Tag: Lafayette Louisiana

Posted on

Deano & Jo are joined by Cat Head Biscuit Boys in their CD release show that’s more than meets the eyes and ears

Jo Walston and Dean Schlabowske / Olivia Perillo photo

by Dominick Cross

OPELOUSAS, La. — At first glance, one could assume that the Sunday double-header at the Whirlybird was a cool way to pass a good time on a hot June afternoon in Louisiana.

It was more than that. It was about beginning anew and all that comes with it; it was about moving on, but not without a hint of sorrow.

It was a debut record release event for a couple of talented and edgy honky tonkin’ transplants who have set up their base camp in Lafayette.

It was also the return gig of a string band, long-time absent from the local scene due to the illness and death of one of its co-founders, the pandemic, and the unexpected find with the addition of a youthful musician.

And it all worked out.

The house was nearly full, the music was pretty damn good and the scent of some tasty Cajun fare, by Jolie Meaux’s Porch, Wine & Gravy, wafted through the air.

If you get a chance to see Deano & Jo and/or the Cat Head Biscuit Boys, do it.

Deano & Jo

In some ways, while it was recorded in 2022, the debut release by Dean Schlabowske and Jo Walston, Deano & Jo, was decades in the making.

But first, a little background.

Among other bands, Dean may be best known for his 25-and-counting years and a dozen recordings with the “Cash meets Clash” sound of the Waco Brothers out of Chicago.

Likewise, Jo and Austin’s Meat Purveyors, known for “punk grass tales of redneck debauchery and woe,” go back to at least 1998 and have six CDs to show for it.

And with both bands on Bloodshot Records at the time, touring together was a natural fit.

“We played a lot of gigs together over the years,” said Dean. “The Waco Brothers and the Meat Purveyors were kindred spirits right from the start. We all became good friends.”

Dean would sometimes head to Austin for his side projects and “play with Jo’s band because they were great people and great players,” he said. “So we had a bunch of projects over the years long before Jo and I were a couple.”

Together in different configurations, Dean and Jo have three recordings.

“We did stuff together before that, but it was more like my projects that I had Jo sing on,” said Dean. “Whereas this is definitely our project.”

Deano & Jo at the Whirlybird, Sunday, June 25, 2023 (left to right): Cameron Fontenot, Jason Norris, Jo Walston, Pudd Sharp, Jean Torres, and Dean Schlabowske. Dominick Cross / photo

The first inception of Dean and the Meat Purveyors was called Deano and the Purvs. Ice Cold Singles followed and then, sans the Purvs, it was Trash Mountain Trio.

“I will say that compared to all the ways we’ve worked together in the past,” said Dean. “This is really different because it’s a true musical partnership.”

The project was recorded at Staffland Studio by Chris Stafford and is out on Plenty Tuff Records. The initial sessions began in April, but overdubbing/mixing sessions “took the better part of 2022 to complete,” Dean said.

“Once it was done, it took a little while to get on a release schedule because we decided to put it out on the label that my band, the Waco Brothers, has started called Plenty Tough Records,” he said.

In addition, the Waco Brothers had a new recording hitting the streets, “and I didn’t want to try to promote the two records at the same time,” said Dean. “So we held off an extra few months because of that, too.

“It’s felt like it’s taken forever to get out,” he said. “But it’s finally here.”

In the past, Dean would let Jo and band know he had songs and a record in mind and they’d all go from there.

“It was more like them sitting in on my side project,” Dean said. “This is more a real reflection of Jo’s and my shared passions and tastes in music.”

Think George Jones, Ray Price, Loretta Lynn and Buck Owens in the country music realm; bluegrass faves include the Stanley Brothers, Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Martin — with a twist and even a shout or two.

“It’s a synthesis of each of our approaches,” said Jo.

The Deano & Jo release features compadres from the past and present.

The new album includes Mark Rubin (Bad Livers) whose bass brings the “sound of punk rock bluegrass, kind of, or high octane, like edgy bluegrass,” said Jo. “And that’s what got me involved and helped me formulate what it is I liked about bluegrass and what kind of band I wanted to have.”

Rubin, a resident of New Orleans these days, hopped on board and “he did all of his parts in one session in one day. And then we overdubbed from there.”

So, with Jo on acoustic guitar and Dean on electric guitar and Rubin on bass, the basic tracks were laid down.

Beth Chrisman, of Austin via Alaska, joined in on fiddle. She’s currently with Silas Lowe.

“Actually, the Meat Purveyors met Beth in Alaska when we played up there in Fairbanks way back in the late 90’s, early 2000,” said Jo. “She was just starting to learn how to play fiddle.

“So now she’s in Austin and she plays with everybody,” she said. “She’s fabulous. She did some great solos on the record. You can tell the love is there, it’s nice what she did for us.”

From Dean’s “Chicago alternative country world” came Robbie Fulks and some flat picking.

“Robbie was another label mate at Bloodshot and a pretty celebrated songwriter and phenomenal guitar player,” said Dean.

Locals Stafford and Chas Justus added their talents on steel and guitar, respectively.

“Nobody plays drums,” said Jo.

Dean concurred: “And no one plays drums.”

Well, on Sunday, the set will be a tad different from the CD.

“I will say that compared to all the ways we’ve worked together in the past. This is really different because it’s a true musical partnership.”

Dean Schlabowske

“We decided we needed to do more of what I’d call a ‘standard lineup’ with electric bass and drums for the show,” said Dean.

The line-up will also look a bit different as summertime is road time for many musicians. So the line-up will be Cameron Fontenot, fiddle; Jason Norris, mandolin; Pudd Sharp, bass; Jean Torres, drums; and Dean and Jo.

