After 68 years, swamp pop legend Warren Storm is still drawing devoted fans to his music. Storm, 80, began singing and playing drums and guitar as a young boy in Abbeville.

“My daddy was a musician all his life, and I learned to play drums by watching him play drums and going to his gigs,” Storm said by phone from his home in Lafayette.

He emerged on the swamp pop scene in 1958 with the release of “Prisoner’s Song,” and “Mama Mama Mama (Look What Your Little Boy’s Done),” which sold over 250,000 copies and broke into the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

Other hits over the years include “Lord I Need Somebody Bad Tonight,” “My House of Memories,” “The Gypsy” and “Things Have Gone to Pieces.”

Storm has traveled all over the U.S. and has performed in Australia, New Zealand and Holland as a solo artist and with various bands. He has also worked with Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Shoji Tabuchi and others.

“I always said if we could play our music all over the world and the U.S., people would enjoy it, and they have,” he said. “Music is such a universal language.”

Today, Storm prefers to perform closer to home, playing at festivals and casinos.

In 1980, he and Louisiana musician Willie Tee formed the Cypress Band. The group dissolved four years later, but Storm and Tee continued to work together in other bands. In 2004, they decided to reform the Cypress Band and continue performing today.

The Cypress Band, featuring Storm and Willie Tee, will headline the Louisiana Swamp Pop Revue at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, at the Strand Theatre, 432 North Main St. in Jennings. Guests are Tommy McClain, Jiving Gene, Charlene Howard and T.K. Hulin.

Tickets are $20; call 824-7078 or 370-2512 to order.

Swamp pop, unique to south Louisiana, blends rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun music with black Creole sounds.

“It’s just a feel-good kind of music that you can listen and dance to,” Storm said. “I still enjoy seeing people having fun. My pleasure has always been being on stage, and that’s what keeps me going. I’m going to keep going as long as I can.”

Storm began performing professionally in the early 1950s at age 15. He later formed the We-Wows and then the Jive Masters. In 1962, he teamed with Rod Bernard and Skip Stewart to form the Shondells.

A friend from England dubbed him the “godfather of swamp pop.”

“I’m the oldest swamp pop singer, so they call me ‘the godfather,’ ” he said. “I love it.”

His impact on swamp pop music was recognized in 2010 with his induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

He and other swamp pop legends, including McLain, Hulin, Willie “Tee” Trahan, Charles Mann and G.G. Shinn, recently completed a CD with country music artist and Kaplan native Sammy Kershaw called “Swamp Popping.”

warren storm