“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.”
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.”
“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.”
LAFAYETTE, LA — When Tommy Comeaux died tragically in November 1997, the music community rallied around the fallen musician and pathologist and sought a way to honor his life.
And, as tradition has it here, the effort to raise funds was centered around music, which was done with annual Medicine Shows. It was the right thing to do for many reasons, but especially because Comeaux, a renowned multi-instrumentalist, had played with BeauSoleil, Basin Brothers, Coteau, the Clickin’ Chickens and others.
Come Friday, April 22, 2022, 7 p.m., the 16th in a series of these evenings is set for Angelle Hall, St. Mary Boulevard and McKinley Street, on the UL campus.
Opening the show will student bands, the Angelle Aces (Cajun), Ragin’ Steppers (zydeco), Saint Street Songsters (string band), Ragin’ & Blues Band (R&B), and Vermilion Express (bluegrass).
General admission to Medicine Show 2022 is $10.00 (free with UL I.D.); and $25.00, which includes admission to a post-show reception honoring the performers, as well as Mark DeWitt, Professor of Music, who was chosen for the inaugural position a dozen years ago and who is retiring this year. Advance tickets available here.
“I did the best I could to move slowly, at first, to get the lay of the land and to see where the demand was and where the low hanging fruit were in terms of what students wanted and what resources we had in the community which turns out we had a lot,” said DeWitt, who relocated from California to Louisiana for the position.
“We were going to do more than Cajun and Creole music all along. Although I feel strongly that that needs to be the core of the program.”
Mark DeWitt, Professor of Music, Dr. Tommy Comeaux Endowed Chair in Traditional Music
The community resources were abundant and skilled and anxious to get to work and they all figured out the course together.
“The amount of musicians in the community who are so good at what they do and also interested in working in a university environment even if they had never done so before,” he said. “Some of them who hadn’t even gone to college themselves. It was cool.
“We kind of learned as we went. We learned things like teaching fiddle and accordion at one of those summer camps, which is like a one-week camp — as opposed to doing it for 15 weeks — it’s a whole different thing.
“There’s just more time to teach things. You can do it in a different order and do it in a different way,” he said. “So we learned some of that stuff together.”
The first course was Cajun music, something DeWitt was familiar with.
“So I started with Cajun music because that was my interest when I came here, and it also seemed like an obvious thing to start with,” said DeWitt. “And then we also found out there’s also student interest in other types of music too.”
“So we we added bluegrass and that was real popular for a while,” he said. “One of the things I also learned was that the students like something that’s new. So they go for the new thing and then it’s not so new anymore and then you have to do a little more persuading.
After Cajun music came bluegrass “and then we added zydeco band and then some blues and it just kind of grew over time. And now it’s all I can keep up with, it’s about as much a one person can do,” said DeWitt. “So I feel like it’s a good time to hand it over to the next person, whoever that turns out to be. I’ll do my best to share with them tips or secrets or things to remember.”
“We were going to do more than Cajun and Creole music all along,” he said. “Although I feel strongly that that needs to be the core of the program.”
While it was a new program at UL, DeWitt knew it was no secret how the area’s traditional music had kept going all these years and he responded accordingly.
“I knew pretty well we weren’t going to lead with music theory,” he said. “People learn music by ear, right? They learn by hanging out with other people and jam sessions are a relatively recent thing in Cajun music, but it’s still a way for folks to get some reps and get the music in their ear which is really important.
“I knew that going in that music theory was something to teach second, not first,” he said, adding, “or second or third.”
“We have a few traditional music majors, but it hasn’t been as popular a major as I would’ve liked. But then there’s always hope for the future on that,” said DeWitt. “Nonetheless, we’ve had a few and I had taught them a music theory class that was kind of tailored toward traditional music as part of their major.
“And they also got to learn how to read music a little bit in the same classes that the music business majors take, keyboard musicianship classes and so they get exposed to it, but it’s not like a prerequisite coming in. It’s not like they’re getting a sight reading test and they’re auditioning.”
DeWitt returns to California in June and he’s grateful for the opportunity the Comeaux Chair afforded him and all that came with living in South Louisiana.
“I certainly got to meet a lot of great musicians and work with them. Some of those were students, too,” DeWitt said. “But, certainly, the faculty we had and just the chance to actually live here in the middle of all this great music and kind of experience how it all fits together.”
DeWitt, an ethnomusicologist, paused, then continued.
