
STRIKING OUT ON HIS OWN The independent record business in New Orleans was always volatile and precarious. Starting with the first wave in the mid-1950s, numerous local labels formed and folded, with most lasting just a few years, if that. The opportunity to score a big hit was always there to tempt entrepreneurs; but the odds against it were steep - like a shot at winning the lottery or picking a winning horse out at the Fairgrounds racetrack - unless, of course, Allen Toussaint was writing and producing the [...]