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The State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge, and the largest city is New Orleans based on March 2007 data which suggest New Orleans population increased by 32,000 people since the Census Bureau's count in July 2006 to bring the population to 255,000. The population within the city limits of Baton Rouge itself was 224,000 pre-Katrina and according to the Census Bureau the population increased by only 8,000 in the year following Katrina to bring it to about 232,000. Other data suggest that even with its many post-Katrina problems, the repopulation of New Orleans is occurring in great numbers.

The largest parish by population is Jefferson Parish and largest by area is Terrebonne Parish (Louisiana is the only state that is divided into parishes; most other states are divided only into counties instead). The New Orleans metropolitan area is Louisiana's largest.

Louisiana has a unique multicultural and multilingual heritage. Originally part of New France, Louisiana is home to many speakers of Cajun French and Louisiana Creole French. African American and Franco-African, and French / French Canadian form the two largest groups of ancestry in Louisiana's population. (read more . . . )

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Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Catholics of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music, and have influenced pop culture through mass media, such as television commercials.

The unaccompanied ballad was the earliest form of Cajun music. The narrative songs often had passionate themes of death, solitude or ill-fated love — a reaction to their harsh exile and rough frontier experience, as well as celebrations of love and humorous tales. Ballads were ritually sung at weddings and funerals, and sung informally for small groups of people at house parties as the food cooked and young children played.

In earlier years, the fiddle was the predominant instrument. Usually two fiddles were common, one playing the melody while the other provided the séconde, or back-up part. Twin fiddling traditions represent the music in its purest form, as it was brought to Louisiana with the early immigrants and before popular American tunes mingled with it. Gradually, the diatonic accordion emerged to share the limelight. The introduction of the accordion can be traced back to German Coast settlers. (read more . . . )

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Louis Armstrong (4 August 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo and Pops, was an American jazz musician. Armstrong was a charismatic, innovative performer whose inspired improvised soloing was the main influence for a fundamental change in jazz, shifting its focus from collective melodic playing, often arranged in one way or another, to the solo player and improvised soloing. One of the most famous jazz musicians of the 20th century, he first achieved fame as a cornet player, later on switching to trumpet, but toward the end of his career he was best known as a vocalist and became one of the most influential jazz singers.

In his early years, Armstrong was best known for his virtuosity with the cornet and trumpet. The greatest trumpet playing of his early years can be heard on his Hot Five and Hot Seven records. The improvisations which he made on these records of New Orleans jazz standards and popular songs of the day, to the present time stack up brilliantly alongside those of any other later jazz performer. The older generation of New Orleans jazz musicians often referred to their improvisations as "variating the melody"; Armstrong's improvisations were daring and sophisticated for the time while often subtle and melodic. He often essentially re-composed pop-tunes he played, making them more interesting. Armstrong's playing is filled with joyous, inspired original melodies, creative leaps, and subtle relaxed or driving rhythms. The genius of these creative passages is matched by Armstrong's playing technique, honed by constant practice, which extended the range, tone and capabilities of the trumpet. In these records, Armstrong almost single-handedly created the role of the jazz soloist, taking what was essentially a collective folk music and turning it into an art form with tremendous possibilities for individual expression. (read more . . . )

Did you know...

• ...that the mayor of tiny Logansport, Louisiana, worked for 16 years to keep a new bridge over the Sabine River a high priority?
• ...More than one-half of the species of birds in North America are resident in Louisiana or spend a portion of their migration there?
• ...Louisiana has the greatest concentration of crude oil refineries, natural gas processing plants and petrochemical production facilities in the Western Hemisphere?
• ...Louisiana is the only state with a large population of Cajuns, descendants of the Acadians who were driven out of Canada in the 1700s because they wouldn't pledge allegiance to the King of England?
• ...The town of Jean Lafitte was once a hideaway for pirates?
• ...Because of its many bays and sounds, Louisiana has the longest coastline (15,000 miles) of any state and 41 percent of the nation's wetlands?
• ...Louisiana is the nation's largest handler of grain for export to world markets and that more than 40 percent of the U.S. grain exports move through Louisiana ports?
• ...The site of the oldest known Louisiana civilization is Poverty Point in West Carroll Parish, where an Indian village existed 2, 700 years ago?
• ...Louisiana has 2,482 islands, covering nearly 1.3 million acres?
• ...The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, with a length of 23.87 miles, is the world's longest bridge built entirely over water?
• ...Baton Rouge was the site of the only battle fought outside of the original 13 colonies during the American Revolution?
• ...Louisiana produces more furs (1.3 million pelts a year) than any other state?

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Louisiana news

• Siegelman being held at federal prison in Oakdale, La.
• Fla. to borrow billions to bolster hurricane fund for this year
• Vitter Returns to Senate; Refuses Questions About Sex Scandal
• Blanco seeking business opportunity in London
• Casino players lose $2.55 billion in 12 months
• Cajundome to appeal demand to repay $1 million
• 4 Natchitoches officers back on job after June chase fatal
• Rosemary Ramirez Barbour's firm not buying Ebbers' country club
• Sen. Vitter denies prostitution accusations, plans return to work
• Foes say VX in waste exceeds shipping standards
• Report: Dead zone in Gulf grows

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Web resources

• Louisiana State Government
• History and Culture of Louisiana
• Census Statistics on Louisiana
• U.S. Census Bureau
• USDA Louisiana Statistical Facts
• USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Louisiana
• Louisiana Geographic Information Center
• Photos of Louisiana - Dept. of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism

Spotlight city

Alexandria is a city in Louisiana and the parish seat of Rapides Parish. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area (population 147,000) which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant Parishes. The 2007 population estimate for the city of Alexandria was 49,600.

The area of Alexandria, located along the Red River, was originally home to a community supporting activities of the adjacent Spanish outpost of Post du Rapides. The area developed as a vibrant, yet sometimes debaucherous, assemblage of traders and merchants in the agricultural lands bordering the mostly unsettled areas to the north, and providing a link to from the south to the El Camino Real and then larger settlement of Natchitoches. Alexander Fulton, a Pennsylvania businessman, received a land grant from Spain in 1785, and the first organized settlement was made at that time. In 1805, Fulton and business partner Thomas Harris Maddox laid out the town plan and named the town after Fulton's infant daughter who died around that time. It was first incorporated as a town in 1818 and received a city charter in 1882. (read more . . .)

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