New Orleans native Jerry Byrne entered the world in the Crescent City during 1940. Although his upbringing unfolded in the Irish quarter, he found himself drawn to African-American sounds and, while still a teenager, performed regularly in local juke joints and strip clubs alongside the Loafers, the rock & roll outfit fronted by his cousin Mac Rebennack, later renowned as Dr. John. Legend holds that Rebennack handled guitar duties with the group until a club performance ended abruptly when an audience member opened fire, severing the tips of his fingers and prompting his permanent switch to piano. During 1957, Byrne shared a stage in Slidell, Louisiana, with his idol Little Richard; the appearance so struck Specialty Records A&R representative Harold Battiste that the label inked the high-school student seven days afterward. Early the following year, Byrne stepped into Cosimo Matassa’s famed J&M Studios, where he recorded the Rebennack–Seth Davis composition “Lights Out” with support from New Orleans session stalwarts Edgar Blanchard on guitar, Frank Fields on bass, and Art Neville on piano. The resulting single achieved strong regional sales and registered modest national traction, prompting Specialty to green-light the follow-up “You Know I Love You So,” which failed to connect. One further attempt, 1959’s “Carry On,” likewise missed, after which the label dropped Byrne. Later that same year he rejoined Rebennack for the Vin label novelty “Morgus the Magnificent,” issued under the name Morgus & the Three Ghouls. In 1960 the two cousins teamed with Frankie Ford and Huey “Piano” Smith on the local success “Chinese Bandits,” released as the Cheer Leaders to accommodate existing contractual ties. No fresh recording contract materialized, yet Byrne kept performing across the Gulf Coast until the mid-1960s, when he relocated to Morgan City, Louisiana, and entered the marine supplies trade. Specialty finally issued the previously unheard “My Little Girl” in 1974. During the mid-1980s the General label issued the LP I’m from the South, marking his first new recordings in more than twenty-five years.