Back to the recording, you’ll find previously written originals from Dean’s extensive songbook and a few covers by the couple’s honky tonk heroes and bluegrass stars.

“We wanted to do some bluegrass/honky tonk cover versions that we felt were a little more deep cuts, like, not things that you’d expect to hear,” Dean said.

A Texan with 36 years in Austin, Jo was joined by Dean for three years before the couple moved briefly to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Having visited Lafayette independently and together, the couple knew they’d moved to an area high on homegrown roots music, which isn’t too distant from the honky tonk, bluegrass and alt-country that has defined their music careers.

“We knew that we had simpatico, musical passion with the whole rootsy music and Americana,” said Jo. “Cajun kind of goes hand-in-hand with honky tonk and bluegrass.

“We just decided to try to jump in and meet as many people that we could vibe with on that level as soon as possible,” she said. “But you have to do that when you move to a new place anyway.”

Austin may still be weird, but more so, it’s a pricey place to live. Although the couple moved to Milwaukee to look after Dean’s ailing mother, “the plan was always to get back down south,” said Dean.

Jo Walston and Dean Schlabowske / Olivia Perillo photo

“Both of us had been to Lafayette and loved it. Loved the culture and the music,” he said. “It’s affordable, which was a great contrast to anything we could do in Texas.”

“I’m a Southern woman,” said Jo. “My people go on back, way back and I just needed to get back down here — at least close enough.”

So, with Lafayette conveniently located between New Orleans and Houston and Austin 5.5 hours away, it made for a smart move in more ways than one.

“For me, it’s kind of a perfect place to be,” said Jo. “We love the people and the music and the food and the way that people, even if they’re really old, like 80, 90 years old, people are out there partying and dancing and stuff.

“We want to go out like that,” she said.

“Hopefully a pleasant march towards death,” Dean added.

So they settled in Lafayette in 2022 and kept a low-ish profile on the music scene. As a duo, they played a fundraiser with other bands not too long ago and have spent some time on the Whirlybird stage — that kind of thing.

“For the first year we were here, we decided not to play live and so, really, it was just a matter of getting the sessions together (for the recording), which didn’t take as much time like if we were trying to do gigs all that while,” said Dean.

But the itch to do the record had to be scratched for personal and professional reasons.

“It felt to me like we wanted to just jump in because we found Staffland, we found Staff (Chris Stafford) and we’ve been wanting to do a record for a while,” said Jo. “When we moved here, we knew that we weren’t able to gig if no one knew who we were.”

So they secured Staffland Studio for a recording session and got to know Stafford and other local musicians in the process.

Dean said it was also a way to make some friends “who play music around here before just immediately trying to get gigs and form a band with people we don’t know.”

Going forward, another full record is not in the near future, but “we want to go a bit more modern route and record and release singles digitally,” said Dean. “We want to be an act that plays really regularly and regionally.

“We’re hoping at one point to get it to where we can play once a month in the Lafayette area and once a month in New Orleans,” he said. “And then a smattering of other gigs at places that we can drive to in a day.”

In the meantime, “we just want to keep writing and releasing new music and hopefully solidify a group of local musicians that are playing with us,” said Dean. “And once we develop a little bit of a following, we’ll actually be able to pay them decently.”

As a prolific songwriter, “I want an outlet for that and it’s pretty easy now that we’re in the digital age,” he said.

“Yeah, we’re just going to keep making music because what else is there to do that’s good,” said Jo. “It’s really one of the few things left that’s just fun.

“We’re going to do it,” she said. “We’re going to keep doing it.”

Cat Head Biscuit Boys

The late Bruce MacDonald, left; with Roger Kash. / Olivia Perillo

It wasn’t like the Cat Head Biscuit Boys were calling it quits when guitarist/vocalist and cofounder, Bruce MacDonald, died late April 2022. After all, the band had been on hiatus during the long illness that would take his life, and there’s also the COVID thing.

“Bruce was sick for a long time, so that kind of derailed us,” said Roger Kash, who with MacDonald and Ben Shank were the nucleus of the band. “Our sound revolved around me, Bruce and Ben, the fiddle player. We just had this unique thing.”

As time passed (about three-and-a-half years), Kash and Shank concluded they missed having a band, Cat Head Biscuit Boys in particular.

“I miss playing out a lot and so did Ben,” said Kash. “So we decided to do it again.”

Once the decision was made to keep the Biscuits (Kash’s nickname for the band) playing, filling the roster, well, at least filling one position, was daunting.

“I was having a hard time finding a guitar player because I was always thinking we’ve got to find somebody like Bruce — which is impossible.”

As it happened, thanks to a tip from Chas Justus, a phenomenal guitar player himself, a guitarist was a bass player away.

Eric Moody, bassist with the Biscuits in their last rendering, happened to have a guitar-playing son in Ethan Moody, who plays with Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys.

Kash asked Eric if his son “could cut it.” The dad’s three-part answer was: a) “Oh, yeah!” b) “He loved that band.” and c) “He’d love to do it.”

It was all settled at the first rehearsal a couple of months ago.

“He was great. It sounded different, obviously,” said Kash. “He was really into it, very enthusiastic. He picks things up really quick.”

Kash had some reacquainting to do himself.

“I hadn’t played a lot of material in years, so it was me, like, relearning this stuff,” he said. “Or re-remembering this stuff even though we played it for 10 years.”

With a nod to Shank — “Ben would always bring in these great choices of things to play like he always did” — so keep an ear out for familiar tunes from days of yore, with some new music.

Cat Head Biscuit Boys are: Ben Shank, fiddle; Eric Moody, bass; Ethan Moody, guitar; Roger Kash, mandolin and mandola.

