The original members of the Bluerunners reunite tonight at the Rock ‘n’ Bowl with the Creole String Beans opening. They made a name for themselves by adding rock muscle to Cajun music, and here’s footage of the band in action at a reunion show from last October. As bonus video, here are the Creole String [...]
Tag Archives: cajun music
YouTube du Jour: Lost Bayou Ramblers
November 19, 2010 – 9:40 am
Tonight, One Eyed Jacks hosts a night of Louisiana rock ‘n’ roll at its most varied. Indie rock band Rotary Downs opened with Cajun rock ‘n’ roll band the Lost Bayou Ramblers—performing here at the Festival Musique et Danses Cajun & Zydeco de Louisiane à Pontchartrain—and the blues rock of Lafayette’s Brother Dege.
D.L. Menard, Happy Go Lucky (Swallow Records)
June 1, 2010 – 12:26 am
Cajun honky tonker DL Menard is best known for his immortal “La Porte Dans Arriere” (“The Back Door”) that sold 500,000 copies alone in 1962 and has been a staple in the Cajun repertoire ever since. More importantly, he has remained a cultural icon through his lovable, affable personality and seemingly infinite supply of oneliners. [...]
Swamp Pop’s New Home
April 1, 2010 – 1:00 am
Swamp pop, south Louisiana’s blend of Cajun rock ’n’ roll, New Orleans R&B, country and zydeco, lives a life of irony in its Southwest Louisiana birthplace. As gray hair grows on the music’s original musicians and fans, swamp pop is rarely featured at the region’s numerous festivals, clubs and casinos. Many swamp pop classics were [...]
High Performance, Live From Breaux Bridge, Pt. 2 (Swallow)
February 1, 2010 – 12:01 am
As promised, Live from Breaux Bridge Pt. 2 (Live from Breaux Bridge was released in March, 2009) is the second installment of live recordings by Cajun supergroup High Performance. If you’re reading this review for advice on which volume to purchase first, forget it – making such a recommendation is practically impossible. This one continues [...]
Grammy Business
February 1, 2010 – 12:01 am
The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards are filled with ties to New Orleans and Louisiana. From the nominations of Harry Connick, Jr. in the Pop category and Allen Toussaint and Terence Blanchard in Jazz categories to the acknowledgements of the True Blood soundtrack and Dave Matthews’ latest effort (recorded at Piety Street Recording), the diversity of [...]
Linzay Young & Joel Savoy, Linzay Young & Joel Savoy (Valcour)
January 1, 2010 – 12:01 am
Based on their longstanding musical association, it’s only fitting that Linzay Young and Joel Savoy unite for this eponymous recording and Valcour’s inaugural installment of its Artist Series. Young and Savoy have played together more than half their lives, since teenage-hood and later as Red Stick Ramblers during their LSU years. This collection of a [...]
Joel Martin and the Family Band, L’Ange de la Chapelle (Independent)
September 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
The Pine Leaf Boys’ Wilson Savoy and Lafayette Rhythm Devils’ Blake Miller aren’t the only hot shots to hail from accordionbuilding lineage. Meet Joel Martin, the 22-year-old grandson of accordion builder Junior Martin, who, on his debut disc, establishes that he belongs in the elite class of accordionists. He plays with plenty of feeling, pops [...]
Various Artists, American Routes with Nick Spitzer: Songs and Stories from the Road (American Public Media)
August 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
On the two-disc set, American Routes with Nick Spitzer: Songs and Stories from the Road, producer and interviewer Spitzer offers some of the more interesting interviews from his internationally distributed radio program. Spitzer is an incisive interviewer, asking questions that on the surface seem innocuous, but entire worlds are explained in the answers they provoke. [...]
Beth Patterson, On Better Paths (Little Blue Men)
August 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
While raised in Lafayette and bred on Cajun and classical music, an Irish-folk influence on Beth Patterson songs resonates throughout On Better Paths. Her combination of progressive folk and Cajun influences while playing the bouzouki is a lively hybrid of world music that makes all the cuts seem exotic on first listen. She successfully blends [...]
