There’s never been a recording quite like this one. Three highly accomplished Cajun revivalists—each representing a successive generation, each a musical pioneer, and each a highly respected bandleader in his own right—spontaneously coming together in an informal setting to pay their mutual respects to a musical heritage that has now become their shared inheritance. They [...]
Tag Archives: fiddlers
Wayne Toups, Steve Riley, Wilson Savoy, The Band Courtbouillon (Valcour Records)
November 1, 2011 – 12:58 am
Ellis Vanicor Takes Four Le Cajun Awards
October 1, 2011 – 12:09 am
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 [...]
Dennis McGee, Himself (Valcour Records)
June 1, 2011 – 12:53 am
Dennis McGee (1893-1989) is perhaps Cajun music’s most influential fiddler, an early recording pioneer who contributed a sizable repertoire that illustrated what pre-20th-Century Cajun music was like prior to the advent of the accordion. Between 1929 and 1934, he recorded what would become standards, most notably with legendary Creole accordionist Amédé Ardoin and longtime fellow [...]
David Greely: Playboy No More
March 1, 2011 – 12:06 am
It was a cybershot heard around the Cajun world when an email sent to Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys’ distribution list in early February announced the retirement of the band’s David Greely. The fiddler’s last Mamou Playboy gig will occur on Mardi Gras Day in Eunice, Louisiana, capping a 23-year-run from when Greely co-founded [...]
David Greely Leaves Mamou Playboys
February 7, 2011 – 11:55 am
Today, we received the following statement from Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys: We would like to announce, with enough solemnity, but not too much, that David Greely will be retiring from the Mamou Playboys, with his final performance with the band on Mardi Gras Day. David co-founded the Mamou Playboys with Steve in 1988, [...]
Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole, Creole Moon: Live From the Blue Moon (Valcour Records)
December 1, 2010 – 12:59 am
Creole Moon, a live recording from Lafayette’s Blue Moon Saloon, is Cedric Watson’s second release in less than a year following his late 2009 studio release L’Éspirit Créole. Unlike so many live recordings that follow in close succession to their studio counterparts and have repeat tunes, here there’s no overlap whatsoever. Watson proves that he’s [...]
Amanda Shaw, Good Southern Girl (Poorman Mayfield Records)
November 1, 2010 – 12:58 am
Updated: Amanda Shaw’s third solo album proclaims, with its title, that it’s about the performer’s identity. That’s just as true of her debut, 2004’s I’m Not a Bubble Gum Pop Princess, but Good Southern Girl represents a more developed personal and musical statement. The new title is obviously intended to be something of a tongue-in-cheek [...]
Obituary: Luderin Darbone (1913-2008)
January 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
[The Lost Bayou Ramblers performed a number of tributes to the Hackberry Ramblers including one at this year’s Jazz Fest. These turned out to be the last gigs for the Hackberry Ramblers’ fiddle player, Luderin Darbone, who passed away November 21 in Sulphur, Louisiana. The Lost Bayou Ramblers’ drummer Chris Courville remembers those dates.] At [...]
Beausoleil: Cajun Hot
March 1, 1990 – 12:01 am
At the writing of this article the announcement of the Grammy Awards was still a future event, meaning the fate of Beausoleil’s winning a Grammy in this year’s “Contemporary Folk” category was still up in the air. But band members of South Louisiana’s most popular and progressive Cajun band interviewed for this article were quite [...]