“I was having a hard time finding a guitar player because I was always thinking we’ve got to find somebody like Bruce — which is impossible.”

Roger Kash

“The only thing with Bruce being gone is that all three of us, me, Ben and Bruce would share lead vocal duties,” he said. “But Ethan can sing. Ethan’s got a good voice. So we’ve slowly got to work up songs for Ethan to sing.”

In the meantime, Kash will sing a majority of the songs with Ben taking on some. “And I think Ethan’s going to probably have one that he’s going to sing on Sunday,” said Kash. “He’s a such a sweet kid and he’s just a really good musician. We’re kind of lucky to have him.”

The Biscuits, if you are wondering, is a string band.

“We’re definitely a string band. And we play all different kinds of music and songs that we love, songs that other people don’t cover that we have our own arrangements for,” Cash said. “It’s an interesting mix of stuff.”

Cat Head Biscuit Boys at the Whirlybird, June 25, 2023 (from left): Ben Shank, Eric Moody, Roger Kash and Ethan Moody. / Dominick Cross photo

Take “Going Up The Country” by Canned Heat. You’ll think again when you hear it played Sunday.

“It’s got that flute part in it. Ben rearranged it where. He’s playing that flute part on the fiddle,” said Kash. “We’ve got a real nice arrangement for that.”

There’s a good chance you won’t hear (just yet) the late David Egan’s “Creole Tomato,” a mainstay with the Biscuits.

“Now we’ve got to figure out who’s going to sing ‘Creole Tomato,’ which is probably our best known song,” Kash said. “It was on that little record that we made (four-song, self-titled EP on Valcour Records (2017).”

MacDonald, who was in Egan’s band for years, sang the song for the Biscuits.

“So it’s hard for me to hear it without Bruce singing it,” said Kash. “But we’ll eventually bring it back. Either me or Ben will sing it. We’ll see what happens.”

Kash said while he hadn’t contacted other venues just yet, he’s already hearing from a couple.

“I guess the word is out,” he said, noting the Biscuits have a gig next weekend at Atmosphere and at The Hideaway on Lee in July. “And then Black Pot Festival called and wants us to play there, too.

“I guess we’re back,” Kash said. “Sorta, kinda.”

(Fun fact: Cat Head Biscuit Boys’ first gig was Shank’s wedding about a dozen years ago.)

Posted on

True Man Posse

Creole reggae band returns for Friday gig after long absence

True Man Possee

by Dominick Cross

LAFAYETTE, La. — The last public performance of Creole reggae band, True Man Posse, was at the 2013 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

“That was the last one we did together,” said Walter Thibeaux, of True Man Posse. “We never quit, it’s just we had to take a break.”

For those who are counting, that was 10 years ago and some 133 miles east of here.

Well, as of 2 p.m. March 8, in 69 hours and maybe a couple of miles north of Lafayette, True Man Posse can be heard, Friday, March 10, at Da Zydeco Shack, 4451 NW Evangeline Thruway in Carencro.

There’s a $10 cover. Doors open 6 p.m.; showtime 9 p.m.

Thibeaux said folks can expect, “Real good music, good vibes.”

The band consists of Thibeaux, guitar/vocals; Russell Cormier, guitar/vocals; Terry Broussard, percussion; and Wayne Curtis, keyboard.

True Man Posse released a 12-song recording, Creole Reggae, in 2002 with Rick Lagneaux running the boards and featured Dickie Landry on sax. Keep an ear out for music from the CD, some covers, and new songs.

“It’s conscience music, you know what I’m saying?“

Walter Thibeaux

“We’ve got a lot of other new stuff we haven’t recorded we’re going to play live,” said Thibeaux.

Thibeaux has played reggae for at least 25 years, kicking off with Ras Cloud & the Sons of Selassie I before forming True Man Posse.

“I just kept it going,” he said.

The band’s name is actually a play on the area of town the members came from.

“True Man Posse started out from a little area in Lafayette called Truman,” said Thibeaux. “It’s a little neighborhood and most of the guys were living in that neighborhood when I formed the group.”

And that was on the cusp of the 21st Century.

“It was 1999, 2000 — somewhere around there,” Thibeaux said. “It’s been a while.”

So why reggae in an area of South Louisiana mostly known for Cajun, zydeco and Creole music?

“Reggae is good and strong except for around here,” said Thibeaux, matter-of-factly. “Seems like we’re the only reggae band in town. We’re in zydeco country.”

Still, that hasn’t hindered Thibeaux or the band from its mission of sorts.

“What it is is the lyrics and, you know, the good vibes of the music,” he said. “It’s conscience music, you know what I’m saying?

“It just speaks about reality and it’s one of the ways of expressing myself about what I see going on,” he said. “I put it in my music, which is reggae, but Creole reggae.”

The Creole can be heard in the music.

“It’s got a little Creole flavor in it if you listen to the rhythm real good,” said Thibeaux. “And I blow a harmonica, too, so that’s kind of bringing a little flavor there.

“And what makes it more Creole is that we’re all Creole, you know know what I’m saying. Snap beans and rice and okra gumbo,” he said. “So I stick to my roots and plus the roots from Jamaica (reggae’s birth place).

“Reggae is the same beat of you heart,” said Thibeaux. “It’s the music of life, I call it.”

Posted on

Basin Street Band

History, experience have musicians on same page

Basin Street Band (l-r) Tommy Shreve, Sarah Gauthier, Tony Broussard, Dudley Fruge (behind Broussard), Jimmy Hebert and Ron Fruge / Ted Thibodeaux photo

by Dominick Cross

LAFAYETTE, La. — Tony Broussard don’t play.

Well, ok. He plays sax. And he sings.

