classie insists that it is him and not Bates.
In the late 50's Classie Ballou was based out of Little Rock, Arkansas, where he held a three year residency at the Flamingo CLub, playing with the likes of Fenton Robinson, B.B. King, and Wayne Bennett. He moved to Los Angeles in '62 where he cut some sides for Token, then settled in Waco, Texas where he played six or seven nights a week ever since. He made an excellent 45 for Lanor in '83. He started his own label--Yeah, Baby in 1994, releasing a bluesy disc called The Real Deal produced by his son Cranston.
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While many in Waco knew Ballou primarily for his years of local performances, he had fans in his home state Louisiana and abroad. Ballou and his band made regular appearances at the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and he and his wife connected with French jazz fans who knew him from his 1950s recordings during a 2003 visit to France.
Family was extremely important to Classie, who raised his own band, billed as The Classie Ballou Family Band he worked with his son Cedric (bass), grandson Cedryl (accordion, drums), and daughter CeChaun (drums, sax, accordion, she also fronted her own all girl Zydeco band-- the Zydeco Posse when not working with her father). His wife mans the merch table. Playing mostly in the greater Waco area they called up tunes from Brick House to Sweet Home Alabama and give them all Classie's unique stamp.
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He died at his Waco home on July 27, 2022 after suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia in his later years. He was 84. (Edited from a blog post by James "The Hound" Marshall & Legacy)