3 minute read
Meet Christian Serpas
Making Festival Music Matter.
BY BETH D'ADDONO
FOR CHRISTIAN SERPAS, IT ALL STARTED WITH ELVIS. Serpas, who along with his band Ghost Town was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2024 and recently represented Visit The Northshore in the 2025 Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA, remembers his mom being crazy for The King. “It was the soundtrack of our house,” he recently said on episode 5 of the All the Waves podcast. When he saw his first Elvis movie, something clicked. “Elvis was playing guitar and the girls all liked it,” he said with a laugh. “I figured, I’d like to do that.” So, he raised money to buy a mail order guitar by catching turtles in the canal by his house and selling them as pets. "I was 13. My first guitar was from Sears.” The owner asked us to come back. I looked at my wife and said, 'Well, now what do we do?' That was the start of it all. We became a festival band. And we know a lot more than nine songs now.”
He started taking guitar lessons, but that didn’t last long. From the beginning, Serpas literally marched to the beat of a different drummer. “The teacher wanted to teach me 'Mary Had a Little Lamb.' I wanted to play Zeppelin.”
So began a lifelong career in music, songwriting and performing his unique blend of country and rock. Serpas, who grew up in Arabi, Louisiana, tried going the commercial route in L.A. and Nashville in the late 80s and early 90s, but the scene wasn’t for him.
In 1995, he and his wife moved to Mandeville. Serpas had been in a few bands, but when he started Ghost Town 25 years ago, everything came together. “Our first gig was at the Rocking Horse in Folsom,” he remembers. “We knew nine songs. We even played 'Folsom Prison Blues' twice. The owner asked us to come back. I looked at my wife and said, 'Well, now what do we do?' That was the start of it all. We became a festival band. And we know a lot more than nine songs now.”
Since then, the band has released nine CDs and played more than 2,000 live performances throughout the Gulf South. They’ve done clubs, fairs, festivals, casinos, concert halls, TV and radio shows and shared stages with country stars, including Kenny Chesney, Merle Haggard and the Zac Brown Band.
But at this point, what makes Serpas happiest is playing family-friendly venues and festivals. “If kids can’t come, I don’t really want to be there. We played so many smoky clubs. It’s just not for me anymore.” Instead, Serpas and Ghost Town headline festivals from French Quarter Fest in New Orleans to the All-You-Can-Eat Crawfish Cook-Off in Slidell. “Name a crustacean, and we’ve played a festival for it. Oysters, shrimp, crawfish—we’ve done it all. My favorite is the small-town family scene. It’s one of the best things about living here.”