But where he doesn’t play is with the bands he’s put together or been a part of over the years, which is to say chocked full of some good musicians.

Take Boogaloo, Force, Sound Advice and All-in-All, and, especially now, Basin Street Band.

Time was on Broussard’s side when he got the itch to return to the music scene with a new band after being away for several years.

He started scratching that itch in 2016.

“I wasn’t in a rush,” Broussard continued. “It was just going to be on my terms and my time table. And it was going to have to be the right guys.”

And that’s fine. However, an unexpected obstacle — “a huge revelation” — revealed itself at the outset.

“Everybody is playing in every band,” he said.

Tommy Shreve / DCross photo

Friend and musician, Daryl Fontenot, informed Broussard of a new reality: “There are no bands anymore that start up and you have dedicated players in that band,” Broussard said he was told.

In other words, it seems the Gig Economy had even encroached on the profession where it probably got its name in the first place.

“Everybody’s playing in five, six different bands,” said Broussard. “How do you put a band together with any kind of continuity if you always have different players sitting in with the band.

“It just boggles the mind.”

Broussard took note, figured in some ego and financial reasons and more or less concluded: “I don’t know, man. I think there’s both aspects to that,” he said. “And I think the other thing is that there’s just no music. No money. The money they’re paying is the same money I was making 30 years ago.

“That’s just the way that it is. That’s just the music business. There aren’t the venues that they used to have,” said Broussard, who may have touched on an inconvenient truth when he added: “And just the social attitude about drinking alcohol and driving and all of that, it’s changed the landscape of the music industry.”

Still, he persevered.

“So, it took me probably three years before I started to get people together to try and put a band together,” said Broussard. “I knew what I needed as far as the players went, what kind of players I needed for this band to make it work and give it the groove it needed.”

Talent and skill are one thing, but a key ingredient for Broussard was experience.

“And it’s not something you can teach anybody,” Broussard said. “You can’t teach somebody about a groove if they’ve never experienced a groove.

“A band that can get in a groove together is such, man, an emotional thing,” he said. “It’s just not something you can teach. It’s a chemistry. Not only is it a musician chemistry, but it’s a musical chemistry. And it has to happen naturally.”

So, while time was on Broussard’s side to put a band together, timing was a whole different thing.

“By the time I did find the right group of musicians to start playing,” he said. “It was the middle of COVID.”

No worries, by the time COVID cases came down and masks pulled off, Basin Street, after a change of personnel here and there, was ready to rock and roll — with a stellar line-up:

Tommy Shreve, guitar; Ron Fruge, guitar, Jimmy Hebert, bass; Dudley Fruge, drums; Sarah Gauthier, vocals; and Broussard, alto/tenor sax.

And all of the musicians can and do sing.

Ron Fruge and Jimmy Hebert / DCross photo

“What’s really cool is that I’ve never played in a band with the caliber of musicians that are in this band,” said Broussard. “It elevates everybody’s playing. You don’t have to think about what you’re doing and you can just concentrate on making the music.

“And that’s where we are with this thing, man. It just happens naturally,” he said. “It’s scary-good sometimes. It really is.”

It doesn’t hurt that musicians in the band have a history together, some going back decades.

“Tommy Shreve and Dudley Fruge were roadmates when they toured with Zachary (Richard),” said Broussard. “Jimmy (Hebert) played with Zachary for a while.

“And Dudley’s brother, Ron, is a freakin’ monster on his own. Great guitar player, great singer,” he said.

And Hebert and Broussard also go way back to Boogaloo. Hebert has performed and/or recorded with Zachary Richard, Hunter Hayes, Richard Lebouef, and Kevin Naquin.

A result of such high caliber musicians who know each other, “You don’t have to teach anything,” said Broussard. “You don’t have to say anything because it’s happening.”

It’s what folks have come to expect after witnessing the talent and skill of Shreve, the Fruges and Hebert over the years; they hardly need an introduction.

An unknown quantity, however, was Gauthier.

“I didn’t know this girl from Adam. She happened to be sitting in with Major Handy,” said Broussard. “Somebody had taken a video and that’s how I first became exposed to Sarah.

“And man let me tell you, Sarah just brings just a whole other thing — just her style and versatility — man, I can’t say enough about Sarah and her stage presence and how she presents a song,” he said.

Ted Thibodeaux, a local musician who returned to the area not too long ago, concurs. (Editor’s note: I couldn’t make a recent Basin Street gig, so Ted took some of the photos and talked about the band for this story when they played at The Ruins.)

“I never saw Sarah (Gauthier) sing before,” said Thibodeaux. “I don’t know where she came from — Saturn, maybe? Seems like she’s from another planet she’s so good.”

Thibodeaux explained: “Anybody who can sing Janis Joplin and then jump like that with no hesitation to sing ‘At Last’ (Etta James) is really good.””

Gauthier teaches theater (her first love) in the Louisiana Public School Systems Gifted Program and she runs Theatre Acadie.

“I learned I could sing later on in life and so this gives me the opportunity to fulfill my performance desires without having to be in a six-week long rehearsal for a play,” Gauthier said. “So I’m still able to get on stage and do what I love doing.”

She got her late start singing with New Iberia’s Blue-Eyed Doll from 2011-2015. These days, Gauthier also sings with the band Ask for Ashley.

Then Basin Street came calling.

“When they asked to sing with them, I was like, ‘Yes.’ It was not even a question,” said Gauthier. “I like singing rock and roll. And I think there’s more of a performance aspect there.

Sarah Gauthier and Tony Broussard / Ted Thibodeaux photo

“But with Basin Street, I really get to hone in on my vocal craft. They are stellar musicians with a ridiculous amount of experience. I’m learning a lot as a musician with those guys.”

