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(11/6/01) Southwest Louisiana is a land filled with story-tellers and I felt
like a sponge, trying to absorb all of them. After spending almost 2 weeks
visiting the Lafayette area (with a short stop in New Orleans), on a trip that got rescheduled from Festival
Acadians weekend due to the events of September 11, I have to say
that this trip, with no festival crowds and lots of time to make friends of
acquaintances, showed me a side of the place that I understood intuitively was
there, but never quite saw this clearly. In my past visits, much was masked by the frenzy
of festival-related activities. On this trip it became evident to me that the music I love so
well is nurtured by community and family ties, and rooted in a specific place.
I felt grateful to be made to feel so welcome on this journey.
Rather than providing a day by day account of my travels, I will try to
describe this trip in some broad categories: music, events, people, environment,
food and accommodations and later expand on some highlights. Here is a quick summary of how I spent my time:
Feufollet jamming
with Steve Riley and/or Geno Delafose at a Red Cross benefit. The list of those
bands
I missed because several events were happening simultaneously included:
Zydeco Force, Chris Ardoin, J Paul, Sean Ardoin, Thomas Fields; Roy Carrier and
Willis Prudhomme. 
I visited the Floyd's Records and the offices of
Flat Town Music in Ville
Platte, a private home music studio in Lafayette, What Bayou in
Opelousas, Avery Island, the Tabasco factory, and a nature center in Lafayette.
I traveled through many small towns just to put together names with specific
places.
I danced at Whiskey River, Vermillionville, Slim's Y-Ki-Ki, Randol's,
Mulate's, Rock N Bowl, Grant Street Ballroom, El Sidos & on the streets of
Eunice.
I had
fascinating conversations with musicians, artists, photographers and others
deeply tied to the French speaking community about the culture, music &
language.
A benefit for the American Red Cross at Grant Street was the musical
highlight of this trip. Sharing the stage for this worthy cause was Steve Riley
& the Mamou Playboys, Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, Damon Troy, Michael
Doucet & Jimmy Breaux of Beausoleil, Chris Stanford of Le Band Feufollet, Junior
Melancon
and the inimitable Sonny Landreth. The show opened with Damon Troy, who
plays Cajun music a la Wayne Toups, and struts around stage reminding me of Tom
Cruise in "Top Gun" pumped up on steroids. He was joined by Jimmy
Breaux for part of his set. SRMP were next and played a fine,
short set, including a few songs in which they were joined by
Chris Stafford of Feufollet. Chris left to be replaced by Michael Doucet. Doucet, always the
showman, launched into a frenetic fiddle duet with David Greely, playing so fast
I thought the sparks coming off the fiddles would set the room on fire.
Steve
Riley later joined in on a third fiddle and then Jimmy Breaux
jumped on stage & grabbed Steve's accordion to add to the madness. Moments
later, Sonny Landreth arrived to cap off the stage dynamics. Needless to say, the
crowd went wild. Afterwards, Sonny Landreth did a short set
with a 3 piece band,
followed by Junior Melancon,. Finally, Geno Delafose & French Rockin'
Boogie came on to close the show. During this set, Geno was joined by both Steve Riley and Damon Trop for
some additional stage antics. It was one of those magical evenings that could
only happen in Lafayette.
at
Whiskey River the place was packed and by the end of the evening 7 ladies were
literarily dancing on top of the bar. Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys
appeared as the headliner for the Cajun Folk Life Festival, a delightful event
held outside the Liberty Theater in Eunice, following Horace Trahan,
the Mark &
Ann Savoy Family Band and Kevin Naquin, on a gloriously sunny day (although it
was COLD after the sun went down). Saturday night SRMP played as "The Boyz" (or
so the light over the stage said) at Whiskey River in Henderson. They were joined by Kevin Wimmer this evening and so the show featured a lot of twin and
sometimes triple
fiddle numbers (David Greely, Kevin and Steve) as well as the distinctive
guitar playing of Sam Broussard. Danny Collett also sat in later in the evening
to play lead guitar for 2 or 3 songs. One memorable new song added to their
repertoire was a great version of the Touchet Family's "The Life I Thought I
Wanted". I also enjoyed their exuberant version of Creole Stomp.
During
festival time, I've always found Whiskey River to be too crowded and smoky, but
this weekend, the place was crowded but not uncomfortably so, and the smoke
was not bothersome. Geno's and SRMP's shows were the best times I've yet spent
at this club. 
Cajun Jam Session at Chris' Po-Boys in downtown Lafayette. A regular
Wednesday night jam session, the night I attended (Halloween) featured 3 accordion
players, 6 fiddlers (including David Greely, plus Chris Segura from FeuFollet),
7 guitar players, plus 2 folks playing triangle and mandolin,
respectively. The space has a good acoustics and the physicality of being
in the room surrounded by all those instruments was really special.