“I’m not sure I can put it into words, even, how the cultural environment that nurtures the whole musical scene here is really interesting to be a part of and try to understand,” he said. “I’m still not sure I could really explain it, but I’m a lot closer than if I never lived here.”
The late Courtney Granger will be honored Saturday, March 19, 2022, 1 p.m. on Scène Ma Louisiane. DCross photo
By DOMINICK CROSS
LAFAYETTE — In this much needed pause between calamities — a waning pandemic and the possibility of WWIII — make the best of the opportunity to indulge in Festivals Acadiens et Creoles, this weekend (March 18-20, 2022) in Girard Park.
The springtime version of the festival that’s usually held in the fall marks the 48th running of the music, food, arts and crafts extravaganza celebrating the Cajun and Creole cultures. One doesn’t have to go back in history to recall that COVID-19 put a halt to life as we knew it this time of year in 2020, and the virus kept most of us off-balance through 2022.
Virtual festivals became the rule of thumb everywhere and got us by, like decaf coffee, until the real deal that’s about to go down in two days and upcoming months. So, bring on the caffeine, the great outdoors, dancing shoes and an appetite for food, fun and frolic in all of the usual ways. Almost.
“We’re celebrating finally getting back together again, live in the park,” said Barry Ancelet, president of the board of Festivals Acadiens et Creoles. “We want people to please be responsible. Let’s not get carried away, careless at this point to undo the good things that are happening.
“Hopefully, as many people as possible will be vaccinated and just be responsible in how we gather. If anybody feels sick or symptomatic of anything, really, not just COVID, but anything, you know, they’ll stay home.
“Let’s just be safe. Let’s be smart,” he said. “If you’re coughing or running a fever, stay home.”
Festivals Acadiens et Creoles will again return to its normal time in October — yep, we’re getting a two-for-one this year — sans hurricane, pandemic or another world war.
Ancelet said that the original event that became this festival was held in the spring in Blackham Coliseum. But there are no plans to return to this time of year on a regular basis.
“We’re going to have the festival in October,” Ancelet said. “This spring festival is to make up for the one we didn’t have last October. In October, we’re still dealing with hurricane season, but I think it’s become our home, become our time.”
While bad weather may be an issue, it should take place when we’re all tucked away for the night. As of Wednesday, there’s “the chance for some severe weather as the front moves through, which is expected to be in the early morning hours of Friday,” according to KATC Weather, noting that the weekend outlook is good.
Music to your ears
The festivals’ line-up includes the usual Grammy-noms and Grammy winners, standard bearers of years past, envelope pushers of the present, and new bands with familiar names.
There is a tribute to the late Courtney Granger, Saturday, March 19, 2022, 1 p.m., on Scène Ma Louisiane. Granger, who left us way too soon at 39 in September 2021 , played Cajun fiddle and Cajun sang with The Pine Leaf Boys and Balfa Toujours. He sat in with everybody and would make the hair on your neck stand up knocking off a country crooner classic. Granger released Beneath Still Waters in 2016 and if you order it now, you should have it in your collection by next week.
Over the weekend, there’s the golden opportunity to listen and dance to Sheryl Cormier & Cajun Sound, Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Wayne Singleton & Same Ol’ 2 Step, Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars, Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie, Bonsoir, Catin, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, Balfa Toujours, Joe Hall and the Louisiana Cane Cutters, Feufollet, Savoy Family Band, Cedrick Watson & Bijou Creole, Riley Family Band, The Potluck Band, Jesse Lege, Lil’ Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers, Jourdan Thibodeaux et les Rodailleurs, Wayne Toups & ZydeCajun.
Chris Ardoin and NuStep Zydeco, opening night, Friday, March 18. DCross photo
The Bayou Food Festival will give you a taste of the Cajun and Creole cultures, and the Louisiana Crafts Fair artists and craftspeople will have their wares to marvel over and purchase.
Looking ahead
Ancelet said the board will meet in early April to plan the fall festival, in which the week of will coincide with an ethnomusicology conference in Lafayette.
“We’ve got some interesting plans for the next one,” he said. “None of this is in stone, but what we’re discussing right now is celebrating Louisiana as an international Francophone crossroads, examining the connections Louisiana has to the rest of the French speaking world.
“Part of that is going along with the likelihood that we’re going to have a major, international Francophone Ethnomusicology Conference in Lafayette the week of the festival in October,” Ancelet said, adding, “all of this is in the planning stages, but this is what we’re shooting for.”
