New Directions in Cajun Music: The Bluerunners and Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys play the SF Bay Area

To my ears, the Bluerunners, who played at Eagle's Hall on Friday night, July 27, are the most eclectic of the two bands. This band, which gets its name from the classic song by Bebe Carriere, put on a fascinating performance, mostly performed in French, and including both traditional and original compositions. As the evening progressed, their set, a veritable musical chairs of instruments,  passed  through genres starting with a sax-based, New Orleans/Queen Ida sound.  One waltz featured a wonderful interplay between the saxophone and accordion which was masterful.  Several songs later, the sax was dropped in favor of a fiddle.  Several songs were performed in that  old-style, creaky Cajun fiddle playing style, and later the fiddle repertoire expanded to some more progressive, modern  tunes.   At which point, the fiddle was abandoned for a rubboard and the band went zydeco,  followed later by some swamp pop and straight-on rock and roll.  The vocal stylings of band co-founder, Mark Meaux's, were particularly noteworthy.  With a distinctive, high voice, his Cajun singing initially made some of us look up from the dance floor and turn to the stage, wondering where that compelling sound was coming from.  All in all, the Bluerunners' music is very danceable and the band stays high energy all night long. To my ear,  the band's only weakness (although some may argue that this is their strength) is that they lack a distinctive, unifying style that ties all the pieces  together. 

A few days later,  Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys (SRATMP), made their first of two Bay Area performances,  to a capacity crowd at Ashkenaz.  It may have been cool outside, but it was a swamp on the dance floor.   This was the band's first Bay Area performance with its newest Playboy, Sam Broussard, on guitar, replacing the hole left by the late Jimmy Domegeaux and filled for a while  by Roddie Romero.   Sam, formerly with T-Mamou (one of my favorite Cajun bands),  lends a strong guitar presence and harder edge to the band. He holds his own against frontsmen, Steve Riley  and David Greely, adding some dynamic, high -energy guitar stylings to the sound mix.  Long-time, rock-steady drummer Kevin Dugas, and new bass player Blaine Gaspard complete the band.

 SRATMP  is the contemporary band that, along with Beausoleil, has been most successful in exporting and popularizing the traditional syncopated Cajun dance hall sound  to places far beyond Southern Louisiana.   Progressive within the Cajun tradition, the band continues to experiment and expand their repertoire,   adding swamp  pop, zydeco, jure and South Louisiana flavored rock & roll to  the mix.  The set they played at Ashkenaz leaned heavily on the Cajun dance hall songs, included a few swamp pop and zydeco tunes (including the ever popular Zarico est pas sale/Clifton Chenier medley),  but also ventured deep into their newer, more challenging, material,  from their latest CD, "HappyTown".   In fact, a few of their  older songs seemed to be  cut shorter than I remembered them and ended rather abruptly, as if the band  had  suddenly grown  tired of playing them. 

From "Happytown", the band played the dirge-like Gros Jean/Big John,  which tells the tale of a black man who waiting to be hung after killing Gros Jean, the man who stole his women. It's a strong performance piece, but not really dance material. In the equally serious, Les vigilants/The Vigilantes, they tell the tale of a man being stopped on the road to his lover's house by vigilante riders. Even one of their more upbeat sounding new numbers, La creve de faim/Starvation 2-Step, has a double-edge to it.  Riley sings to his dance partner in French, "Get your hands out of my pockets, I'm the one who pays for your fun,  I know how to starve. I don't need your help."  The band has a way with waltzes, and from the same CD,  they played the wistful Mes enfants/My Children, the lively swamp-pop/rock influenced original, Heat Lightning, and the more free-form and rhythmically complex rocker, La Pointe aux Chenes/Oak Point.  Riley and Greely walk a tight-rope trying to satisfy an audience attracted to their dance hall roots while simultaneously venturing in new directions that sometimes require more serious attention (and a knowledge of French or familiarity with  translated lyric sheets) to fully understand the path they are following.   It's the challenge of all adventurous, roots-based musicians, and it is fascinating to watch their journey. 

The Playboy's Friday night show at Eagle's Hall was a big surprise, especially coming right after the band's  wide-ranging Ashkenaz performance. To quote Monty Python: "And now for something completely different".  Steve told me before the set they were going to play a lot of Cajun songs during the evening and he was a man of his word.  This was a dream set for long-time Steve Riley fans and worked perfectly for the huge dance  crowd that showed up.  Steve transformed Eagles into a Cajun dance hall for the night, as he and the band energetically ripped into one Cajun favorite after another, with big grins on their faces.   With rock star poise, the band  pulled out all the stops.  Steve stretched out his accordion, hanging over the edge of the stage, with a twinkle in his eye. He also played some fine double fiddle numbers with David Greely.  Sam Broussard was the sensation of the evening and was given quite a few opportunities to showcase his incredible talents on lead and slide guitar.  On one of the two zydeco medleys the band played,  he simultaneously tuned the bass string of his guitar lower and lower while picking out some incredible riffs.  I think everyone I spoke to that night  made a comment to me about how impressed they were by Broussard.  In his laid-back way, he lit up the stage and arguably stole the show.  

Aside from the kick-ass accordion, fiddle and guitar-playing, the band also showed its mellow side, playing a beautiful rendition of "The Lover's Waltz",  singing gorgeous three-part harmonies and at times sounding so good  I wanted to stop dancing and just watch them.  They had the audience sing-along to  "Allons danser" and towards the end of the evening brought up to stage Bay Area accordionist, Billy Wilson, who  played, at Steve's request, Boozoo's "Deacon Jones"  and also "Uncle Bud" (David Greely's fiddle playing flourishes on these songs worked amazingly well).    The band just kept going and going,  and finally, at 12:45 AM, they literally had to be told to stop by Walter ...but then they still played one more tune, to a large and happy crowd that hung out until the end.   It was  an inspired, over-the-top evening.  

