A sampling of books on Acadiana History

An Historical Trilogy by Carl Brasseaux:

• Acadian to Cajun-Transformation of a People (1982) A study of unusual documentary resources that disclose the processes of cultural evolution that transformed the Acadians of early Louisiana into the Cajuns of today

• The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803 (1997) The history of the settling Acadian South Louisiana.

• Scattered to the Wind (1991) An overview of the dispersion of the Acadians from the Bay of Fundy area across two continents, the author describes some of the indignities and atrocities suffered by the Acadians at the hands of the British.


Books about Cajun assimilation

• People of the Bayou, Cajun Life in Lost Louisiana, by Christopher Hallowell, (2003)
A haunting record of a place in transition -- another corner of American culture facing assimilation into the mainstream, a way of life that may be gone before we know it.

• The Cajuns, Americanization of a People by Shane Bernard (2006)
A history of how Cajun culture coped with forces that threatened its uniqueness

A sampling of books on the local environment

Inherit the Atchafalaya (2007) by Gary Guirard

Co-sponsored by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Inherit the Atchafalaya includes a 40-page introduction to the culture, history, and folklife of the Atchafalaya by noted cultural anthropologist C. Ray Brassieur, meticulous maps of the Atchafalaya Basin, a historical timeline of Basin development, several profiles of south Louisiana boat styles and boat builders, a comprehensive list of suggested readings about the Atchafalaya Basin, a historical photo gallery of south Louisiana logging, interviews with fishermen from the Atchafalaya Basin area, and nearly 150 images by renowned photographer Greg Guirard, most of which have never seen print.

Atchafalaya Autumn (1995) by Gary Guirard

A written and photographic record of Guirard's Thoreau-like attempt to leave civilization and live in the wild, this personal account tells the story of four years of living in the Atchafalaya Basin in camps and houseboats.

Bayou Farewell: The Rich LIfe and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast by Mike Tidwell (2004).

I finished reading this haunting book literally the day before Hurricane Katrina hit and fulfilled the worst case scenerio that Tidwell’s haunting book predicted.

the first European settlers. He describes the food, the music, the culture, and the life of all those who live along the bayous. And under his keenly observant eye, the bayou itself becomes a compelling character—-reminding us of how much we stand to lose if we fail to address the problems facing this most vibrant of places.

The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities by Mike Tidwell (2006)

Mike Tidwell’s follow-up to Bayou Farewell, this book examines the history of New Orleans, our tinkering with natural waterways and the rising sear levels and relates it to understanding the implications of global warming for our country and the world. A page-turner and compelling read.


Hurricane Rita: Reflections of a Generation Witnessing Disaster by Vertna Bradley (Author),(2006) David Marshall (Editor)

Hurricane Rita hit Acadiana less than a month after Katrina. While Katrina grabbed the national headlines, Rita, a Category Three hurricane, was more damaging to Southwest Louisiana. The anthology tells the real life experiences of scores of college age people in Lake Charles, who chose to ride out the storm in their homes when Hurricane Rita slammed into Southwest Louisiana.

The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous: Fighting to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina by Ken Wells (2008)

The true story of a resilient circle of shrimp boat captains who faced and withstood the wreckage of Katrina but now find their courage tested by a greater threat: the disappearance of their livelihood and their centuries-old bayou culture. With a long and colorful family history of defying storms, the seafaring Robin cousins of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, make a fateful decision to ride out Hurricane Katrina on their hand-built fishing boats in a sheltered Civil War–era harbor called Violet Canal. But when Violet is overrun by killer surges, the Robins must summon all their courage, seamanship, and cunning to save themselves and the scores of others suddenly cast into their care.

