PeckerFish
A tin-roofed juke joint on stilts over a bayou at night, string lights in the trees

PeckerFish

From the swamp. For the swamp.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana · 1969–1981

Bayou Records

Sideband Label ArchiveCard 1 of 1

PeckerFish

PeckerFish. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 1969–1981.

Genre on file: Blues. Subgenre: Dirty Blues / Swamp Rock.

Archive designation: Baton Rouge Bayou Too Vertical Blues.

Label of record: Bayou Records.

On file

  • Name
  • City
  • Years
  • Genre
  • Label
  • Tagline

Not on file

  • Members
  • Records
  • Songs
  • Shows
  • Photographs

Archive note

What the archive holds

The archive holds one index card on PeckerFish. This is it.

The card gives the name, the city, the years, the label and the tagline. It does not give the members. It does not give the records. The archive will not guess at either.

The card is water-stained. The archive keeps it that way.

On the board

Letters are moved by hand. The board says what the card says.

Years on file

High-water mark

The archive measures PeckerFish the way the parish measures the river. The staff runs from the first year on file to the last. Everything between is under water for now.

1969–1981

1981
1980
1979
1978
1977
1976
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
1970
1969

Tacked to the wall

A bait shop counter with minnow tanks and a hand-painted sign
The counter. Crickets, minnows, and the sign.
Two tube amplifiers on a screened porch beside a bayou
Porch, after dark. Two amplifiers and an extension cord.
A flat-bottomed boat tied to a cypress knee with a guitar case on the seat
Transport.
A crowded juke joint dance floor under a single red bulb
Inside. One bulb. Red.

Sign the bait book

Put your name in the book. The Sideband Label list hears first about new recordings, shirts, and anything the archive pulls out of the water.

Sign the book

One name per line. Pencil is fine.