DOMINICK CROSS/story&photos
LAFAYETTE, LA. — Jourdan Thibodeaux may or may not be an influencer, but he’s definitely an original.
You can hear his originality in Boue, Boucane et Bouteilles (Mud, Smoke and Bottles), his previous release on Valcour Records and in the upcoming, the tentatively named L’Âme, L’Amour et La Mort (Soul, Love and Death).
And you can see and hear, as well as dance to songs from both recordings Saturday, October 15, 2022, 6:15 p.m., at Festivals Acadiens et Creoles when Jourdan Thibodeaux et les Rôdailleurs take to Scène Ma Louisiane in Girard Park.
The Cajun and Creole cultural celebration gets going 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday with a French Mass. See schedule here.
The festival, with Cajun and Creole music, food, arts and crafts, jams runs through Sunday. The fall version returns the event to its original scheduled time and date on the calendar after an absence of two consecutive years, courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spring version of Festivals Acadiens et Creoles was held earlier this year under remarkably similar weather.
Thibodeaux said festival-goers can expect the complete song list from Soul, Love and Death and other songs, too.
“It’s all original music. We’re doing all the one that’s on the new album,” Thibodeaux said. “So we’re kinda going to focus on a lot of that and then some of the other ones from the last one.”
A street date for the release is in a couple of months.
“We’re just about finished with the new album,” he said. “The goal was to have it out for festival, but schedules didn’t allow us to get it out that quick.”
Thibodeaux said if there’s a theme to the new release it’s “Songs about my life. So, it touches base on a bunch of different things: upsides of love, downsides of love.
It’s got a track from when Thibodeaux was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx when the 30-something was 21, and another song “that kind of talks about the future and after we dead,” he said. “That focuses on what comes after us. What we leave behind.
“Not necessarily me personally, but us as a people what we’re leaving behind,” he paused. “I guess me, personally, to a degree.”
Thibodeaux then waxes philosophically.
“I don’t know, have we done anything impactful that’s actually going to matter,” said Thibodeaux. “Everything we do matters, you can look at the butterfly effect. You know what I mean? Not in terms of any type of legacy type thing, but in terms of how did I contribute to society as a whole.”
From all outward implications, Thibodeaux has been impactful regarding the Cajun culture, from literally singing its praises at home and on tour, to trying to save the language with a healthy dose of humor to get it across on social media.
The musician has produced and stars in video vignettes in Cajun French with English subtitles, entitled Louisiana French du jour.
“People kept asking me all the time how could they learn French. A lot of people that say they’re interested, they want to learn, you know, ‘I want to speak the language. My grandpa spoke, my mama and daddy spoke, whatever, and I’d really like to learn,’” said Thibodeaux.
“I kept getting on different resources, but then I was like I should come up with something that can kind of engage people,” he said. “I feel like a lot of people try, but it takes a lot of will power to sit down and try and learn something in a school-type setting, even if it’s just yourself.
“Just the delivery of the content is normally very, I don’t know, it’s school-like,” Thibodeaux said, adding he wanted to do “something that can be a little more engaging, a little more attentive but still keep the focus on the task at hand.
“Here’s something that you can look at, you can try and learn, enjoy without feeling like you’re working,” he said.
Thibodeaux has posted 15-20 entertaining and informative videos.
“If you just get it back in front of p people and let people know this is something you can do, something you can try,” he said. “With the old people…just talk your language. There’s so many old people that don’t because they hesitant, they weren’t really looked upon in the best light for a long time.
“And then with the young people, I find they’re hesitant because they’re scared of doing it wrong, or scared of whatever,” said Thibodeaux. “And it’s like, just take that pressure off and let it be something fun, honest and real.”
This approach to the Cajun language, and even the music is intended to keep the culture alive. And there’s something else, too.
“Pass it on to your kids. Make people realize if you get enough kids going, you can reconstruct the same way they deconstructed us,” Thibodeaux said. “They didn’t go after adults that were doing one thing and say, ‘Hey, do it differently.’