In this gripping saga, Louisiana native Ken Wells provides a close-up look at the harrowing experiences in the backwaters of New Orleans during and after Katrina. Focusing on the plight of the intrepid Robin family, whose members trace their local roots to before the American Revolution, Wells recounts the landfall of the storm and the tumultuous seventy-two hours afterward, when the Robins’ beloved bayou country lay catastrophically flooded and all but forgotten by outside authorities as the world focused its attention on New Orleans. Wells follows his characters for more than two years as they strive, amid mind-boggling wreckage and governmental fecklessness, to rebuild their shattered lives. This is a story about the deep longing for home and a proud bayou people’s love of the fertile but imperiled low country that has nourished them.

Acadiana based fiction

Meely LaBauve by Ken Wells (2001)
Huck Finn goes to Cajun country. This is an enchanting book about a young Cajun boy, filled with swamps, gators, fishin' for crawfish, great adventures, and a genuine feel for life in the Bayou back country. The dialogue writing was inspired and at times, I laughed out loud. I read it in one night, and my only regret was that it was so short. Meely LaBauve is a great character. Highly recommended.

A sampling of books about Music

Cajun Music, A Reflection of the People
by Ann Savoy (1984)
“The White Book”. This is one of two definitive books for learning how to play Cajun music. Ann collects songs and stories, which both entertains and preserves this rich musical genre. An essential guide to Cajun music.

Yé Yaille Chere!
by Raymond E. Francois (1990)
“The Yellow Book”. This is the other definitive collection of Cajun songs. Includes the most common lyrics and the melody in standard notation. This book is a valuable reference for anyone interested in Cajun music and the Cajun culture. Tunes, turns, chord changes, and words are documented in manuscript for more than 240 selections, ranging from old songs which have nearly been forgotten to the classic songs of Cajun repertoire. Variations of many songs are included, and songs are cross-referenced to original and other recordings and to related songs. Reminiscences by Cajun musicians and extensive notes provide a musical and cultural setting for the selections. Some controversy over some of the songs, but this is folk music after all and it is hard to pin down the definitive versions of many of the songs. 500pg. hard-cover.

The Kingdom of Zydeco
by Michael Tisserand (1998)

There have been several histories available about Cajun music, but until now, very little has been written about zydeco. Michael Tisserand's book comes along to definitively fill that gap.

The author has traveled to Louisiana, Texas and California speaking to the old and new generation of Creole and zydeco musicians, promoters, historians, family, fans and audiences and recorded their stories and recollections. Here you find Boozoo Chavis, Canrey Fontenot and Mama Lena Pitre (Andre Thierry's grandmother) among others talking about the house dances and the manners and music of their youth. You discover how the term zydeco got into popular usage (more than just the 'snap bean' story). You learn how Clifton Chenier designed and had made to order the first 'modern' rubbord. You discover the evolution of different accordians in the musical tradition. There's a frank discussion of the background of racism and the racial tensions that came about as Creole musicians played for white audiences. The charisma and tragic turn of trail-blazing Amede Ardoin's life is eye-opening. Additional chapters feature Clifton Chenier, his son C.J., Buckwheat Zydeco, Nathan Williams, Rockin' Sidney, Boozoo Chavis, Zydeco Force, Beau Jocque, Keith Frank, John Delafose and his son Geno, and Terrance Simien.

In addition, a chapter called Gulf Coast West talks about San Francisco Bay area legends, Danny Poullard and George Broussard. One story involved their band, the Louisiana Playboys, and the night George called a reluctant Ida Guillory up to a San Francisco Mardi Gras dance at All Hallows church to play the accordian. A San Francisco Chronicle reporter was in the audience as George called Ida the 'queen of the Mardi Gras'. The story was put on the cover of the Sunday magazine section, and the rest, as they say, is history.

This is a history that is as spell-binding as a novel. It will open your eyes, keep you up at night and have you running to the CD store for the soundtrack to put on as background music as you read this absorbing history.


Let the Good Times Roll: A Guide to Cajun and Zydeco Music
by Pat Nyhan, Brian Rollins & David Babb (1998)

Have you ever stood in front of the Cajun/zydeco section of a record store and wanted to purchase something by a Cajun, Creole or zydeco musician you'd heard about but had no idea which recording to select? Or wanted to listen to something new, but didn't know where to start? This certainly was my experience as my interest in Cajun and zydeco music grew.