Gauthier said there’s a lot to appreciate being a member of Basin Street.

“I love it that I’m not the only singer in the band,” said Gauthier. “Every single person in the band sings and four of us sing lead, so I get to sing a lot of backup and I just get to dance and play the tambourine.

“I feel like everybody is singing from their soul, so that’s great because that’s the only way I know how to sing,” she said. “Everybody puts their all into it.”

And like Broussard, Gauthier can feel the intangible vibe within the band.

“It’s kind of magical. We really have a good mesh on stage,” she said. “There’s a really great connection and it’s hard to find that where everyone feels really comfortable with one another.

“You can feel when somebody’s kind of changing the groove or adding something to it and we all just go along with it,” said Gauthier. “It’s great.

“They know music backwards and forwards, so even if we skirt around and do a little something, we all know how to get back to where we were.”

Broussard said having pair of stellar guitar players like Shreve and Fruge goes a long way with a band.

“When they can work together, it’s very rhythmic. Percussive might even be a way to put it as far as how that contributes to the groove just by the nature of having two guitar players,” Broussard said. “There’s a percussiveness in the sense in how a guy plays guitar and rhythm guitar and letting songs breathe.

“You don’t have to have music at every second of the song,” he said. “In my opinion, the tightness of a band is not how they manage all the notes, but how they manage the quiet time — those spaces — how precise they are with the dead spots of a song.”

Basin Street covers plenty of genres, from rock and roll, R&B, to local music from Wayne Toups, Zachary Richard, and Marc Broussard.

“It’s kind of magical. We really have a good mesh on stage.”

Sarah Gauthier

“You have to do your standard stuff. You got to do like, ‘I Got Loaded,’ and some of the swamp pop things just because of South Louisiana,” said Broussard. “But we mix it up with some Neville Brothers. We do ‘Pockaway.’ Some bands just do that during Mardi Gras. Man, that’s a great song.”

You can also expect to hear some Robert Palmer, Janis Joplin, The Band, Aretha Franklin, Delbert McClinton, Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett and other crowd favorites.

“We can present a song and give it our own flair and flavor, but also be precise and consistent of what it is we’re playing,” he said. “It’s a mixture of stuff, but it’s been our goal to do great music that not many bands, if any bands, are doing.”

Thibodeaux said Basin Street left an impression.

“Phenomenal, man. The level of talent in this group and the camaraderie and the professionalism…” Thibodeaux trailed off. “The sound was good. It wasn’t too loud. It was mixed. He had a variety of strong vocalists.

“I don’t even dance, but for some reason this night, I was dancing,” he said.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Jourdan Thibodeaux: A Cajun original brings his songs and energy to the Festivals Acadiens et Creoles stage

Jourdan Thibodeaux

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.

Jourdan Thibodeaux et les Rôdailleurs: Joel Savoy, guitar; Adam Cormier, drums; Jourdan Thibodeaux, fiddle; Cedric Watson, accordion; Alan Lafleur, bass.

“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.

High energy is building…
…high energy has arrived.

“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.”

Jourdan Thibodeaux and Cedric Watson

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.

Jourdan Thibodeaux high-stepping.

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.

Posted on

¡Vamos!

Latin Music Festival devuelve

Cimafunk headlines Latin culture fête featuring authentic cuisine, professional dancers, art and kids activities

Michelle Colón elaborates on songs, Malentina of the Lafayette Latin All-Stars, and the line-up

Michelle Colón fronts Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars, set to hit the Latin Music Festival stage at Parc International, 5:30 p.m., Saturday, October 1, 2022, in Lafayette, Louisiana.

by DOMINICK CROSS

LAFAYETTE, LA — Absent two years courtesy of COVID, the Latin Music Festival returns and is raring to go at Parc International in Downtown Lafayette, Saturday, October 1, 2022.

A new start time, 4 p.m., is in place along with Festival International de Louisiane as producer of the Asociación Cultural Latino Acadiana’s family-friendly event that showcases Latin food, dance, art, and, of course, music.

The line-up features Cuban funk superstar Cimafunk, Rumba Buena from New Orleans, Acadiana’s own Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars, as well as Latinos on the Rise, a variety show.

Tickets are $10 and are available here and at the gate. Kids 12 and under admitted at no charge.

Front and center of Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars is Michelle Colón, a native of Puerto Rico and Lafayette resident for 10 years. Colón is a singer, songwriter, and stage (most recently, “Closer,” at Cité des Arts in Downtown) and film actor.

“We’re performing some of our most established classics that people love to hear and they’re the ones we get the most requests and for good reason,” said Colón. “They’re the ones we like to play the most. So that’s a good thing.”

The band, together since February, is scheduled to take the stage at 5:30 p.m. with a set list that includes Latin classics by Eddie Palmieri, Celia Cruz, La Lupe, Willie Colón.

Other songs (viewable on YouTube) include Héctor Lavoe‘s “No Me Den Candela” at The Grouse Room, and Palmieri’s “Café,” performed at The Hideaway. Both venues are in Lafayette.

Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars

In addition, keep an ear out for a couple of originals by Colón, who has also penned songs in other genres.

“I am extremely happy we’ll be playing two original tunes,” she said. “I have plenty more, but to get a band to learn all the parts and rehearsing within enough time has been a challenge. So I decided we’d do two instead all of the rest of mine.

“I thought it was a good balance to do a few songs people have never heard before, combined with a lot of classics that they can sing along and dance to.”

The Lafayette Latin All-Stars (Editor’s note: The pedigree of these guys earns the All-Star moniker) are Josh LeBlanc (GIVERS, Serpentine Man), trumpet; Tim McFatter, saxophone; Paul Tassin, keyboard; Troy Breaux, drums; Eric Auclair, bass; Jeff George, guitar; and Evan Ceaser, congas.

