Easing Type A Personalities into a Type B Culture: The 2007 Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week

(April 24, 2007) This year I attended the first half of Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week, and had a fabulous time. The weather was perfect, the mosquito population was barely noticeable, and the music, dances, workshops, jams and classes were inspiring. If you are looking for a way to immerse yourself into Cajun and Creole culture for a week, I can't think of a better way to do this.

Under the direction of its recently appointed Executive Director, Todd Mouton, this year Balfa camp had a new philosophy: introducing spontaneity and fluidity into what had previously been a more tightly defined program (and registration process). Even though the camp had sold out and was at full capacity, I felt fortunate that at the last minute I was able to sign up for less than a full week of classes to fit my schedule, and I met other campers who were only attending morning sessions.

This year's program was rich in its variety. Here's a partial list of what was going on: various levels of music instruction in fiddle (Jonno Frishberg, Hadley Castille, Courtney Granger, Al Berard, and Jeffrey Broussard), accordion (Dirk Powell, Kristi Guillary, Ray Abshire, Corey 'Lil Pop' Ledet) and guitar (Christine Balfa, Sam Broussard & Gina Forsyth); cooking lessons with Chef Pat Mould and local notables; language and vocals with Jan Boney, Jane Vidrine, Ann Savoy; Band Lab, organized by Instructor Coordinater, Peter Schwarz; and Master Presentations by D.L. Menard, Jimmy Breaux, Nolton Simian, Michael Doucet & Mitch Reed, and the Savoy family. Private music lessons were also available and during my day-and-a-half of camp attendance, I was fortunate to get time in with Sam Broussard, Courtney Granger & Christine Balfa.

If you'd been to Balfa camp before, the morning schedule (intensive classes in the instrument of your choice, followed by either Band Lab, vocals, cooking lesson or a cultural event), then lunch and a Masters Presentation remained basically the same, but the afternoon Lapniappe sessions were partially planned and partially determined by the instructors, campers and the 'professional' musicians who were also in attendance. A lot of Balfa camp had this ad-lib quality to it, to the point that Todd joked that that one of the objectives of the camp was to teach Louisiana's Type B attitude to the many Type A folks in attendance. The key to each afternoon was to keep an eye on the white board that listed that day's events, as they evolved. Evenings at camp included nightly dances (with Balfa Toujours, the Creole Cowboys, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, the Pine Leaf Boys, Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas, & Ray Abshire, to name a few), followed by late night jam sessions, either at the large group camp or as improvised by fellow campers.

For the last several years, Balfa camp has been held at a gorgeous location in Lake Chicot state park. This year the park had completed construction on beautiful new cabins literally sitting on piers over the lake (with cathedral ceilings, a full kitchen and fireplaces) and we had some lovely jams sitting in their screened in porches.

I had a great time and learned a lot at Balfa camp and highly recommend the experience to anyone interested in immersing themselves in the Cajun-Creole culture.

Here's a link to my Balfa camp photo album