7 Days in May

(June 1, 2002)  In the past seven days, I have had the opportunity to attend some great music in California.   Last Saturday and Sunday I drove to Simi Valley to attend the 13th annual Cajun/Creole Music Festival.  On Memorial Day, I saw Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie (plus surprise appearances by Roy Carrier and the Night Rockers, and Chasya Thierry) play at the annual John Delafose Memorial Dance held at Eagles Hall in Alameda.  Thursday night Balfa Toujours performed at Ashkenaz.  And instead of resting on the seventh day, I returned to Eagle's Hall to see Roy Carrier again.  Reviews and photos follow:

The 2002 Cajun/Creole Music Festival in Simi Valley

The 13th Annual Cajun/Creole Music Festival was held last weekend in Simi Valley, CA.  A fund-raising event sponsored by the Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise, this year's festival was excellent in many respects.  

The line-up was top-notch:  Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, Roy Carrier & the Night Rockers, Keith Frank & the Soileau Zydeco Band,  Jo-El Sonnier, & The Creole Connection represented Louisiana, and the San Diego Cajun Playboys and Acadiana were local favorites.  The big dance floor was one of the best I've experienced at a festival:  it was made of slick wood parquet tiles which were placed on top of grass.   Lots of tables and chairs were placed on either side of the dance floor, and all was covered by a huge tent, with wide open sides to let the air flow through.  The sound system was good, if a little loud at times, and the food and craft booths were varied and reasonably priced.

Individually, the bands all put on great sets, but the musical highlights of the weekend were the cross-pollination of band leaders sitting in with the other bands on the festival schedule.  Two firsts were made:  Keith Frank sat in with Geno Delafose on Saturday.  This was the 1st time these popular zydeco musicians had  played together, and you couldn't wipe the grins off their faces while they were performing. It was an electric performance and the musical highlight of the festival.  It was also the first time Cajun legend, Jo-El Sonnier, played with Geno Delofose, and again the chemistry on stage was sizzling.   On Sunday,  Roy Carrier joined Keith Frank's set and blew away the crowd. 

I've seen Geno Delafose almost a dozen times in the last 2 months and his performance at Simi topped them all.  Perhaps he was energized by all his California friends, and the cool weather.  I also noticed more integration of French Rockin' Boogie's newest band member, lead guitarist Lee Tedrow, into the act:  he shared an a cappella vocal lead-in to "Port Arthur Blues" with Geno that was just marvelous.  In addition, there

Left to Right : Curly, Popp, Winfred, Lee

seemed to be more soaring 3 part vocal harmonies added to some of their repertoire, with the 3rd voice contributed by bass player, John "Popp" Espry.  Completing the band was Winfred Pierre (formerly with Beau Jocque) on rubboard  and Curly Taylor (Jude's son, formerly  with CJ Chenier ) on drums.

Keith Frank's  set on Saturday was marred by a long delay before the main man actually got on stage and got revved up.  First the band started the set with a waltz while Keith played offstage.  Then, he spent the next 2 songs fiddling with the sound.  Except when he looked at his charming 5 year old goddaughter, Julie, he barely cracked a smile.  The rest of the 1st half of his set consisted of 3 minute versions of his 'greatest hits' strung  together by drumbeat transitions.  When Keith finally got down to business mid-set, the highlight of his performance for me was his funky, bluesy  rendition of "Don't Let Me Stop You", from his latest mini-CD release.   His  performance on Sunday with The Creole Connection was much better.  Dressed in costume and playing older Creole tunes, he took the time to introduce many of these songs, speak about the older generations of Creole musicians in his family, and basically appeared to be having much more fun, and seemed more connected with his music and the audience.   

Jo-El Sonnier was once known as the "13 year old wonder"  due to his early prowess on the accordion  and  has been playing both traditional and country influenced Cajun music since then.  You could see his virtuosity and his cross-over appeal in fine display during his two Simi Valley appearances.

Roy Carrier, an elder statesman of the zydeco genre, plays a bluesy, hard-driving, altogether compelling style of  zydeco that leaves no prisoners.  He played two excellent sets during the festival.

Finally, if you go plan to go to Simi  Valley next year,  be sure to make your reservations well in advance. There are not a lot of inexpensive motels in the area, especially for Memorial Day weekend, and most of them were  sold out.  Quite a few folks had to stay in neighboring towns.  Also, if you drive there, watch out!  I haven't washed my car in a few years, and while in town, I felt compelled to turn into a car wash and get 'the works'.  Maybe it was some Southern California thing that came over me -  plus all these 6 lane  drive-through car washes that make it as easy to do as  buying a burger! 

Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie on Memorial Day.

This John Delafose Memorial Dance opened with a moment of silence.  Mid-way through the evening the local Bay Area dance community, as represented by Robbie and Shirley Robertson,  presented Geno with a silver cross as a token of their appreciation for the many years he (and his father) have performed in the Bay Area and enriched our dance scene.  Instead of taking a break,  Roy Carrier & his band, who until then were in the audience socializing and dancing with the locals, came up and played a few songs.  Later in the evening,  Andre Thierry's sister, Chasya, joined French Rockin' Boogie, and showed her bloodlines to a cheering home town crowd who has been watching her musical progress with great delight.  And on top of this, there was 3 plus hours of great music by Geno, who only stopped playing because the band had a red-eye plane to catch back home that night.  It is always great to see Geno at a festival playing for an hour or so, but it is even better to see a long set when he and his band can go through a broader range of their material and you can dance your way to exhaustion.  It was a wonderful evening.

Balfa Toujours at Ashkenaz

It is a rare treat when Balfa Toujours plays in  Bay Area and we lucky to have them perform at Ashkenaz on Thursday (on a quick stopover from a Nevada gig).  Featuring Christine Balfa on guitar, vocals  and triangle, her husband Dirk Powell on accordion, fiddle, guitar and vocals, Courtney Granger on guitar, fiddle, triangle and vocals, and Kevin Wimmer on fiddle and vocals, this band is just inspiring, playing songs that have been handed down to them from legendary fiddler, Dewey Balfa (Christine's father and Courtney's great uncle), as well as other traditional numbers and original compositions.  Awesome fiddle playing was displayed by Kevin Wimmer and Dirk Powell, joined by Courtney on triangle, as they played old time Dennis McGee fiddle number, "Le Reel Frugé,".   My partner and I even stopped dancing to watch them!  (Incidentally, Christine is a Frugé on her mother's side - talk about musical bloodlines.).   It was definitely a family affair as Christine and Dirk had their 6 month old baby, Amelia Rose, in tow, for the evening.  Additionally, the audience was packed with Bay Area musicians who watched the band play. Later in the evening a few joined BT on stage, including Gerard Landry,  Suzy and Eric Thompson and William Scarlet.   It was just a wonderful evening filled with joyful sounds.

Roy Carrier & the Night Rockers

If you had any dancing gas left in your tank on Friday night, Roy & his band did their best to run you to empty.   Chugging along at zydeco speed,  the Carrier clan rocked a full house.  Queen Ida was in the audience and Roy did a hilarious  impression of her, singing "Jambalaya" in a falsetto voice.  Troy sang lead on one number, adding a hip-hop tinge to the vocals and beat. Extended  versions of  "Leaving Lawtell" and "Allons dancer"  drove the dancers to exhaustion.  It was a fine ending to a killer week of music and dance.