The Big Easy 2001 Festival in Sparks, NV

(July 18, 2001) Did you ever have so much fun that your eyes just crinkle up in pleasure thinking about the time you had? Well, that was the kind of fun to be had at The Big Easy 2001 in Sparks, NV last weekend.

The Silver Club Casino in conjunction with Louisiana Sue Enterprises went all out putting on a fabulous, and free, street festival in Sparks. The 4 nights and 3 days included non-stop zydeco & Cajun music, plus parades, beads, jazz, brass bands, arts & crafts booths, and samba schools. After the sun went down, several bars provided free music by zydeco bands into the wee hours of the morning. The weather was perfect and over 500 dancers showed up from all over the country…. including Louisiana, Northern & Southern California, Washington, Colorado, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Texas & Georgia.

The main dance stage had a fine sound system, and a raised dance floor. While sunny in the morning and early afternoon, the dance floor was shaded by buildings for most of the time the zydeco bands played, a very welcome occurrence. In the shade, the weather was perfect for dancing… low 80's no humidity, and cooling to the upper 60s/low 70s as the evening set in. Food and drinks were reasonably priced and the casinos were always available to escape to for some air-conditioned comfort, clean restrooms and inexpensive buffet meals.

One nice aspect of the festival was that, because there was only one zydeco stage, all the dancers congregated at the same spot most of the day. This unifying feature made it easier to see your friends, get to know new dancers and find dance partners throughout the day. Plus when you were too tired to dance, you could sit in the shade and be entertained watching the other dancers. In addition, most of the dancers stayed at the sponsoring hotel, the Silver Club, so the lobby was always filled with familiar faces to chat with.

A parade was held each day and tons of beads were thrown from the floats and by Louisiana Sue from the zydeco stage. In addition, a zydeco dance contest and zydeco dance workshops were held.

The band lineup was terrific: Louisiana was represented by Thomas "Big Hat" Fields and Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie; Texas by Step Rideau & the Zydeco Outlaws & Brian Jack & the Zydeco Gamblers; and California by Kenny Menard MGZ & Andre Thierry & Zydeco Magic. Miss Frieda & the Cajun Fusiliers and Gold Country Cajun played at the smaller Cajun Back Porch stage.

Most of my time was spent at the Zydeco Dance Stage. Each band played about a 90 minute set and there wasn't a "weakest link" in the line-up. Brian Jack, whom I had only heard perform briefly once before in Texas, especially impressed me. His band features tight vocal harmonies, some catchy original tunes (my favorite was L'Argent), a lively stage show and a beat that stays in that mid-tempo dancing sweet spot. Andre Thierry, whom we Bay Area folks are very familiar with, put on several terrific sets with a band that included most of the all-star crew that accompanied him on his recent East Coast tour, including Chuck Bush and Bobby Broussard. Kenny Menard recorded a CD on Friday plus played each night in the Silver Club Lounge on the 10PM to 2AM late shift. Step Rideau was outstanding. Thomas Fields and Geno Delafose were also big crowd pleasers.

In addition, the quality of the dance attendees was fabulous, perhaps attracted by the $500 grand prize, as well as by the great band lineup. 20 talented couples entered the dance contest, which was judged by Gary Hayman, Dana DeSimone and Mona "Zydeco Queen" Wilson (who also released a dance instructional video during the weekend, and conducted several dance workshops). I'm sure the judges had a hard time selecting the winners. First place was eventually taken by Darius and Sharon Johnson, from the SF Bay Area; 2^nd place by Kent Donley & Ann Burstall from Louisiana, and third place by Dana Mandell and Kathy Barrett, also from the SF Bay Area.

For those of you who always knew zydeco dancing was great exercise as well as great fun, the statistics reported by my SportBrain, which I was wearing for much of the weekend, were as follows: over 15 miles on Friday (29000 steps, 1600 calories, with some dances averaging 6 mph and peaking at over 9 mph); almost 28 miles on Saturday (51000 steps, 2800 calories); and 22 miles on Sunday ( 44000 steps, 2400 calories). (FYI: a SportBrain is a personal-fitness device that records every step taken in a day. The egg-shaped gadget clips onto a waistband like a pager. It has a tiny pendulum inside that counts each step. Each SportBrain comes with a transmitter that sends the individual's data to the SportBrain Web site. At the site, each user has a password-protected page. After the individual's data are received, the site calculates the number of calories burned based on the user's height and weight. It posts the results on the person's Web page located at www.sportbrain.com. Charts show steps taken, miles covered, calories burned and high and low activity zones.)

The only sour note to this festival was the abbreviated set by headliner Geno Delafose, whose performance was unexpectedly cut short due to a miscommunication over festival permits between the Sparks police department, The Silver Club and Louisiana Sue Enterprises.

All told, The Big Easy 2001 was a Big Success. For those of you who couldn't make it, seriously consider checking it out next year. Several folks added side trips to Lake Tahoe and Yosemite to their plans to round out their Sparks vacation. Or if you can't wait until then, the buzz in Sparks was about a new West Coast outdoor festival making its debut this fall: the 1^st Annual Gator by the Bay festival to be held in San Diego the weekend of October 19-21. The festival site is supposed to be fabulous and the partial band lineup currently includes: Chris Ardoin, Willis Prudhomme, & Leroy Thomas, J.C. Labbie et ses amis Cajun from Mamou, LA and Southern California's Lisa Haley and the Zydecats and the San Diego Cajun Playboys. Another zydeco band is reportedly in the works. See ya on the dance floor!

Zydeco From Sea to Shining Sea