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performers (more TBA) |
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carol
fran TIME TBA om jump blues to soul blues and all the R & B in between, Carol Fran has been singing it for nearly fifty years. Her career started when she was still in her teens with the Don Conway Orchestra and continues to this day. Don't miss this rare performance by one of the most talented and renowned blues singers in the world. visit her website |
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woody
pines & the lonesome two TIME TBA Woody Pines has been playing and singing since he can remember. He left home with his guitar on his back and made it through 49 states before he was 19. After landing on the west coast, he co-founded a ragtime jug band, The Kitchen Syncopators, which sold thousands of their self-released recordings. The Syncopators performed everywhere from the streets of New Orleans to Seattle’s Folklife Festival to the Oregon Country Fair. Woody played shows all over the south, including a stop in Nashville for a guest appearance at the Grand Ole Opry with friends Old Crow Medicine Show. Today, Woody continues to find ways to reshape the old music, weaving new stories from timeless threads. He combines freak realism and vaudeville showmanship with the sincerity and grace of the rich, traditional landscape of roots music. Woody plays with foot stomping gusto, but knows when to croon a lazy mountain ballad. visit their website |
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pine
leaf boys TIME TBA Steeped in music since children and hailing from Eunice, Elton, Lafayette, Seely, TX, and Iota, the Pine Leaf Boys have been making a name for themselves as being not only a young group of musicians, but preserving the traditional Cajun sound, while allowing it to breathe and and stretch with those who play it. They present their music in multiple configurations such a twin fiddle, duo accordion/fiddle, bass, drum, and even stomping jurés. Their music is not classified solely as Cajun music, but rather Louisiana music, ranging from waltzes to rocking two-steps to and raunchy Creole blues, bringing in new, young audiences and some who have never heard of Cajuns. visit their website |
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d.l.
menard, terry
huval & friends TIME TBA Though D.L. Menard has acquired the nickname "the Cajun Hank Williams," his musical accomplishments are very much his own. Recording in both French and English, his many original songs are inspired by a love of life in all of its dimensions. He brings this same enthusiasm to his stage performances, singing with genuine passion and, in between numbers, joking with other musicians or with the audience. Terry Huval was born in Texas, but his people and his music have their roots firmly planted deep within the soil of the Louisiana region known as Cajun Country. Huval is a fine songwriter who has penned such numbers as "Oh Ma Bella" and "Huval's Reel." He sings and plays a number of other instruments as well, among them the bass and steel guitars, dobro, and mandolin. |
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jay
ungar & molly mason w/ the ashokan horns TIME TBA Jay Ungar & Molly Mason are extraordinary musicians. If you didn't know it before, you sure did after Ken Burns' The Civil War hit the airwaves. Their performance of Jay's haunting composition Ashokan Farewell — the musical hallmark of the PBS series — earned the couple international acclaim. Since joining forces in the late 1970s, Jay and Molly have become one of the most celebrated duos on the American acoustic music scene. With their comfortable sense of fun and their love of music, they make each concert a musical journey — sometimes spanning two continents and two centuries. Their incomparable warmth and wit — coupled with consummate musicianship — have delighted audiences worldwide. visit their website |
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joe
hall & the louisiana cane cutters TIME TBA While many younger musicians are intent on combining zydeco with hip hop or rap or some other import from American pop culture, Joseph Hall has gone back to the roots of zydeco, learning to play accordion by studying with the legendary Creole musician Bois Sec Ardoin. Hall was inspired by his grandfather, a Creole accordionist who played every Saturday night. He points out that the Creole accordion style of playing is basically more difficult than the style used by most Zydeco players. |
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feufollet TIME TBA For the young members of La Bande Feufollet, who have been among the most promising exponents of Cajun folk music for the past decade, the Cajun repertoire of Southern Louisiana, is at once familiar and constantly intriguing. It's a way to have fun and play music, but also a way to understand and fathom the roots of their culture, their heritage and even their own identity in the wilderness of mainstream culture and society. visit their website |