Colón takes a personal interest in the songs she sings, even when they’re not her own.

“I’ve always felt that if I’m singing it, I want it to be my story,” she said. “Even the songs that I choose to cover, actually, I still think, ‘Would this be something I feel — it’s my story.’”

Colón has a procedure she follows when writing a song.

“I usually have a very good idea of what the song sounds like, which means I have the melody,” said Colón. “Now, because I cannot produce and I’m not very well versed in an instrument, I’ll usually use a piano to find my melody.”

From there, she’ll take the song to Josh LeBlanc “and he will find the chords and then he can translate that for the rest of the band,” she said. “And Troy (Breaux), because he knows so much about this music, he will lay down the percussion aspects and he will also inform the band anything in their (music) language that they wouldn’t understand otherwise.”

Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars plan play to Colón originals, “Missing Out” and La Mala.”

Colón said “Missing Out” is sung in Spanish, “but the chorus is a call and response from Spanish to English. So I decided to call it ‘Missing Out.’”

Expect “La Mala” to be the band’s opener.

“It’s interesting because I think that it’s Malentina’s signature song because Malentina, the name, I derived it from the malicious one,” she said. “I love it because I always did what everybody told me to do.

“The day that I decided that I was going to go out on my own, it just felt right to call myself ‘The Malicious One.’ It’s not about doing evil, but it is about making and breaking my rules.

“And it gives me a lot of freedom,” Colón said. “I think that’s why I suddenly feel I’ve found myself — my voice and my lyrics — because I feel free to do that.”

Which is a nice seque to…

Malentina

When not singing with the the eight-piece Latin band, Colón takes Malentina on solo endeavors, as seen and heard in Para Tí (a must see and listened to visual EP).

Michelle Colón as Malentina.

“She definitely has an esthetic; she’s definitely a persona,” said Colón. “At the end of it all, what’s cool, is that at the bottom of it all, I’m still me. And I am her. It’s impossible to divide myself from her.

“But I feel like when I embody her, I have a little more freedom to be who I want to be,” she said, adding, “which is ironic, but I think that’s just how us humans operate sometimes.”

Malentina’s “Camelia,” a full-length album with a wide-range of genres in English/Spanish, is expected to hit the streets in 2023.

As either Malentina or herself, Colón looks forward to the festival, the food and taking in the music.

“The acts we’re having — I still can’t believe Cimafunk is coming back,” she said. “I was kind of star-struck by them at Festival International.

“I’ve seen the other band that’s performing, Ruba Buena, in New Orleans,” said Colón. “And they are fantastic. In fact, there are like 10 people in one band.

“It is my hope that it sets the tone for years to come and people can expect a really bombastic and lively Latin Festival.”

Posted on

Pass a good time for a bad break and help give more hope to Dillan Pope

by Dominick Cross

LAFAYETTE, LA — Everyone has access to GoFundMe when something usually tragic strikes. There are nonprofits, churches, businesses, etc., and, of course, good people at the ready to assist in anyway they can.

There can be bake sales, car washes, donation cans around town and the like raising cash for medical bills and recovery.

We have all of that here in South Louisiana. And it’s a wonderful thing.

But we have something else, too: Top-tier musicians playing great homegrown music and a packed house of folks eager to financially assist the particular cause and pass a good time in the process.

It’s how we roll.

So with that in mind, mark Sunday, August 28, 2022 on your calendar for Songs of Hope, a benefit for Dillan Pope who suffered an accident that burst his cervical 7 vertebrae on April 29, 2022.

The benefit goes from 1-9 p.m., at Warehouse 535, 535 Garfield St., Lafayette, La. Currently, there’s an online auction underway.

The injury left him paralyzed from his chest down throughout his lower extremities.

From what I understand, Dillan is super diligent in rehab and determined to walk again.

Tickets are $15, kids 12 and under free. In addition to great music and fun and camaraderie, there’s a raffle, silent auction, cash bar, food by The Southern Spread.

The line-up is simply incredible: Has Beans, Dyer County, Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole, Feufollet, and Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys.

Special guests include Sonny Landreth, Jourdan Thibodeaux, Anna Laura Edmonton and Chris Segura.

Dillan Pope endured a lengthy surgery on April 30th after the incident. The fractured bone was removed, and hardware was put in place to stabilize the area while it heals.

Dillan attended TIRR Memorial Herman Inpatient Rehabilitation in Houston the month following his surgery, and is now attending rigorous outpatient therapy at Spero Rehab in Austin, TX. He has gained some movement in his lower extremities, however, it is impossible to know how much of his mobility will be restored.

Most spinal cord injury patients continue rehabilitation for years, in addition to purchasing supplies and equipment to assist in daily living. Dillan has, and continues, to work very hard towards becoming independent, and we have high hopes for his full mobility and functionality to return, but only time and extensive rehab will tell.

Posted on

‘Giving back to the community’ is Maison Title celebrating its fourth year in Grand Coteau with music, crawfish and an overall bon temp

Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble perform at Maison Title’s fourth annual event celebrating its fourth year in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. DCross/photo

by Dominick Cross

It was mid-afternoon on Friday the 13th. Dark storm clouds grew and threatened as the wind whipped-up in and around Lafayette, Louisiana.

A pop-up storm, yet another of Spring 2022, was inbound and Downtown Alive!, the free outdoor concert series in Downtown Lafayette, was cancelled for obvious reasons.

Up in Grand Coteau, a small town some 15 miles north of Lafayette, a different scene would unfold under cloudy skies and a steady breeze. Not one drop of rain would fall.

