Tag: Daiquiri Queens

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Do the math: Spectacular music + cook and/or taste a gumbo + shake a leg + camp + jam amongst tents + pass a good time = Blackpot Festival

Music and dancing go hand in hand at Blackpot Festival & Cookoff.

Dominick Cross, story/photos

LAFAYETTE, LA — We’re knee deep in fall in South Louisiana.

Halloween is less than a week away. The New Orleans Saints are in action (such as it is), and the Blackpot Festival & Cook-Off is back in full form, Friday and Saturday (October 28-29, 2022) at Vermilionville, 300 Fisher Road.

If you’re counting, which includes not counting the COVID years of 2020-2021, Blackpot is in its 16th year of presenting an eclectic collection of music and musicians not commonly heard in these parts.

Yes, there’ll be Cajun and zydeco and la la, as well as Old Time, blues, string band, Western swing, bluegrass, singer/songwriter, Tex-Mex, ragtime, country — music you can enjoy even if the power grid goes down.

And, yes, again, the square dance session is in its usual Saturday morning slot at 11 a.m. with The Faux Paws with Nancy Spero calling.

Then there’s the camping.

Where there’s grass, there are tents…

Coupled with a wide-ranging line-up, the option to camp on festival grounds and partake in or simply enjoy pop-up jams (day & night and the wee hours), also sets BlackPot Festival & Cook-Off apart from other festivals in the area.

…and where there are tents, jam sessions break out all over the Blackpot campground all day and all night.

Another divergent particular at Blackpot is the costume contest set for 10 p.m. Saturday night at the Main Stage, between Los Texmaniacs and The Revelers. And why not? After all, Halloween is just two days away.

Blackpot Camp

In the meantime, Blackpot Camp is underway at Lakeview Park & Beach, 1717 Veterans Memorial Hwy., Eunice. There are musical instrument and music style classes underway through Thursday, covering Cajun fiddle, guitar and accordion; Western Swing, Old Time, harmony vocals, rhythm, drums, and dance.

The nightly dances, open to the public, have two bands and begin at 8 p.m. and so far have featured Joe Hall & the Cane Cutters, Blackpot All-Stars, Chas Justus & the Jury, The Revelers, a Square Dance and the 99 Playboys.

Coming Wednesday, it’s Bruce Daigrepont, the Honky Tonk All-Stars; and Thursday, it’s Preston Frank, followed by Cajun music.

Blackpot Fest

The Blackpot Festival itself gets started 6 Friday evening with, well, options across three stages. The Fraulines open the Main Stage; a Cajun jam with the Daiquiri Queens takes place at the Chapel Stage; and Renée Reed performs at the Schoolhouse Stage.

The Pine Leaf Boys close out Day 1 of Blackpot and before that goes down, you can also hear K.C. Jones, Roochie Toochie and the Ragtime Shepherd Kings, Jackson & the Janks, John R. Miller & Chloe Edmonstone & J.P. Harris, and The Shabbys.

Come Saturday, Jesse Lege starts the day-long music extravaganza with a Cajun jam at 10 a.m. Square dancing begins an hour later and then an hour after that, all music breaks loose.

Square dancing – complete with instruction and plenty of beginners – gets the juices flowing at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The impressive lineup includes: Sheryl Cormier, Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole, The Daiquiri Queens, Preston Frank and Ed Poullard, The Murphy Beds, The Georgia Parker Trio, Amis du Teche, Forest Huval, Diamond J. & the Ruby Red Raindrops, Travis Stuart, Libby and the Loveless, Epi & Friends, Ferd, The Hushabyes, Golden Shoals.

See Saturday’s extensive schedule here.

One of the many bands on the schedule is Lafayette’s Major Handy who will hit the Chapel Stage, Saturday, 6-7 p.m. While only Handy’s name is listed, do know the set will include his band, Major Handy & the Louisiana Blues Band.

“We’re going to have the whole band,” said Handy.

Major Handy and friend. Robin May photo

The band consists of Carmen Jacob, drums; Ramsey Robinson, guitar; Lincoln Landry, bass/vocals; and Handy, accordion/vocals.

And if you’re wondering what you’ll hear, well, here ya go:

“I’m going to be doing Major Handy, bro,” Handy chuckled. “You know, rhythm & blues and jazz and, I don’t know, maybe there’ll be zydeco.”

Handy’s set list includes Just My Imagination (The Temptations); Last Two Dollars (Johnnie Taylor); It’s Alright (Curtis Mayfield) Turning Point (Tyrone Davis); I’ll Take You There (The Staple Singers) and I’m On A Wonder (Clifton Chenier).

You can also expect a few of Handy’s tunes with Come On Home, Zydeco Feeling and Trailside.