It was also interesting to watch the mentoring going on between the more
experienced musicians and the beginners in the room.
Zydeco Brunch with Donna Angelle at Café Des Amis was a fun time. Donna has a
bluesy singing style that went down smooth with my café au lait. The restaurant
was crowded, but unlike during festival times, I was able to get a table within
a few minutes and eat breakfast as well as dance while I was there. 
I attended the 56th annual Yambilee Festival in Opelousas. The
highlight was the Grand Louisiyam Parade and the best float, of course, featured
a giant Yam coming down the street.
Cajun Folk Life Festival: As mentioned earlier, this was a great festival
featuring three stages with continuous music, great food, and craft booths. The
main stage was located outside, across from the Liberty Theater
One of the highlights of my 2 weeks was visiting the offices of Flat Town
Music, producers of the regional record labels Maison de Soul
(zydeco), Swallow (Cajun) and Jin (Swamp Pop). My host was the legendary Floyd
Soileau's son, Chris, who is now deeply involved with the family business.
Walking into their building is like entering a museum. Throughout the lobby
are
music posters, artifacts, awards gold records and dozens of binders with
original articles and mementos documenting the musical legacy Flat Town has been
party
to. I randomly opened one book and found the program to Clifton Chenier's
funeral mass. Chris allowed me to enter the music vault where the master tapes
are stored. Looking around were piles of tapes with names such as Clifton
Chenier, Nathan Abshire, Balfa Brothers, Rockin' Sidney, John Delafose and hundreds of others, written
on the boxes. Chris opened
the box containing the master tape of Rockin' Sidneys
"My Toot Toot' for me and I found it fascinating, having never seen the master
for a recording before. He also played
for me, from the master tape recently
transferred to digital, the original recording of "Blue Runner" by Bebe Carriere,
one of my favorite songs. It was a magical moment. Chris also showed me how he
produced the artwork for their CD covers and mastered their CDs.
Some of the places I stayed this time really enhanced the trip. One was The
Ambassador Hotel in New Orleans, which was created out of 3 masterfully restored
19th century warehouses and conveniently
located just down the block from Mother's Restaurant on Tchoupitoulas Street. Our room was so nice,
large with exposed brick walls, hardwood floors and exposed wooden beams, that
we didn’t want to check out. In Lafayette, I stayed at The Blue Moon
Guest House
and Hostel, an inexpensive, homely and friendly place recently opened and
located within 2 blocks of the Downtown Alive site. The facilities include use
of a kitchen, washer and dryer, and even a DSL PC connection for a nominal
charge. Be sure to check out the Chambre de Bois Sec Ardoin, where this
legendary musician stayed a month ago. One of Blue Moon's proprietors, Catherine
Schoeffler, is the grand-niece of Father Daigle, who authored the definitive
books "How to Speak Cajun French" and compiled the key Cajun-English dictionary. The desk
where he wrote these seminal works supports a PC in the Blue Moon Guest House these days. Catherine was in a
baking mood while I was there, and every afternoon I came back to a treat of
brownies or biscuits in a pan labeled 'eat me'. The highlight of her offerings
during my stay was the homemade sweet potato-boudin pie. The guest house's other
owner, Marc Falgout, sits on the musical committee of Festival
International and has recently started Blue Moon Tours, which focuses on
cultural and natural aspects of Acadiana. 
Tabasco Pepper Factory and Avery Island. The pungent smell of hot peppers and
vinegar fills your nostrils as you turn the corner approaching the Tabasco factory.
During the tour you saw 4 different varieties Tabasco sauce products coming down
the line to be bottled, capped (by equipment appropriated labeled as a CaPeM
machine), 
and labeled. Some of the men's faces were covered while working and
first I thought they were wearing masks to cut down on the smell, but later I
saw a sign that said workers had to wear hair nets and beard-guards while on the
assembly line. Next to t
he Pepper Factory was Avery Island, where you can take a
self-directed driving tour, stopping off periodically to see the sites,
including a marsh, where several gators were sunning themselves, a Buddhist
temple, and a bird nesting area. Unfortunately, there were NO birds while I was
there, only a dozen or so turtles resting in the middle of the lake (perhaps
after scaring the birds away?). Nonetheless, it was a lovely place to visit. 
The most interesting aspect of this trip was just talking to people. If you
were willing to ask questions and listen, people will share with you some of
what makes SW Louisiana so special. Everyone seemed to have time to stop and
talk, and I was frequently invited to join complete strangers at restaurants,
since my accent gave me away as a tourist immediately, and share my impressions
of the area and learn something about them. 
The next time you are planning a trip to Southwest Louisiana, I would highly
recommend that you consider visiting when there is no special event going on.
The heart of this special place reveals itself in its unhurried moments, away
from the frenzy of festivals and special events. 