Look for scholars and performers from the Francophone areas “that we’re examining to see the connections,” said Ancelet. “Not only to ponder them, but hear them.”
A similar ethnomusicology conference was held over Zoom last year.
Who knew?
As it happened, Mason had a major impact on Ancelet’s life during his collegiate years, and, as it so happens, anyone who has ever enjoyed Festival Acadiens et Creoles.
Mason came to Louisiana in the early 1970s “and met with and learned from and recorded with the Balfa Brothers, Nathan Abshire, the Ardoins — a lot of the founding members of that generation — so he’s very well connected and a long-time, not only fan of, but very knowledgable of Cajun music and zydeco.”
While in Nice, France, when Ancelet was on his academic year abroad in 1972-73, Mason was playing “Crowley Two-Step” in a coffee shop, “And it changed my life,” said Ancelet.
Ancelet introduced himself and said he was from Louisiana and that the song eased his homesickness.
“And he said, ‘You must know all of the people I learned from, Dewey Balfa, Nathan Abshire…,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know any of those people, but I need to know who they are.’”
Roddie Romero & the Hub City All Stars, Saturday, 3:45 pm, Scène Ma Louisiane. DCross photo
Mason told Ancelet that when he gets back home, go to Basile, get directions to Dewey Balfa’s house and introduce himself. So, in the summer of 1973, he knocked on Balfa’s door.
“I said, ‘Are you Dewey Balfa?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I am.’ I said, ‘I’m Barry Ancelet and I’m from here and I was in France and I met Roger Mason,” recalled Ancelet, who said in his nervousness, his response got faster and faster before Balfa urged him to slow down and invited him inside.
“I went in and that’s how I got involved in all of this,” Ancelet said. “And it was in part due to Roger Mason.”
LAFAYETTE, LA (BHP) — It’s not their first rodeo and while they’re not quite back in the saddle again, they do have one boot in the stirrups as Acadiana’s Sean Ardoin and Corey Ledet and their zydeco music releases are nominated for 2022 Grammy awards in the Best Regional Roots Music Album category.
Ardoin’s “Live in New Orleans!” and Ledet’s “Corey Ledet Zydeco” were tapped.
The Black Pumas, of Austin, Texas, with Loreauville native and keyboardist JaRon Marshall in tow, were nominated in the Best Rock Album category with album “Capitol Cuts: Live from Studio A.”
In addition, their song “Know You Better” from that album is up for Best Rock Performance.
Ardoin was nominated for a Grammy in 2018 in two categories: Best American Roots Performance for “Kick Rocks” and Best Regional Roots Music Album for “Kreole Rock and Soul.”
Ledet’s “Nothing’ But the Best” was nominated in 2012 in the Best Regional Roots Music Album category.
The Black Pumas were nominated last year for Best New Artist in their category.
Best Regional Roots Music Album For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new vocal or instrumental regional roots music recordings.
Live In New Orleans! Sean Ardoin And Kreole Rock And Soul
LAFAYETTE — If Festivals Acadiens et Creoles 2021 is to be held this year, it probably won’t be when it usually is.
The cultural celebration was scheduled for October 8-10 in Girard Park.
“October increasingly seems to be problematic,” said Barry Ancelet, board president of Festivals Acadiens et Creoles. “So we’re still exploring if there are any other options or what’s what.”
For that, thank a virus near you. And that would be the Delta variant of COVID-19.
“We are concerned and we’re looking at options to try to figure out what we can do,” Ancelet said, noting that the Scott Boudin Festival, set for late September, is cancelled. “Everybody who’s putting on any kind of live performance realizes the problem, the danger of doing something like that in this moment, in this surge.
“We’re all trying to figure out what the hell to do,” he said. “We have a tentative plan, but we’re still trying to figure out how the ducks line up.”
Ancelet added, “things are being examined and confirmed right now.”
The festival board met a week earlier than usual because of the virus issue.
On the festival’s website, visitors are greeted with ‘JOIN US IN-PERSON OCTOBER 8 THRU OCTOBER 10’ under a photo of Cedric Watson performing at the festival.
Ancelet said the website hasn’t been changed “in quite a while.”
The fourth wave of the coronavirus made up of the Delta variant has yet to crest and filling local hospitals with a vast majority of non-vaccinated people.
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival cancelled its anticipated October 8-17 run earlier this week. The 2022 Jazz Fest plans to return to its spring dates, April 29-May 8.