The phone rang. The excitable voice on the other end happily informed me that Grand Coteau was having it’s own version of DTA! right then and there.

Right around the corner from her abode, hometown fave, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, had set up on a flatbed trailer in the street in front of Maison Title and were about to play.

And not only that, free crawfish, free hotdogs, free cookie-cake, free beer and other beverages were available while supplies last.

“This is our way of giving back to the community that supports us.”

Leah Graeff

Who’s going to pass up that? Not moi. When I arrived inexcusably later than intended, I would find the crawfish were gone, but everything else was in good supply.

I chatted with some friends and was told Leah Graeff had the keys to the crawfish. I’ve known Graeff mostly for her singing and “creative endeavors” (aptly stated in her bio).

(Backstory: Leah and I met a while back at Dwyer’s Cafe. She was having breakfast with her dad, musician/songwriter Benny Graeff.

(Back-Backstory: I’d been out of town a few years and hadn’t seen Benny in a while. We’d met in the mid-’90s working with Robert Dafford touching up some of Dafford’s frog murals at the Rayne exit on I-10.)

So, at Dwyer’s that morning, I was working through my breakfast, when Benny asks me in a disguised-ish, gravely voice, “Hey, man. I’m hungry. Can I have some of your breakfast?”

I looked up. Leah’s back was to me and Benny, sitting opposite her, just stared at me. Man, this dude is ballsy, I thought, but said aloud, “Looks like you’ve had your breakfast.”

Benny said something else along his initial comment and I was getting a tad uncomfortable and decided to ignore him. Then he says, “Dom. It’s me. Benny. Benny Graeff.”

When he stopped laughing, he introduced me to his daughter.)

Fast-forward to Friday past and Leah Graeff and crawfish and Grand Coteau…

Not that I was surprised the crawfish were gone. Fine. But how did Graeff know, I wondered.

Graeff, a Sunset native, is the executive director at Maison Title, the business that put on the shindig in its courtyard. She wears the marketing hat and a couple of others, too.

I also learned the event wasn’t Grand Coteau DTA! It was an annual celebration, now in its fourth year, that marks when Maison Title opened its doors in Grand Coteau. Maison Title is a real estate transactions company pretty much serving Acadiana.

But there’s more to it than that.

“We like to have events that bring the community out. We like to provide experiences for the people that we do work for in the community, the people we do see everyday,” said Graeff. “The people that we spend our time with.

“It’s how we brand ourselves. That’s how we’d rather spend any money we have to show people who we are,” she said. “We want to do stuff where we get to spend time with people.”

No ads in print or TV. No big billboards, though there’s one small billboard right around the corner by the office Maison Title’s our phone number.

“But, no. No other advertising any other way,” Graeff said. “This is just what we like to do. We’d rather have people front of us and spend time with people that we want to service.”

“This is our way of giving back to the community that supports us,” said Graeff. “For 364 days a year, they’re walking into the building for our attorneys to do work for them, for us to do transactions for their homes.

A couple dance to Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble in the courtyard of Maison Title in Grand Coteau, La. DCross/photo

“They support us throughout the year,” she said. “So this is our one day where we put on a big party so we can support everyone.”

I also learned that Maison Title has other such events during the year.

“For Halloween, we do a ‘Carving in the Courtyard’ event that’s similar,” said Graeff. “We don’t have a band, we usually have a DJ because there’s more kids.”

In addition to pumpkin carving, there’s hayrides and other activities for the family. Graeff pointed out a pumpkin patch growing in the courtyard.

“That brings out about the same crowd and it’s all kids. They’re in costumes, the adults are in costumes,” she said.

When the weather is nice during working hours on a Friday, “we’ll have ‘Cooking in the Courtyard’ where we’ll have a huge barbecue pit or if it’s fall/wintertime, we’ll have a big gumbo going,” said Graeff. “So, anybody who walks past is welcome to have lunch. Anyone who has an appointment with an attorney or a closing, stay and have lunch.”

Sure, the whole idea can be considered a business doing business, but it’s also giving back and being a good neighbor. Call it good will.

“It’s fun. This is how we like to meet people and how we like to give people an opportunity to get to know us,” Graeff said. “And we’re doing what we like. We like listening to Cajun and zydeco music. We like hanging out outside and cooking and talking to people.

“It’s doing what we like to do,” she said.

Posted on

From jam session to intangible connection to Festival stage, local horn player LeBlanc sits in with international band(s)

Josh LeBlanc, right, sat in on trumpet with The Flying Balalaika Brothers, Thursday, April 28, 2022, in Day 2 of Festival International de Louisiane in Downtown Lafayette. DCross/photo

by DOMINICK CROSS

LAFAYETTE, La. — It was the before times, 2019 to be exact, at a jam session just steps away from Festival International de Louisiane in Downtown Lafayette, when Josh LeBlanc and his trumpet met The Flying Balalaika Brothers.

And in no time LeBlanc was asked to join his newfound, yet strangely familiar, musician friends on a Festival stage.

“I just randomly jammed with them,” said LeBlanc, an Abbeville native living in Lafayette. “The next day, they asked me to play with them at Festival. I even had less time to prepare the last time. It was literally the day after, but I just pretty much improvised over a lot of their stuff.

“(Zhenya Rock) was quickly showing me stuff back stage as best he could,” LeBlanc recalled, adding that his days with gypsy swing band, Vagabond Swing in 2009-2010, had helped in the endeavor. “And I was like, ‘I’m very familiar with these modes and scales and style.’”

Upon Festival’s 2022 return, it was this past Thursday evening that the Russian/Ukrainian/U.S. band and LeBlanc were reunited on Scene Laborde Earles Fais Do Do.

