The Louie Report

On Sunday night in California, Monday afternoon in Australia, a very special interview took place for the LOUIE documentary project. For years, I’ve been in touch with Ross Wilson. I knew about his history with him being one of, if not THE first musician in Australia to record Richard Berry‘s now-iconic melody. Ross was 16 [...]

This week, I’d like to introduce the world to someone that was closely involved with the 1983 Rhino record known as THE BEST OF LOUIE LOUIE, a release that was one of the catalysts, along with the KFJC radio marathon, that directly inspired behind this LOUIE LOUIE documentary project. It was the synergy of a [...]

Thanks to the silly social network known as Facebook, I’ve discovered that five friends of mine are celebrating their birthday this week. Because all five of these friends have a connection to KFJC and the big LOUIE Marathon, I thought I’d give a shout-out to ‘em all at once with this little LOUIE of the [...]

Last week, there were news articles that mentioned that Etta James was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This afternoon, I did a Google search for “Etta James Alzheimer’s” and noticed there were 36,500 entries for this subject. News certainly travels fast. As it turns out, Etta James does not actually have Alzheimer’s disease. How do I [...]

Here’s a little email I just received that I thought I’d share… Dear Mister Predoehl, Maybe it’s nice for you to know that there will be a Richard Berry radio special on “Rompin’ Stompin’ Radio” at RTV Mercurius (that’s in the Netherlands). We will be broadcasting it on monday 18 jan. from 17.00 till 18.00 [...]

“Rip” Sheridan Spencer of Marvin & Johnny, The Valiants, the Chavelles, the Sabers, the Gents, and the Untouchables is dead. The Los Angeles Times had a simple obituary with no real mention of his musical career. Sheridan Spencer, a 70-year-old black man, was shot and killed Wednesday, Dec. 9, in the 1600 block of West [...]

This week, the LOUIE of the Week award goes out to Jr. Cadillac for their very rare recording of LOUIE LOUIE captured live in 1974 at the Evergreen Ballroom, with Jimmy Manolides on piano, and special guest artist Rube Tubin on guitar. There’s a few things that make this particular recording especially noteworthy: 1) Jr. [...]

As 2009 comes to a close, and many folks are still frantically running around trying to figure out what sort of holiday presents to buy for their loved ones, I feel I would be remiss to not share my opinion about one of the coolest CDs to be released this year. My friends at Ace [...]

This week, as part of the ongoing LOUIE of the Week series, it’s time to highlight a never-before heard recording of LOUIE LOUIE. In the early-mid 1980s, right around the time when I began the task of exploring the vast LOUIE universe, Marty Preece was the main audio engineer at KFJC Radio. KFJC, for those [...]

I pay very close attention to documentaries. It’s a genre dear to my heart as I continue to work on my big epic. I want to see these films, and see how they’re financed, produced, and marketed…. Some told me all about The Cove, a documentary about dolphin genocide. It’s supposed to be an excellent [...]