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cedric
watson TIME TBA One of the brightest young talents to emerge in Cajun or Creole music in the past few years, Cedric Watson is a fiddler, singer, accordionist & songwriter with seemingly unlimited potential. Originally from Sealy, TX, Cedric moved to Duralde, Louisiana to perfect his fiddling, practice his French and play as much music as possible. With an apparently bottomless repertoire of songs at his fingertips, Cedric plays everything from forgotten Creole melodies and obscure Dennis McGee reels to more modern Cajun and Zydeco songs, even occasionally throwing in a bluegrass fiddle tune or an old string band number. Cedric is also a prolific songwriter, as evidenced in his solo work, channeling his Creole heritage (Louisiana, Caribbean, and otherwise) to create his own brand of sounds, both progressive and nostalgic. visit his website |
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lafayette
rhythm devils TIME TBA In Louisiana, music and dancing contribute to the "Joie de Vie" we celebrate, sometimes with devilish frenzy. The Lafayette Rhythm Devils provide a tight, technically precise sound, but more importantly, through their sound, they share the joy and excitement that is Cajun music. The Lafayette Rhythm Devils embrace the opportunity to perform Cajun music with enthusiasm and the indisputable joy that is associated with our unique culture. On vocals, Kristi Guillory and Randy Vidrine fill the air with emotion and energy. Chris Segura adds fuel to the fire with his rip-roaring fiddling, improvising in and personalizing each tune. Donand LeJeune on drums and Yvette Landry on bass provide the driving beat that is the "Rhythm of the Devils"! visit their website |
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square
dance called by nancy spero TIME TBA Nancy Spero lives in Ithaca, New York, and has been calling square dances, contra dances, and community/family dances in the northeast since 1988. Her dances provide high-energy fun for all participants--from newcomers to seasoned dancers. One of her passions is calling rip-roaring Old Time Square Dances to the irresistible rhythms of Southern Appalachian old-time music. If you can walk, she'll have you movin’ and groovin’ to the music in no time, even if you have never tried square dancing! |
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balfa
toujours TIME TBA Balfa Toujours is a brilliant young band that has been making a name for itself not only in the Cajun music scene of Southwestern Louisiana, but also in the larger realm of all traditional music. The Balfa name conjures up memories of the famous Balfa Brothers, who took their soulful, empassioned music from the prairies of Mamou to the far corners of the earth. Now, Balfa Toujours (meaning Balfa still and always) is making sure the name will maintain its place for generations afterwards. visit their website |
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ginny
hawker & tracy schwarz |
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ed
poullard & preston frank TIME TBA The Frank Family, from the small rural community of Soileau in Allen Parish, is one of the great Creole musical families. According to Michael Tisserand, Preston Frank, father of Keith Frank, can trace his musical lineage at least as far back as his great-grandfather Joseph Frank Jr., an accordion player, and his great-great-grandfather, Joseph Frank Sr., who played fiddle. Neither ever recorded. His great-uncle Carlton Frank, one of the few Creole fiddlers still playing, performs on with the family band. |
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racines TIME TBA If you took all the roots of Southwest Louisiana music and grafted them together, you would end up with Racines. Their music, like the roots they are named after, draws life from the nutrients abundant in the local soil. In this corner of Louisiana, that means Cajun, Zydeco, Creole, Swamp Pop, Blues, and more. Riley on accordion, Wimmer on fiddle, Reed on bass, Stafford on guitar and Field on drums – with some AMAZING double fiddle treats by Wimmer & Reed. visit their website |
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red
stick ramblers TIME TBA The Red Stick Ramblers play a mixture of Cajun fiddle tunes, Western Swing, traditional jazz of the 1920s and 1930s alongside a steadily growing number of tradition-inspired originals. Based in Southern Louisiana, they build upon the songs of seminal fiddlers like Dennis McGee and Dewey Balfa, along with jazz and country swing bandleaders such as Bob Wills and Django Reinhardt, finding a common thread of danceable rhythms and strong, elegant melodies. visit their website |
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