Avenue Breakdown

John M. Shaw is an ethnomusicologist with an emphasis in musics of the African diaspora. He received his PhD from the University of Memphis in 2024. He is author of Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee, published by University Press of Mississippi.

"This much-needed and meticulously researched book will stand as the definitive work on postwar Shreveport’s incredibly rich and influential Black secular music, the musicians who created it, the radio disc jockeys who played it, and the producers and labels that recorded and preserved it." - Gene Tomko, author of Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians: Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, and Gospel"Using the local record industry and venues as the foundation for this study, Shaw brings over a decade of exhaustive research to this chronological exploration that focuses on Black popular music in and around Shreveport. Beginning just after World War II ended and closing some forty years later, Avenue Breakdown is encyclopedic, chock-full of new information, and enlivened by a variety of previously obscure handbills, posters, and photos." - Kip Lornell, coeditor (with Tracy E. W. Laird) of Shreveport Sounds in Black and White and professor emeritus at George Washington University"A history of Shreveport’s vibrant Black music scene of the post–World War II era is a welcome resource. Shaw harnesses decades of information drawn from the city’s historic Black newspaper, the Shreveport Sun. To this, he adds valuable insights gleaned from interviews and commercial recordings. He shares stories of the city’s musicians as well as record label owners, recording studios, and music venues. This is more than just a local history; it’s recommended reading for fans of rhythm and blues." - Chris Brown, Shreveport record collector, disc jockey, and director of the Centenary College of Louisiana Archives and Special Collections"John M. Shaw is a dogged researcher and an original thinker. His dive into primary materials leads to a compelling story not only about music in Shreveport but about Black industry in America. The conclusions are not always pretty, but Shaw pursues them, resulting in a vivid picture of times past that informs our present." - Robert Gordon, author of Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion