Among the many small independent record labels of Louisiana, probably no company better embodied the sound of backwoods bayou country better than Hammond Records. Probably named after the city of the same name, Hammond Records was operated by bluegrass musician Luke Thompson. His own musical background was probably one factor that led to Hammond's focus on country, bluegrass, and stripped-down rockabilly.
Label owner Luther "Luke" Thompson, Jr., was born in 1928 in the small town of Natalbany, Louisiana, just north of Hammond. Although Louisiana is not a place known for bluegrass music, Thompson grew up with traditional old-time folk music as his grandfather was a fiddler. He eventually learned to play the fiddle, too - in addition to guitar, banjo, and mandolin, his favorite instrument. In the late 1940s, he began performing with his band, the Green Valley Boys, which changed its name to the Green Valley Cut-Ups in 1968 when Thompson found out that Carl Sauceman was already using the name for his band.
Thompson performed on and off throughout the 1950s, finally founding his own recording outlet in early 1959. He recorded mostly local talent from the Louisiana countryside but would not record under his own name until 1961. The first known release is Hammond #102 by Willie Goodson with "Put a Nickel in the Jukebox" b/w "Hand in Hand" in 1959. The top side was a rockabilly number, while the flip was in a more traditional vein. It was followed by Hunter Watts' "Wild Man Rock", which became a minor rockabilly classic, Bonnie Fussel's rock'n'roll "Too High Class", and Hollis Albin's "Vee Eight Ford Boogie". All of these numbers were rock'n'roll and rockabilly performances, which became collectors' items due to the rockabilly revival of the 1970s.
Then, in 1961, Thompson cut his first own record and his bluegrass and it seemed to be the total opposite direction the label was heading to. A throwback to ancient sounds, his "I'm Lost Between the Falling Snow" b/w "Mountain Sweetheart" did not go far commercial-wise but "the recording was seen as a success" as the Northwestern State University of Louisiana put it in a short profile about Thompson.
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| "Opy Spotlight" The St. Tammany Tribune January 19, 1968 |
The remainder of the 1960s saw Hammond Records releasing a few more singles, among them Jim Oertling's then-out-of-fashion rockabilly outings and Oertling's "Old Moss Back" became a another good seller in the southern Gulf regions of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The label's run ended in 1971 with a repress of Thompson's "I'm Lost Between the Falling Snow". A total of 13 releases are known to exist, issued between 1959 and 1971. During the first years, Hammond Records was officially based in Baton Rouge, located about 47 miles west of Hammond. At some point between October 1963 and October 1964, Thompson moved its headquarters to Nashville, although he continued to operate the label out of Louisiana.
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| "Hayride Hightlights" The St. Tammany Tribune August 25, 1968 |
In 1968, Thompson opened a music store and recording studio in Ponchatoula, just south of Hammond. As Thompson was busy playing gigs in different parts of the country, the facility was operated by a staff for him. In fact, Thompson had become a respected bluegrass musician by then, having founded Louisiana Bluegrass Festival the same year, the Old South Jamboree in Walker, Louisiana, and working as emcee for Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival for ten years. He also began building mandolins. He passed away in 2019.
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