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The Lost Weekend: Bay Area Appearances by Horace Trahan,
Edward Poullard and Jesse Lege.
(Oct 2, 2001) Call it the lost weekend. There was so much good music going on in the Bay Area for lovers of Cajun and zydeco music, that I can't imagine you didn't get your fill, and then some to top it off! To begin with, Horace Trahan and the New Ossum Express played their old style zydeco at 3 Bay Area gigs: The Powerhouse in Sebastopol on Wednesday night, Eagle's Hall in Alameda on Friday night, and at the 5th Annual Ardenwood Festival in Fremont on Saturday. Danny Poullard's brother, Edward, and Jesse Lege performed at Ardenwood on Saturday afternoon, moved the party to Ashkenaz in Berkeley on Saturday night and then played again at DeMarco's 23 Club in Brisbane on Sunday afternoon. Local bands including Andre Thierry, Gator Beat, Motor Dude Zydeco, and California Cajun Orchestra filled in any spare moments you might have had. I caught all the shows, except for Ashkenaz, and had a blast.
Horace Trahan originally gained prominence in Cajun
music circles as a teenager. In 1999, with the
encouragement of Geno Delafose, he started exploring zydeco music and has
been a big hit in the Southwest Louisiana, playing accordion and singing in the
traditional French style. His band is tight musically with a ragged
singing style that is both charming and disarming. At one point I felt
like I was listening to zydeco being channeled through The
Kingsmen of "Louie
Louie" fame. With their whoops, hollers and assorted barnyard sounds,
goofy choreographed stage show, great renditions of songs played in the old-time
zydeco style and, of course, the wonderfully silly, "High School Breakdown",
Trahan's shows were high energy and lots of fun. Some other musical
highlights
included the more serious, "Reach Out and Touch a Hand", which Horace
introduced as summarizing the band's attitude, Boozoo's "Talk About Your Woman",
"Monkey and the Baboon", and a Trahan original, "We Gonna Party on Down".
Yup!
The 5th Annual Cajun Zydeco Festival at Ardenwood Historic Farm, which has been organized as a labor of love by Maryanne Canaparo, outdid itself this year. Much to everyone's delight, the large dance floor was covered by a huge tent, and a real stage replaced the flatbed truck. More booths were set up, including one with a small historical exhibit of museum-quality photographs depicting Cajun and zydeco performers who have played in the Bay Area since the Seventies. The California Friends of Louisiana French Music and Ardenwood also had an informational booths this year. This year's festival was dedicated to Danny Poullard.
The lineup was well-balanced. The opening act was Gator Beat
who played their Queen
Ida influenced gumbo style mix. Motor Dude Zydeco reunited with Lloyd Meadows
on vocals and performed a crowd-pleasing high energy set that left everyone
buzzing about how fabulous they sounded. Olivia Thierry joined MDZ to sing
a soulful rendtion of "Bon Soir Moreau". Next, Edward Poullard
played accordion with California Cajun Orchestra, and if you closed your eyes,
it was like having Danny back with us for a few moments. Edward later switched
over to fiddle and played a few twin fiddle tunes with Suzy Thompson. Then
came
Horace Trahan and New Ossum Express who 'Louie-Louied' their way through a set
of party hardy, fun-lovin' old style zydeco much to everyone's delight. Edward Poullard and Jesse
Lege,
backed by the Bay Area Cajun All Stars played some amazing Cajun music. It
was the first time I'd heard Jesse play and he lived up to his reputation, as an
CFMA award-winning accordion player. Last but not least was Andre Thierry
who, backed by New Ossum Express, displayed his prodigious talents on all three
styles of accordion, characteristically ornamenting his
melody lines with
those lightning fast trills and thrills. The festival closed with Edward Poullard
setting off sparks as he joined Andre on stage to play a
killer version of "Blue Runner". All in all, great music, great
weather, a wonderful setting and a comforting feeling of community made
Ardenwood a big success this year
The final event I attended over the week was Edward Poullard and Jesse Lege
playing at Demarco's 23 Club with the Cajun
All-Stars in Brisbane. The afternoon began with a community
potluck organized by Betty LeBlanc. When Edward and
Jesse started playing in that space, I was flooded by memories of Danny and his
various bands who called DeMarco's home for many years. The 23 Club has,
in my opinion,
the best acoustics and most down-home atmosphere of all the
Bay Area C/z dance clubs. The club is operating as DeMarco's again, and
some recent remodeling, which included refinishing and expanding the dance
floor, moving the booths to the upper level, and
removing most of the Lost City
pillars and bric-a-brac, has really improved the place and returned it to
its roots. Backing up Edward and Jesse were Billy Wilson on steel guitar,
Steven Strauss on bass, David "Killer" Hymowitz on drums and Marty Jara on
guitar. Marty in particular had the broadest grin I've seen on his face in
ages, and later commented that this evening was the most fun he'd EVERY had
playing music. 
Quite a few other musicians were in attendance, including
Queen Ida, Maureen Karpan, Delilah Lee Lewis, Karen Leigh, and Gerald
Landry, and all but Queen Ida got up and played a few numbers that night.
It felt like 'old times' at the club, with terrific music, fabulous food and a
room filled with dancers and musicians, and was a wonderful end to a great
weekend.
