Calling all Cajuns...

**Uncle Deedah** · October 15th, 2002, 11:43 PM

Yeah Lon, that means you.

I've been lately listening to Celtic music, jigs and reels and such. Today at the music store I picked up a CD of Louisiana music called the "Best of Louisiana Music" I was searching for a specific sound..turns out that sound is called Zydeco.

Well, there were a couple of good'uns on it, such as Eddie LeJune, D.L.Menard and Ken Smith-"Les flames d'enfer" (The Flames of Hell), Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys-"Blues du Saoulard" (Drunkard's Blues) an a few others, and, well, I was wondering...since yer a Cajun, mebbe you could clue yer ol' Unk into the good stuff, you know, that good Cajun music with squeeze-boxes and fiddles and mebbe a flute, the kinda Cajun music that makes ya wanna get up and dance around like a chicken.

Any helpful hints would be welcomed.

Thanx

**Aunt Bee** · October 16th, 2002, 12:47 AM

Hey there Unkie!

I ain't Lon, but I personally can vouch that you don't dance like a chicken-LOL!

Just my personal observation ya know!

I'm sure Lon will be along in a lil while to enlighten ya!

Big hugs to you and next time ISYLAT!

Abie

[img]wink.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img]

**Lon Frank** · October 16th, 2002, 03:03 PM

Unk, ma sha! I saw this just in time; me and Kit leave in the morning for about 9 days on the road. I'll try to get you some names when I get back, but you know I ain't really Cajun a-tall. I just have the good fortune to live amongst some of them. I can't even speak good Cajun, but thanks to a summer as a towboat deckhand when I was a kid, I can understand it pretty well. The capn's name was Percy Primeaux and the cook, who was about 215 years old, didn't speak nothing else. We had rice and brown gravy three times a day, ever day!

Anyhow, I mostly listen to oldies from the 50's and 60's, because that's what Kit likes. He does have a favorite tape, given to him by a neighbor, called "Swamp Gold". I figger we'll listen to it in the truck about 87 times in the next week.

I like the zydeco stuff and just about any instrumental Cajun music. But when they try to add singing......well, that's another thing altogether. Cajun, real Cajun, singing consists of yelling as many french words as possible in between every beat of the music. If it's down home good, it's almost unbearable. But the accordian lead, with a strong fiddle, well, that's just plain fine.

The Mecca for Cajun music is Mamou, but any little backwater worth it's dirty rice would have a spot where you could sweat with the best. Try any water town down along the Bayou Teche, like New Iberia, Morgan City or even Lafayette. (BTW, it's properly pronounced "laughy-et", should you go.)

The first time I heard Cajun music was about 20 years ago, when I lived several hundred miles from here. I got invited to a wedding at a little place called the Rodair Club. It was named after Rodair gully, a little bayou out here, and now I live about 5 miles from it. It's a low shacky kind of place, built entirely of tin, walls and all. That night, 20 years ago, there were fruit jars and long necks on every table, foods brought from home, grannies danced with kids, and the couple got married right up at the front of the dance floor. All the single girls got up every so often and danced the maiden's dance, which was a kind of line dance. I was a total outsider, and I never felt so welcome.

Like I said, I'll try to find some names for you when I get back. Until then, just practice your chicken dance with Aunt Bee.

[img]biggrin.gif[/img]