Black Guidry wants to make you smile

Tortured artists – those that suffer for their art, and then sometimes make us feel their pain – are not an endangered species.

I’m not saying we’re tripping over them, but it’s not hard to find poets of misery and anger. They certainly have their place, and there are times when angst with a beat is just the thing. Other times (and may they multiply) call for uplift, from the profound to the downright silly.

Ron “Black” Guidry has no doubt had hard times in his 67 years, but you’d be hard-pressed to find them in his music. No, his music, much like the man, is all about the good times, whether it be now on the dance floor or front porch, or upon fond reflection when it’s time for farewells.

Black grew up on the bayou with which he shares his nickname. His earliest musical memories were of country icons: George Jones, Johnny Cash, Jimmie Rodgers and, above all, the master, Hank Williams Sr.

He partly credits his barrel-chested, mellifluous baritone to early front porch solo recitals, strumming his rhythm guitar to the two chords of “Jambalaya” and belting the song so it could be heard across the bayou. Black’s Cajun heritage was all around him, in his DNA and the talk of elders, but Houma’s really unfortunate penchant for keeping its indigenous culture under wraps (to put it mildly) couldn’t help but suppress it as an overt influence – that liberation would come later.

Black enlisted in the Army in 1959 and then joined the famed 101st Airborne Division. He was chosen for the Special Forces when President John Kennedy re-started it and then became a proud member of the Green Berets. His Army stint lasted until 1964, and thus he missed out on both the Korean and Vietnam wars. But he had his guitar with him all along, singing for his fellow troops in USO clubs in far-flung overseas stations. Although he literally “saw the world,” traveling never really suited Black, and he sorely missed his Louisiana home.

After the service, Black came back and worked a while for McDermott and Texaco. He was a state trooper for about three years and then worked with a concrete company and did janitorial work. He continued all the while to sing, however, in clubs and restaurants here locally. Also, gigs for large companies (at a grand opening of a hotel in Japan) or corporate bigwigs (Jim Bob Moffet’s birthday bash in Colorado) took him again to distant lands, reluctantly. His life was to change dramatically, and for the good, in 1988.

That was when South Louisiana Bank offered to build him a boat if he would stay here more or less permanently. Black jumped at the prospect and began his swamp tours. He met and partnered with the late lamented Annie Miller at about the same time. He and Ms. Miller (later celebrated in song as “Alligator Annie”) would collaborate fruitfully until her recent death, serenading, educating and winning over the hearts of tourists and locals alike.

Black soldiers on today. He’s appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” in a documentary filmed by the French “Channel 5” and is featured in a KIA commercial to air in 2008 through 2009.

While the tourism business has flattened out, he still can count on the “Floating Hotel” to periodically bring in upward of 200 people from around the world.

Black particularly likes singing for foreigners (whether international or Yankee) since they haven’t heard “Jolie Blonde” 2,000-plus times and are delighted in Black’s stirring version.

He’s got five albums to his credit. The latest is “DU-LAC YOU WANT.”

It’s 10 songs (eight self-written) seek to please his fans (and himself), as it’s got some straight country sung in his best George Jones-croon. You’ll notice it on tunes like “Farewell My Friend,” and “My Lips Made Promise,” Cajun-style stompers like “Mud Bug Boogie” and “Dulac,” traditional spirituals like “Deep River” (and it’s deep, cher), the O. Henryesque “Ballad of Poo-Poo Boudreaux” and a holiday treat, “Cajun Night Before Christmas.”

Black gets seriously wistful on the moving “Au Revoir A Le Mar’Cage” (Goodbye to the Swamp).

Recorded in Houma’s Pershing Wells’ Sac-a’-Lait studio, the record’s got Waylon Thibodeaux on fiddle and Tim Dusenbury on bass.

His previous effort, CAJUN MAN, is also available at Black’s Web site, www.cajunman.com. It’s got his encomium to Annie “Alligator Annie” Miller, and more emphasis on Louisiana flavor, as on the anthemic “Proud to be a Cajun” and one of his most requested songs, “Walkin’ in the Woods with My Paran.”

Black Guidry won’t get you in touch with your inner demons, but he’ll be there for you when you’re ready to banish them.