Interview with Oscar Bernard

Accession No.: 
BE1-041

01:00 - Born July 11, 1943,
01:15 - Rod started taking guitar lessons from their neighbor, an Army recruiter, Oscar would pick the guitar up occasionally and play on it;
03:00 - Talking about the house he grew up in. Parents told Rod that if he picked enough pecans and saved money, he could get a guitar
04:30 - Their parents eventually got a better guitar when he showed enough interest and talent;
04:50 - Poony Tatman helped them figure out what guitar to buy;
07:00 - Rod's first gig - Blue Room at a feed store;
08:50 - Oscar never toured with Rod, The farthest he went for a gig in Baton Rouge;
10:00 - Moving to Winnie, TX, would play at school talent shows;
10:30 - Huey Meaux was their barber in Winnie. At that point, Huey wasn't in the music business;
11:15 - More about the family's moves back to LA and then back to TX;
12:45 - Learning how to play the upright bass when he was in the 8th grade;
14:10 - Formation of The Twisters - Oscar eventually joined on bass, he was the youngest member;
16:00 - First gig with them was at the community center in Egan;
18:00 - Mischievous things they'd do - Bought some cherry bomb fireworks and would put them into a mailbox;
20:30 - Story about leaving Church Point, running late for a gig. Drove around in a circle and ended up back in Church Point;
22:30 - Skip Stuart; The Original Boogie Kings; The Flames;
26:20 - Auditioning for a job at the Original Pat's in Henderson; Pat didn't like the trombone in their band;
27:00 - Oscar had a knack for leaning to play instruments quickly;
29:00 - High School Band - Learned to play French horn, baritone, coronet;
33:45 - Local clubs;
34:10 - Didn't have a television growing up, listened to radio and records often;
35:00 - Discussing other family member's involvement in music;
37:45 - Building speaker cabinets; Bixby Tailpiece; Speaker enclosures;
40:00 - Gear used for gigs / driving to gigs;

Media Type: 
Audio
Collection: 
Shane K. Bernard
Subject: 
music; swamp pop
Creator: 
Shane Bernard
Informants: 
Oscar Bernard
Recording date: 
Thursday, November 28, 1991
Coverage Spatial: 
Opelousas, LA
Publisher: 
Shane K. Bernard
Rights Usage: 
All Rights Reserved
Language: 
English
Meta Information
Duration: 
47:31
Cataloged Date: 
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Digitized Date: 
Monday, January 30, 2006
Original Format: 
Audio--Cassette--60
Digital Format: 
Audio
Bit Depth: 
16 bit
Sampling Rate: 
44.1k
Storage Location: 
Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore