One of the sonic jewels to be had at this year’s Festivals Acadiens et Creoles was Best of Festivals Acadiens 2002, released by Valcour Records. Its 14 tracks include such titans as Belton Richard, Walter Mouton and the Scott Playboys, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, and Wayne Toups, and another 10 tracks are available [...]
Tag Archives: Michael Doucet
We Win!
March 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
This year’s Grammys were good to Louisiana. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave out its awards February 8 and handed four trophies to Lil Wayne. His album Tha Carter III led to Grammys for Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song (“Lollipop”), Best Rap Solo Performance (“A Milli”) and Best Rap Performance by [...]
Cajun Mardi Gras: The Rules of the Road
February 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
Like its New Orleans counterpart, Cajun Mardi Gras is a processional festivity. But unlike its better-known brethren, it’s rooted in the medieval fête de la quémande, a ceremonial begging ritual. During a Mardi Gras run, costumed, masked revelers travel from house to house along the countryside to obtain ingredients for a communal gumbo to be [...]
BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Alligator Purse (Yep Roc)
February 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
BeauSoleil has long been a band that can be taken for granted. To win Grammys, to become representative of a genre, and to become keepers of a cultural flame can be a blessing and a curse. Because, at the end of the day, it’s all about how the music moves you Truth be told, I’ve [...]
BeauSoleil: Beau Brothers
February 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
Back in 1986, when BeauSoleil was first starting to tour a lot outside Louisiana, back when the Doucet brothers still had a bit of hair atop their heads, the band played at the Kennedy Center, Washington’s red-carpeted bastion of high culture. BeauSoleil was just a quartet in those days—Michael Doucet on fiddle, David Doucet on [...]
Doucet vs. Doucet?
January 1, 2009 – 12:01 am
Cheating! Well, the charge has come with a qualified “sort of,” so we’re not talking about steroids, term paper plagiarism or Florida politics. Unless someone is juicing the boudin, maybe. In any case, the term is being thrown around in a rather unlikely place these days: the competition for the second-ever Best Cajun/Zydeco Album Grammy [...]
Michael Doucet, From Now On (Smithsonian Folkways)
June 1, 2008 – 12:01 am
Solo records from a band frontman are usually interesting propositions since they often have something to say beyond their normal band framework. Such was the case with BeauSoleil’s Michael Doucet’s 1989 Beau Solo effort. Not only did it showcase guitar-accompanied fiddle tunes sans “His Highness” the accordion, it served as a reminder that Cajun music [...]
Grammys: The Jethro Tull Effect
February 1, 2008 – 12:01 am
The first-ever Grammy Award for best Cajun/zydeco album brought out quite the field of nominees—not just the standard five, but thanks to a three-way tie for the last slot, a Louisiana lucky seven: Terrance Simien, Geno Delafose, the Pine Leaf Boys, the Racines, Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars, the Lost Bayou Ramblers and [...]