Now there is a wonderful new resource available to everyone who is interested in Cajun/zydeco music. The authors, who have made a lifetime study of Louisiana music, are Pat Nyhan, a journalist, and Brian Rollins and David Babb, two former musicians who host Cajun/zydeco radio shows in Portland, Maine. Collectively, they add the enthusiasm of fans to their extensive research and knowledge, resulting in this informative and fascinating book.

A foreword by Michael Doucet opens the 232-page paperback. The introduction gives a brief history of Cajun and zydeco music and recording history. The meat of the book is in the music reviews - with the Cajun and Creole section written by Brian Rollins, and the zydeco recordings authored by David Babb. Each section starts with a top 10 list of recommended recordings. The reviews for each artist start with a biography, and then their recordings are ranked by 'the best', 'excellent', 'good', and 'other recordings'. . Nearly 600 albums are rated and reviewed in all. A comprehensive appendix of resources covers music sources (record companies and record stores, including mail order sources), Internet resources, books, magazines and newspapers, videos, festivals, and Louisiana music clubs

While I may quibble with some of the rankings (discussing their recommendations would make for great party conversation), I would still highly recommend this book as an excellent way to explore this music, short of a one-year sabbatical in southwest Louisiana.

One Generation at a Time (2007)
Photographs by Philip Gould; text by Barry Ancelet
An excellent history of Festivals Acadiens et Creoles, written by one of the original organizers of the festival.

Accordions, Fiddles, Two-Step & Swing: A Cajun Music Anthology (2006)
by Wayne W. Daniel (Foreword), Ryan A. Brasseaux (Editor), Kevin S. Fontenot (Editor)

According to Cajun musician, Louis Michot: “Accordions, Fiddles, Two Step & Swing gives a fresh new perspective on the music of the Cajuns, showing that it is not a completely isolated cultural artform, but a result of a unique ethnic people who are constantly being influenced and changed by thier American nieghbors, integrating mainstream culture into thier own, without losing the Cajun identity. The book fills in many of the blanks we all wonder about...how did these musicians actually live and learn. Reviews many overlooked bands and musicians that were never given credit because the are "outside the cultural boundaries. My favorite aspect of Accordions, Fiddles, Two Step & Swing: A Cajun Music Reader, is how it focuses not on the romantic idealism of South Louisiana, but focuses on the reality of this Franco-Catholic culture surrounded by an Anglo-protestant America, and the effects of this constant influence from the outside-in.”

Texas Zydeco
Text by Roger Wood (Author), James Fraher (Photographer) (University of Texas Press, 2006.)

To most people, zydeco appears as quintessentially Louisiana as gumbo. Certainly, the music originated among black Creoles of southwest Louisiana. But the swamps of southwest Louisiana spill across the Sabine River into southeast Texas, and the music originally known as "la-la" quickly trickled west, too. There it fused with blues to create a new sound that came to be known, spelled, and recorded as "zydeco."

Black Creoles from Louisiana began moving into southeast Texas in search of better jobs during the first half of the twentieth century. As they resettled, so did their music. Texas Zydeco describes how many of the most formative players and moments in modern zydeco history developed in Texas, especially Houston. As the new players traveled back and forth between Houston and Lafayette, Louisiana, they spread the new sound along a "zydeco corridor" that is the musical axis around which zydeco revolves to this day. Roger Wood and James Fraher spent years traveling this corridor, interviewing and photographing hundreds of authentic musicians, dancers, club owners, and fans. As their words and images make clear, zydeco, both historically and today, belongs not to a state but to all the people of the upper Gulf Coast.

