Sam Irwin: Freelance journalist; Louisiana culture; traditional jazz music
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Freelance journalist Sam Irwin is available for book talks and lectures on Louisiana culture, crawfish and traditional jazz music.
Hidden History
The Hidden History of Louisiana's Jazz Age
$24.00
($3.49 shipping)
Why did Louis Armstrong choose the Fourth of July as his birthday? What did Independence Day mean to southern Blacks in 1901?
How did jazzman Joe Darensbourg of Baton Rouge, the musician who played clarinet on Louis Armstrong’s 1963 smash hit “Hello, Dolly,” encounter not one, but two serial murderers in his long career?
Who was trumpeter Evan Thomas, the man murdered on the bandstand by a jealous husband in the Promised Land neighborhood of Rayne, La.?
Freelance journalist and lover of traditional jazz music (he is the leader of the Florida Street Blowhards trad jazz band) Irwin began to research the answers to these questions. The results are in his latest book, The Hidden History of Louisiana’s Jazz Age. The book is a unique take of Louisiana culture. Autographed copies $24 plus $3.49 media mail shipping rate in the U.S.
Crawfish Book
Louisiana Crawfish - autographed copy from Sam Irwin
$20.00
($4.00 shipping)
The hunt for red crawfish is the thing, the raison d'etre, of Acadian spring. Crawfish are the very essence of Louisiana culture. Introduced to Louisiana by the swamp dwellers of the Atchafalaya Basin, the crawfish is a regional favorite that has spurred a $210 million industry. Whole families work at the same fisheries, and annual crawfish festivals dominate the social calendar. More importantly, no matter the occasion, folks take their boils seriously: they'll endure line cutters, heat and humidity, mosquitoes and high gas prices to procure crawfish for their families' annual backyard boils or their corporate picnics. Freelance journalist Sam Irwin grew up in the crawfish business and he knows crawfish. (ALSO AVAILABLE FROM ONLINE SELLERS) $20 plus $3.49 media mail shipping rate in the U.S.
It Happens in Louisiana
It Happens In Louisiana, autographed copy from Sam Irwin
$22.00
($4.00 shipping)
Only in the Bayou State do Louisianans travel door to door on horseback collecting gumbo ingredients for Mardi Gras gatherings. Residents compete in egg pâquer contests to see who can crack their opponent's Easter egg first. Louisiana is a place where frequent collisions with natural disasters can inspire a drink like Pat O'Brien's famous hurricane. And the state's history is filled with colorful figures like Governor Earl K. Long, whose wife committed him to a mental institution--only for him to use his political pull to inspire his own release. Elsewhere these accounts may seem odd or farfetched, but it all happens in Louisiana. Join freelance journalist Sam Irwin as he details these intriguing Pelican State stories with pithy observations, humorous asides, and droll determinations. It's atour de force of Louisiana culture (ALSO AVAILABLE FROM ONLINE SELLERS) $22 plus $3.49 media mail shipping rate in the U.S.
Biography
A Louisiana life!
Sam Irwin is the author of the critically acclaimed Louisiana Crawfish: A Succulent History of the Cajun Crustacean. He served as the public relations director for the American Sugar Cane League from 2012-2025. Prior to that, he served as the press secretary of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and wrote extensively on Louisiana culture for the Louisiana Market Bulletin..
Intrigued, aren't you? Read on...it gets better...
He is currently the frontman and trumpet player of the Florida Street Blowhards, a band in Baton Rouge that specializes in traditional jazz music.
Before he discovered the backspace/delete key on his computer and began writing, Sam Irwin was a:
1. history teacher
2. used car salesman
3. grocery store manager
4. crawfish buyer
5. honky-tonk owner(the notorious Corner Bar in Breaux Bridge)
6. plantation home tour guide
7. waiter
8. failed pawnbroker
9. owner of the legendary Paradise Records at the north gates of LSU
10. trumpet player
In addition to Country Roads magazine, his work has appeared in Offbeat, 225, Louisiana Film and Video, The Advocate, Teche News and House and Home.
His fiction has been published by Dead Mule, Tom's Voice, Gulf Coast Writers Anthology, Spillway Review, Long Story Short, Gris Gris Rouge, Country Roads, Cape Fear Crime Festival Chapbook, Murder in the Wind Anthology, Love is in the Wind Anthology and the Nicholls State Jubilee Anthology.
Other books by Sam Irwin:
It Happens In Louisiana: Peculiar Tales, Traditions & Recipes from the Bayou (History Press, 2015)
The Hidden History of Louisiana's Jazz Age (History Press, 2023)
Now a freelance journalist, he is available for speaking and writing engagements.
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