"We try to put an emphasis, as long as I've been in office, on Louisiana music, supporting Louisiana musicians, creating ambassadors, and really with the main motivation of bringing back the Louisiana Hayride in a modern-day form — we can't replicate exactly what happened in the 40s and 50s — to make this place the magnet for great new musicians, to give them an opportunity to get their start like so many great musicians did on this very stage," Dardenne said.
Proclamations were also issued acknowledging Shreveport-born music journalist Deborah Evans Price, Grammy-winning Brian Blade and Caddo Middle Magnet music teacher Krista Fanning.
The officials were joined by actor Billy Bob Thorton, in town for a Saturday show with his band the Boxmasters at Margaritaville, who spoke fondly of childhood memories of the Municipal Auditorium-based and radio show.
"We don't want this stuff to disappear. This is a sacred building," Thorton said. "We kind of got a chill coming in here, to tell you the truth."