Zydeco!
Photographs by Rick Olivier; text by Ben Sandmel (University Press of Mississippi)

If you are curious as to how zydeco was transformed from a dying folk tradition in the 1940’s and 1950’s to its nouveau zydeco resurrection in the late 80’s and 90’s, you will find Zydeco! a fascinating tale. This book focuses on the pivotal roles now legendary musicians, Clifton Chenier, Boozoo Chavis, and Buckwheat Zydeco played as revivalists, popularizers and ambassadors of the music and culture they grew up with, and how they saved their heritage from the obscurity and disfavor it fell into during the mid-century. It was a journey first away from the ‘la la’ music of their childhood, and then back again, as Chenier and later Buckwheat, Lynn August and Warren Caeser ventured far and wide into other musical traditions, such as soul music, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll before returning to the French Creole music they grew up with.

Stories about trail rides, and Creole cowboys and life on the "crawfish circuit" of southwestern Louisiana abound in the firsthand accounts of the musicians in this book , as do childhood memories of going to the ‘la la’ dances or listening to their grandparents sing ‘jure’. (for a greater insight into the origins of the Creole style, read Michael Tisserand’s excellent, The Kingdom of Zydeco).

In the musicians’ own words, Zydeco! also recounts how the revival of zydeco was deeply mixed with a fierce pride in the black Creole heritage and traditions that emerged along with the Sixties’ black power, black pride political and cultural movements. One example recalls how Zydeco music became interchangeable in the public’s mind with Cajun music during the mass media’s popularization of Louisiana culture and music in the 1980’s . Both were showcased in the movie, "The Big Easy’, which featured nouveau zydeco musician, Terrance Simian, as well as the Cajun band BeauSoleil playing a tune called "Zydeco Gris Gris". On Paul Simon’s tribute to Chenier and Louisiana music on Graceland, the song That was your Mother included the lyrics, "Catch a little bit of those Cajun girls dancing to zydeco". Paul Prudhomme’s popularization of Louisiana cooking also blurred the distinctions between Cajun and Creole in the public’s mind. Stanley Dural (Buckwheat Zydeco) in particular took great pains to emphasize that he played black Creole or zydeco music, and contractually stipulated that the publicity for his gigs must NOT state that he was playing Cajun music or the contract would be voided and the engagement canceled.

Zydeco! also frankly discusses prejudice and the toll it has taken. In a long interview, Boozoo Chavis speaks very frankly about the racism he had to deal with and how stories about him falling off a chair drunk at the recording session where he cut "Paper in My Shoe" were falsely circulated. Boozoo quit playing music for almost two decades, because he fell he was being exploited by the industry. And as recently as 1997, Geno Delafose had difficulties playing in a ‘white’ club with Cajun musician Dewey Balfa’s daughter, Christine in Basile.

On a lighter note, the book recounts the origins of some of Boozoo’s X-rated lyrics from ‘the dirty dozens’, a male bonding rhyming folk genre.
Zydeco! also discusses how the new generations of zydeco musicians continue to travel down the paths set by these trailblazers. The current scene include such ‘modern traditionalists’ as Geno Delafose and Nathan Williams, as well as the proponents of ‘zydeco nouveau’. The nouveau scene evolved as elements of funk, hip-hop and rap were incorporated into the music, in some cases updating songs from the traditional repertoire. Nouveau musicians, including Beau Jocque, Keith Frank and Chris Ardoin, draw large crowds to the ‘crawfish circuit’ dance halls today.

For lovers of zydeco who wish to gain a greater understanding of how zydeco evolved from its folk roots to its modern incarnation, Zydeco! is required reading.


Cajun and Creole Music Makers.
Text by Barry Ancelet; photographs by Elemore Morgan, Jr.

In English and French. (University Press of Mississippi). This re-issue is an updated edition of the 1974 classic volume which chronicled the rejuvenation of Cajun and Creole music with great photographs and fascinating interviews with many legendary performers including: Dewey Balfa, Clifton Chenier, Dennis McGee, Canray Fonteot, Nathan Abshire, Bois Sec Ardoin, Michael Doucet and Zachary Richard.