There's been more snow in Louisiana than Connecticut

As proof, I offer musician Wilson Savoy (Pine Leaf Boys) at home last week in Lafayette with his snowman.

Some of my best friends are Grammy nominees

I'm happy to say that each of the nominees in the Category 72 are friends, but that I've only heard two of these albums.

Category 72

Best Zydeco Or Cajun Music Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)

• Live At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
  BeauSoleil & Michael Doucet
  [MunckMix]
  
  
• From Now On
  Michael Doucet
  [Smithsonian Folkways Recordings]
  
  
• Homage Au Passé
  Pine Leaf Boys
  [Lionsgate]
  
  
• Live At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
  Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys
  [MunckMix]
  
  
• Cedric Watson
  Cedric Watson
  [Valcour Records]

The rest of the nominees are here.

Rhythm and Roots

For the past two decades and more, I've marked the passing of summer by attending a roots music festival in Rhode Island.



In the old days it was called the Cajun and Bluegrass Festival, and was held at the Stepping Stone Ranch in Escoheag. I saw, and met some of the greats on that stage, Dewey Balfa, Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson.

This weekend, I'll be on stage at the Rhythm and Roots Festival at Ninigret State Park in Charlestown, for the 11th year. The fabulous Pine Leaf Boys are the host band, and their neighbors, the Red Stick Ramblers will be there among many others.

There's alway plenty of music and dancing, and I've watched my fellow fans mature and have children of their own who have grown into men and women.

This evening kicks off with bluesman Paul Geremia, and ends in the dance tent with Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-chas.

This week the Moodus noise was creole

The funky, unintentionally retro Sunrise resort in Moodus held it's regular Cajun and Zydeco Music and Arts Festival over the weekend. Formerly held, for years, on the same weekend as the Blast from the Bayou at Strawberry Park, the festival now takes advantage of a dance crowd willing to hang around for consecutive weekends. I saw a bit of the festival on Sunday, and in talking to festival-goers, reports are that despite the steamy, Lousiana-like weather, the dance tent was packed to overflowing on Saturday.

It's interesting to note that the Cajun/Zydeco dance crowd in New England is aging. Most of these folks have danced here for decades to a music which found a second home in the old North. Down home in Louisiana, the music has caught on again, in a big way, with a new generation of teens and twenty-somethings who love the old sounds, and the idea that dancing is the best form of social interaction on a Saturday night.

Blast from the Bayou, day 2

The annual Cajun and Zydeco festival at Strawberry Park in Preston officially opened yesterday, but some of the bigger name bands first appeared today.

The day began with Dennis Stroughmatt, a fiddler from Southern Illinois, and his band providing a more than fair approximation of Louisiana music. Travis Matte, and the Kingpins, who fill large concert halls back home in Louisiana, proved that they are not some passing phase of white zyedeco music. Then the wonderfully rough-around-the-edges Pine Leaf Boys took the stage, followed by an amazing set by Geno Delafose and French Rockin Boogie, and a similarly appealing set by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. The festival continues tomorrow and Sunday.

Summer's over

The Rhythm and Roots festival ended last night with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys playing a packed tent. It was a tradtional end-of-festival jam with members of the Red Stick Ramblers, the Pine Leaf Boys, and Marty Stuart himself joining the raucous assembly.

Highlights of the festival for me included Marty Stuart's impromptu session with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, the Buddhahood horn section providing a boost for the Creole Cowboys, and a late night accordion jam with three young Creole and Cajun up-an-comers, Cedric Watson, Drew Miller and Corey Ledet.

Concert of the Week

10th Annual Rhythm and Roots Festival
August 31 - September 3
Ninigret State Park, Charlestown, RI

I can barely believe that this festival is ten years old. Though it seems like I've spent a lifetime marking the end of summer at this festival (and the Cajun and Bluegrass Festival from which it grew) in Rhode Island. Last year the stiff winds of a near-miss hurricane had the clouds whirling and the stage canopy swinging, but it never stopped the music or the dancers.

The main stage will be filled with amazing talent including Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Susan Tedeschi, Marty Stuart and the Superlatives, the Red Stick Ramblers, the Pine Leaf Boys, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Donna the Buffalo, Racines, the Creole Cowboys, Ray Bonneville, Paul Cebar and others. And while much of the audience will focus their attention on center stage, the workshop and dance tents will remain crowded. In the workshop tents it will be musical mashups as musicians from various realms join to discuss and play their brand of music. In the dance tents, the early afternoon dance lessons are followed by plentiful opportunity to try out the new dance step. This year, dancing begins at 3 pm and rolls until midnight.

A la maison

The Pine Leaf Boys dropped by WWUH to talk and play some music. You can find video of two songs they performed here:

Concerts of the Week - Le Grand Dérangement in reverse

In 1755 the English kicked the French Acadians out of Nova Scotia. They resettled all along the Atlantic coast. But the ones who got the furthest - to the French territory of Louisiana - are the ones we know today as the Cajuns. This week, they begin a two week return to the Northeast. With a strong Cajun revival occuring among young musicians in Louisiana, this is your opportunity to catch the best, in your backyard. Tell the squirrels to hide because squirrel fricasse is good, good, good.

The Pine Leaf Boys
June 6
Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton MA

Lock up your daughters. This band revives the wild and raw Cajun sound of their progenitors (yes, progenitors). They've been lauded in the pages of the New York Times, Rolling Stone, New Orleans Offbeat Magazine, and the Times of Louisiana, and rightfully so. They've got a great new album, Blues de Musicien, on Arhoolie. They play like there's no tomorrow.

Blast From the Bayou
June 7-10
Strawberry Park, Preston CT

La renaissance acadienne will be in full view with the above mentioned Pine Leaf Boys, creole accordionist Corey Ledet, and Travis Matte (they call it "booty zydeco" down home) who fills dance halls with 1500 sweaty young two-steppers every Friday and Saturday in La Lou. What's more, the original Cajun revialists Mark Savoy, Ann Savoy and Mike Doucet will appear, as will proteges of the following generation like Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Geno Delafose and French Rockin Boogie, and Chris Ardoin and Nu Step. And if you want to learn the latest Zydeco step, instructor Michael Seider from Louisiana will be divulging secrets. And chef Pat Mould (this MF can cook!), will also unlock the mysteries of some great black pot meals.