And this time around, it was smooth sailing.

“I’m just kind of looking at him, waiting for him to give me the signal,” said LeBlanc. “But I had a chance to chart-out everything and write charts for it — in-between other bands I’ll be playing with for Festival.”

‘It just felt like, immediately, I’d been playing with them forever.’

Josh LeBlanc

LeBlanc had a gig later that evening with Malentina & the Lafayette Latin All-Stars at the Grouse Room, Downtown Lafayette.

And come 7 o’clock Saturday evening at Festival, LeBlanc will sit in on a couple of songs with Delgres at Scene LUS Internationale.

It wasn’t a stroke of luck that LeBlanc, who also plays bass with the band, Givers, finds himself blowing his horn with international musicians, it was a choice (and, of course study, practice, practice and practice).

“I was a marching band geek. Whenever I discovered jazz, that’s when I changed. That was in college,” he said. “Once I discovered jazz, I was like, ‘Cool. I can improvise and make my own music.’ I tried doing classical trumpet for a while, but it wasn’t for me. It’s too rigid.

Josh LeBlanc, right, awaits the word from Zhenya Rock, with accordion, to take off on a solo. DCross/photo

“Thankfully, I studied jazz so I can do things like this and just improvise,” said LeBlanc, with a nod to the stage as Haiti’s Lakou Mizik set up, now that it was vacated by The Flying Balalaika Brothers. “Just tell me the key and then I’ll try to make up something that fits.”

So while Vagabond Swing, in some ways prepped LeBlanc for The Flying Balalaika Brothers, there was also a connection with the band members at that 2019 jam that defies description.

“There was something about meeting them, I felt like immediately I knew them somehow. It was like a weird thing,” LeBlanc said. “You know, Russian culture and then Louisiana culture, you wouldn’t think there’s an intersection there, but for some reason, it just felt like, immediately, I’d been playing with them forever.”

Festival, conceived as a multi-faceted cultural event of international scope and significance, continues through Sunday.

The remaining schedule:

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

For Dogs’ sake

As a matter of public safety, animal safety and basic common sense, do leave your pets at home when attending Festival.

Cassandra jumps for joy and Clarence concurs on the news that they’ll miss Festival again this year. DCross/photo

We, the upright, two-legged mammal with opposing thumbs who actually enjoy loud music, tons of people we don’t know, and can traverse Downtown’s hot sidewalks and streets with ease without burning the pads off our feet, should use our status on the food chain and do right by our pets.

Posted on

Festival returns front, center, and live in Downtown Lafayette; Ukraine’s DakhaBrakha set for Saturday night

Festival International de Louisiane is underway in Downtown Lafayette, April 27-May 1, 2022. DCross photo from FIL 2019

by DOMINICK CROSS

LAFAYETTE, LA — It appears the planets are aligned for Festival International de Louisiane when it returns, live, to Downtown Lafayette this week after two years in pandemic postponement purgatory.

Festival, the well-earned, singular moniker given to the five-day international music, food and art spectacular, runs Wednesday, April 27, 2022 through Sunday, May 1, 2022.

Ordinarily the only concern, the weather, looks to hold rather nicely with pleasant sunny days and doable humidity with comfortably cool evenings — at least until possibly sometime Sunday.

An unusual concern and the reason behind the past two vacated years, covid (festivalus interruptus), in whatever version it finds itself as these days, is of low concern here, according to the CDC.

So, with weather and covid in the bag, coupled with the usual stellar music line-up, Festival should experience some hefty crowds.

And those crowds will no doubt swell to see and support DakhaBrakha (Saturday, 9 p.m., Scene Tito’s Handmade Vodka Lafayette), a group from Ukraine whose country is under attack from Russia. One might want to also check out the Flying Balalaika Brothers (Thursday, 6 p.m. Scene Laborde Earles Fais Do Do). The group consists of musicians from Russia/Ukraine/U.S. and that ought to show the world that we can get along.

But it all begins Wednesday at Scene Laborde Earls Fais Do Do when father-son zydeco bands hit the stage. Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas open at 6:30 p.m., to be followed by Lil’ Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers.

By the way, look for a new release coming from Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas. Also, take note that Dennis Paul Williams, Cha Cha guitarist/artist, is illustrating a book on zydeco with Michael Tisserand.

Internationally speaking, the line-up also includes The Wailers (Jamaica), Locos For Juana (Colombia/Venezuela/Argentina/U.S.), Les Filled de Illighadad (Niger), Natu Camara (Guinea), Vieux Farka Toure (Mali), Cimafunk (Cuba), Lakou Mizik (Haiti), and Son Rompe Pera (Mexico) and others.

Louisiana is well-represented with Zachary Richard, Sonny Landreth, Julian Primeaux, Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole, Roddie Romero & Michael Juan Nunez, Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, Lost Bayou Ramblers w/79rs Gang, Dustin Dale Gaspard, The Daiquiri Queens, Boma Bango, Magnolia Sisters and Sou Express Brass Band, and others.

Opening ceremonies are Thursday, 7:30 p.m. at Scene LUS Internationale. Here’s the schedule:

Wednesday, 4.27.22 Thursday, 4.28.22 Friday, 4.29.22 Saturday, 4.30.22 Sunday, 5.1.22

For dogs’ sake

Cassandra jumps for joy and Clarence concurs on the news that they’ll miss Festival again this year.

As a matter of public safety, animal safety and basic common sense, do leave your pets at home when attending Festival.

We, the upright, two-legged mammal with opposing thumbs who actually enjoy loud music, tons of people we don’t know, and can traverse Downtown’s hot sidewalks and streets with ease without burning the pads off our feet, should use our status on the food chain and do right by our pets.