Rhode Island celebrates Mardi Gras this month by coming to the rescue of a veteran Cajun musician. The Friends of Kevin Dugas Krewe, a new Carnival group based in Cranston, Rhode Island, carries the name of the drummer for Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys for the past 21 years. In late October 2011, Dugas [...]
“And the Grammy in the Category of Contradiction and Confusion goes to ….” That announcement would be made at next month’s Grammys if zydeco music veteran Terrance Simien had his way. Simien is still steaming that the Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album was one of 31 categories the Recording Academy cut last year in [...]
Trail rides were once the best-kept secrets in zydeco. Now, google “zydeco trail ride” and the first result comes from, ironically, The New York Times. Travel writer Shaila Dewan waxes poetically about her trip to the Pineywoods Trail Ride in Evangeline Parish. There are also links to an events calendar, YouTube videos and discussion forums. [...]
Most of the featured artists had to sit in a chair once they wobbled their way to the spotlight at center stage. Some talked about their strokes, a bad leg, or arthritis. But once the music began on this rainy September afternoon, all journeyed back to a time when, as Classie Ballou put it, they [...]
Just because a musician was born in 1929 doesn’t mean he’s ready for the nursing home. Cajun fiddler Ellis Vanicor, 81, broadcasts that message loud and clear on the title song of his debut CD, Don’t Bury Me. Vanicor started playing fiddle in the 1940s and began his own band, the Lacassine Playboys. Through the [...]
Cedric Watson is quickly becoming a sponge of world music. “I like any kind of music that’s related to Louisiana music and Creole,” says Watson, who was nominated for a Grammy last year. “Brazilian music called forró is triangle and fiddle and it has accordion in it. It’s the same thing [as Creole], but it’s [...]
[OffBeat gave NARAS’ Bill Freimuth a chance to respond to some of the questions raised in the story below. They didn’t arrive in time to be included in the physical magazine, but they’re included at the end of the story.] Did you hear the one about the guy that went to a fight and a [...]
Geno Delafose is nothing if not hard working. Last Mardi Gras season, Delafose spent 10 days playing 11 gigs that stretched from Cowboys Night Club in Scott, Louisiana to the St. Petersburg, Florida Cajun/Zydeco Crawfish Festival. Each weekend, Delafose averages three to four gigs within an hour’s drive of his 140-acre, Double D Ranch near [...]
Amedé Ardoin has been hailed as the father of zydeco and Cajun music, but his final record is a meager index card that lists him as Case No. 13387. Name: Amede Ardoin. Age: 43. Civil Condition: M. Race: C. Admitted: 9-26- 42. Parish: St. Landry. Residence: Eunice, La. Birthplace: La. Discharged: (blank). Previous Att’ks: None. [...]
Don’t pinch Yvette Landry. She may discover the last nine months have only been a dream. A fantasy-come-true is the only way Landry, a science teacher, former Crawfish Festival Queen and single mother, can explain the international buzz about her debut CD, Should Have Known. Landry’s disc of 16 original country songs was ranked on [...]
