Swamp Poppas

Swamp Pop is a mix of Louisiana Cajun, Zydeco, blues, rock, country; the influences over the years are many and the mix gives you a rockin good time. Check out the bios of these great musicians.

Jan Stroup is a guitarist and vocalist with 50 years of professional experience in the Midwest, playing rock, R&B, blues, jazz, and country. His notable bands include Fatt City and The Sevilles. “Dapper Jan” is also known for his dry wit and sartorial excellence.

Andy Vaaler plays piano, organ, accordion, and sings. His occasional raps have earned him the moniker “Plain White Rapper”. He has played with a wide variety of people in the Twin Cities area, with a musical background including blues, jazz standards, swing, rock, country and R&B. A protege of Dan Newton, Andy joined the Poppas in 2022 and has been delighting audiences ever since.

Max Ray plays saxophone and sings with the Poppas. Max is well known locally and nationally as a member of The Wallets, The Explodo Boys, The Suburbs, The New Standards, Willie Murphy and the Angel Headed Hipsters, Mister Rowles, The Fragrants, and Gondwana. He escaped Minneapolis, and resides on his farm near Shell Lake, Wisconsin, tending his menagerie of chickens, mules, horses, and dogs.

Joe Luoma on percussion, sound effects, and vocals, provides esoteric cultural observations about his native Iron Range. From his beginning with Wayne and the Avantis in 1965, he migrated to the Twin Cities and played with Cats Under the Stars (later the Paul Metsa Group), as well as the Jaguars, Tom’s Pirate Band, Dan Newton’s Jumbo Ya Ya, and Iron Range favorites Rangers on Mer Lot and “stupor group” the Evinrudes (which featured Joe on an outboard motor /smoke machine). Joe handles the fake band endorsements for “Simple Green” - (“It’s simple, it’s green”) and “Hamm’s” - (“From the land of sky-blue waters, Land of loped off pines and dead birch trees...”).

Tedd Halvorson on vocals and guitars is an original Swamp Poppa. Very original. And by guitars, we mean several, in different tunings for his signature slide guitar sounds. He’s known as a key player in Minnesota bands such as Lost Soul, the Sweaters, the Minneapolis Molines, and Molly and the Heymakers in the1980s; Fatt City, the Dearborns, and Busted Flat in the 1990s, and in Nazmo King, Hip Bone, and the Swamp Poppas since the early 2000s.

Lucinda Plaisance, vocals, grew up in a musical family in Winona, managing to thrive as a vocalist despite repeatedly skipping chorus class at Cotter HS. She sang in a couple rock and swing bands before going to “musical boot camp” as a member and soloist with Robert Robinson’s Twin Cities Gospel Choir for 16 years. Most recently, she sang harmonies with the Midnight Choir Social Club, and is a lead vocalist in the Americana/roots band The Lost Golden Toads. She’s loved singing the bluesy, Louisiana-influenced tunes of the Swamp Poppas since they began a decade ago.

Karl Smelker on bass and vocals, is the founder and cat-herder extraordinaire of the Swamp Poppas. He’s played professionally for over 50 years, logging 19 years with the Fabulous Minnesota Barking Ducks, before switching to Zydeco, Swamp Pop and Cajun with the Swamp Sextet, The Faux Playboys, Bone Tones, and New Riverside Ramblers.

Host or Publisher Winona Arts Center