“They went to a bunch of kids and said, ‘Hey, don’t do this anymore.’ So if you go and approach your own children and say, ‘Hey, live like this.’ Then they will and that will be the thing that takes form,” he said. “If you can just introduce them to the language, introduce them to the music, to the food, to the everything, then as they grow, that’s their life they identify with,” he said. “And it’s them who’s going to be the progeny.”
Thibodeaux said it wasn’t until he began touring that he saw exactly what South Central Louisiana has and how it differs from the rest of the country.
“Until I started traveling, I would have never realized how different it really is,” he said. “And then once you get out and see everything else it’s like there’s a lot of places that have a lot to offer and they’re really cool and I love them, I love going there.
“But you’re always so ready to come home.”
Thibodeaux has performed publicly for 10-11 years, but “I grew up playing music at the house,” he said.
“I would sing the old songs with my grandma – the old French music – I learned a lot of that growing up. And then my grandpa from the other side, we’d sing songs.”
His first instrument was the drums (“So I’d play anything anyone was willing to play”) before he moved on to fiddle.
“I had one neighbor for a while who wanted to play accordion, we were 6th, 7th, 8th grade,” Thibodeaux said. “So he’d try and play the accordion and I’d try to play the drums. We were pretty much just making a racket in the barn, but we were trying.”
Fast-forward to today and you can’t miss the amount of energy when the band hits the stage. And there’s a good reason why this is so.
“It’s probably because it’s just honest. It’s really easy to play a song and get in a song when you feel it honestly,” said Thibodeaux. “When I start playing — these are all stories from my life — this is my real life that I’m sitting here talking about.
“So to feel that and to engage with that is really easy because it’s my feelings,” he said. “And then on top of that, the privilege of playing with these tremendous musicians that I have on stage with me, that they can hear what I hear in my head.”
And those musicians are Joel Savoy, guitar; Cedric Watson, accordion/fiddle; Alan LaFleur, bass; Adam Cormier, drums.
Thibodeaux expounded on “…they can hear what I hear in my head,” a/k/a how he writes songs.
“I don’t know music like everybody else. I don’t know what notes I’m playing, I don’t know all these chord structures and all this stuff they talk about, it means nothing to me,” said Thibodeaux. “So all I can do is sit and hum them a part, or tell them I think it sounds like this. And they just understand and they can play it in such a way and add their own touch to it to create so much.
“It’s really an exciting feeling to hear something in your head that doesn’t exist and then have world class guys turn around and be able to play it back at you in a way that better than you can even imagine.
“It gets you pumped up pretty quick,” he said.
In a festival or live setting, having world class musicians with you on stage is one thing. An appreciative audience is another and just as important.
“When you get on stage, you’ve got the guys playing, you’ve got the energy of the crowd. The crowd completely changes how you perform,” said Thibodeaux. “When you can see the people into it, the people feel it, that’s a feeling you can’t even put into words.
“I know everybody who plays can relate to it, everybody can always see it, but there’s no way to explain what that does to you as a person to know you’re bringing these people happiness, they’re having a good time.
“Or even if it’s a sad song, you can see that they feeling it,” he said. “You’re communicating in a whole different way and it’s wildly powerful.”
No one knows what the future holds for the Cajun cultures, but in the right here/right now, Thibodeaux will be doing his part.
“As long I’m alive, it’s going to keep going. Ain’t no doubt about that,” he said. “As far as after us, i’m seeing a lot of real talented guys coming up.
“Incredible musicians,” said Thibodeaux. “There’s a handful of them we go out and watch and they’re really, really impressive, the young guys. And that definitely gives me a lot of hope.”
That talent and hope can be found in the likes of Cameron Fontenot, Donovan Bourqe and Seth Spell.
“They get up there and they really killing it,” Thibodeaux said.