Handy, steadily gigging after the pandemic, is also recovering rather well from a stroke in January 2020. Handy said he’s doing “Pretty good. I just got a little limp that aggravates me every now and then,” he said. “But, you know what? It’s leaving.

“It’s all but over,” continued Handy. “It’s not that bad. Every time I go to therapy, I come back a little bit better and stronger.”

COOK-OFF

While there will be food and beverages about, one would be remiss not to mention the Cook-Off. It is an integral part of the festival. Heck, it’s in the event’s name: Blackpot Festival & Cook-Off.

John Vidrine check on his chance at a prize while onlookers check on John Vidrine.

The cook-off takes place Saturday afternoon. Folks can visit each chef’s outdoor kitchen and sample their creations.

Anyone can enter from amateur to professional for a chance at prizes and bragging rights. Categories include Gravy, Gumbo, Cracklins, Jambalaya, dessert.

Entry fees are $75 for individuals; Civic organizations, $100; and Business, $125. Go here for more info.

BLACKPOT TICKET INFO
Weekend pass includes camping, $70; Friday night, 6 p.m.-midnight (no camping), $30; Saturday noon-midnight (no camping) $40.

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Daiquiri Queens debut release in hand; now comes the wait as pandemic woes continue

John Dowden Jamie Lynn Fontenot, Chelsea Moosekian, Sabra Guzmán, Miriam McCracken, Tysman Charpentier, fiddle.
Daiquiri Queens: John Dowden, accordion; Jamie Lynn Fontenot, guitar; Chelsea Moosekian, drums; former bassist Sabra Guzmán; Miriam McCracken, guitar; Tysman Charpentier, fiddle.

by Dominick Cross

In mid-June, the Daiquiri Queens debut CD hit the streets.

Said streets are a little more empty these days as the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic continues to embroil this ball of confusion we call Earth.

Nevertheless, the self-titled, 10-song disc of traditional Cajun music is out. Finally.

“We were going to put it out for Festival International,” said Jamie Lynn Fontenot, who with Miriam McCracken, fronts the band. As we know, the pandemic sent Festival into the virtual world, as it will Festivals Acadiens et Creoles come October.

“It just kept never happening,” Fontenot said. “And then the coronavirus started and all of our gigs cancelled, and all of our CD release ideas were no longer what was up.

“It’s been pretty anti-climatic since no one’s playing,” she said. “I don’t know.”

Fontenot and McCracken sing and play guitar; John Dowden is on accordion/fiddle, Tysman Charpentier plays fiddle, and Chelsea Moosekian is on drums. Bassist Sabra Guzmán has left the band.

The CD was recorded at Staffland Studio and produced by Chris Stafford, who sat in on guitar and pedal steel. Olivia Perillo designed the CD package.

Bands usually sell a chunk of their music at gigs and festivals and that’s not happening these days for obvious reasons.

So the Daiquiri Queens CD is available at iTunes, Apple Music and the like, as well as through the band.

“It’s pretty easy, actually,” said Fontenot. “Hopefully, we’re going to do some digital performance stuff.”

A CD doubles as a band’s calling card sent to reviewers, festivals, venues, radio stations.

“You also have to have something for bookers that want to book you for festivals that aren’t in Louisiana. They generally ask you where your album is,” Fontenot said. “This is preferable.”

Good word of mouth specs are a plus, but knowing how a band sounds is to know whether it will fit with a particular festival or venue.

“I’m glad we have something besides YouTube videos to send to festival bookers that email us,” said Fontenot.

“We’ve been playing together for two years or more with this set-up,” she said. “So it’s cool to have that done and we’re stoked about what the next record will sound like.”

While a traditional Cajun music group, do know that the Cajun music band puts newfound energy into the trad songs.

There are no originals on the CD, and it does include songs by Dale Dugas. The band honored Dugas at last year’s Festivals Acadiens et Creoles by wearing T-shirts with her image on it and playing her songs they found.

Dugas’ 1993 release “Chanteuse Cadjinne” on Swallow records netted her Female Vocalist of the Year honors by the Cajun French Music Association (CFMA) in 1994.

Dugas was in the audience that afternoon, but due to lung cancer she was unable to sing with the band. On May 1, Dugas passed away.

“The album’s kind of dedicated to her,” said Fontenot. “And there’s multiple songs of her’s that we did.”

Looking ahead, on the calendar for the band this fall is an almost three-week jaunt around Germany, an annual road trip of sorts organized by a Cajun music connoisseur there.

“He seems to be optimistic that it’s still going to go on,” Fontenot said. “That’s the only thing that we’ve got coming up.”

It’s something positive to look forward to, well, that and performing live.

“If we get to go to Germany that would be awesome,” said Fontenot. “If we at all start playing gigs again in the near future, that would be fun.”

Time will tell. In the meantime, Fontenot summed up the feelings of many a musician.

“I miss playing music really bad,” she said.