I know Also Kevin Naquin, Geno Delafose, Two Time Polka (Irish cajun band), Cajun Roosters (English/German cajun band). And sometime Steve Riley (fabulous!!) in concert.
and zydecot.com, atlanta band
mine actually
i play it in Bflat on a Bflat box
no johnny allan did not write it for chuck berry!
wle
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"Promised Land" is a song lyric written by Chuck Berry to the melody of "Wabash Cannonball", an American folk song. The song was first recorded in this version by Chuck Berry in 1964 for his album St. Louis to Liverpool. Released in 1965, it was Berry's first single issued following his prison term for a Mann Act conviction.
In the lyrics, the singer (who refers to himself as "the poor boy") tells of his journey from Norfolk, Virginia to the "Promised Land", California, mentioning various cities along the way. It has subsequently been covered by numerous other artists.
Berry wrote the song while still in prison and borrowed an atlas from the prison library to plot the itinerary. The poor boy boarded a Greyhound bus that stopped in Charlotte, NC but "bypassed Rock Hill", which may have been a sly reference to Rock Hill, South Carolina where Civil Rights leader John Lewis and others were brutally beaten when their Freedom Rider bus stopped there in 1961. The bus rolls on through Atlanta but breaks down in Birmingham. The poor boy boards a train "across Mississippi clean" to New Orleans. He makes it to Houston, where friends stake him to a silk suit, luggage and plane ticket to Los Angeles. Once arrived, he phones home ("Tidewater four, ten-oh-nine") to let the folks back in Norfolk know he's made it to the "promised land".
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Geno does it on his live shows. Chuck Berry was doing time for a Mann Act violation and wrote it while doing his time. When Johnny Allen covered it he left out a verse, maybe to keep it short enough on a 45 so it would get airplay? Here is the missing verse.
Had motor trouble, turned into a struggle, half way cross Alabam"
Then that 'Hound broke down, and left us all stranded in Downtown Birmingham.
Geno does it in C on the push. I do it in A on the pull. Great tune.