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Welcome to "Cajun Corner".
The main reason for my first visit to Louisiana was purely musical.
I wanted to experience the atmosphere of those Cajun-songs in their original environment.
During my visit also the interest in the whole Cajun-culture grew.
Although their ancestors had a hard time, the Cajuns are a proud and optimistic folk.
This site is made to promote that great music from Southwest Louisiana's "Cajun Country".
On the Cajun Corner, you'll find information about Cajun, Zydeco & Swamp Pop music from
in and outside Louisiana.
Laissez les bons temps rouler !
Don't hesitate to contact me…
Yvieboy
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Blackpot Festival
The 1st Annual Blackpot Festival & Cookoff will take place at Acadian Village in Lafayette, Louisiana on Friday 10 th and Saturday 11th November.
As you can see on the programm (check out the link), great Cajun music and fun are guaranteed!
If Louisiana is too far away, you can also go to Antwerp to check the Big Bayou Bandits at the Billenkletser, during the Blues & Jazz kroegentocht on Friday 10th...
more info on :
http://www.blackpotfestival.com/
Added : 10 26, 2006
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Swamp Gold Country vol.1 – various artists
This brand new CD is a fine collection of Louisiana Country and Swamp Pop music. The presence of a few songs from my dear friend Johnnie Allan, the ambassador of Swamp Pop, is almost a must on these kinds of compilations. “Could You Love Me One More Time” is a beautiful ballad in his typical Swamp Pop-style with French and English lyrics. Johnnie Allan really has a wonderful voice and he sings with so much feeling! A second song from him on this album is his famous “Let’s Go Get Drunk”, which is another great bilingual song about our favourite activities on Saturday evening. Some of the other highlights for me on this album are surely Adam Hebert, Vin Bruce, Al Terry and Jim Olivier. Adam Hebert’s “Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone” and Vin Bruce’s “Secret Meeting Place” are wonderful Cajun Honky Tonk-songs. Both are done with vocals in their very own specific style. Al Terry’s “Roughneck Blues” is a real cheerful boppin’ Hillbilly-track. “I Love My Saturday Night” from Jim Olivier is Cajun Swamp Pop with great sounding (dominant) fiddles and accordion. The “laissez les bon temps rouler”-feeling is very present during this song.
“Mansion On The Hill” is another great Honky Tonk-song by all-round Cajun artists Pope Huval, Al Berard & friends.
Johnny Webb’s “Hopeless Love Affair” and especially “Cry, Cry, Cry” are also both real fine Honky Tonk songs.
Famous Swamp Pop-artist Rod Bernard contributes with “Teach Me To Forget”, a country-ballad in the style of “Are You Teasing Me”.
Don Rich made a nice Swamp Pop ballad with “Back In His Arms Again”, while his “Daddy I Still Love You” rather is a typical Country-song.
“Offshore Blues” is a fine Country-crooner from Tommy Warren. “We’re Drinking On Leroy” is a 100% Country-song from DeWayne Bowman who sings with that “Truck driving country style”. Talking about typical country voices, there are 3 tracks from Norman Wade and 2 slow piano-Country ballads from Moe-D on this compilation. The James Younger Band completes this album with “Our Last Dance” in a more modern singer-songwriter way of “Country”.
This album is a real good compilation for all Country-lovers who didn’t explore the Louisiana Country-scene yet and for those who doesn’t already have the better songs from this CD on the original albums.
Yvieboy
Added : 9 29, 2006
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Lee Benoit – Ma Petite Femme
style : Cajun
Lee Benoit is a real all-round musician. This singer & Cajun accordionist also plays the guitars, bass guitar and drums and with some additional help from other musicians, including Al Berard (on fiddle, mandolin and guitars), he set up a fine CD with quite some original songs written by Al Berard.
The name of this newest CD, which is his fourth one, is “Ma Petite Femme” and it includes 12 tracks. It’s released on Old Man Records (recorded, mixed and mastered by Lee Benoit himself at his house) on December 2005 and dedicated to the memory of his mom, Cidalise Mary Benoit.
Opener “Ma Petite Femme” is one of the tracks written by Al Berard, in his typical own smooth style. Lee Benoit’s vocals perfectly fit on this kind of songs and the sound of his “Bon Cajun” accordion (made by Larry Miller) is very beautiful, such as Al Berard’s fiddle & mandolin sound.
In “Un Pays Oh Si Loin” Al’s lyrics and Lee’s vocals take us back to 1755. In history known as “le grand derangement”, the Cajuns were forced to leave their homes in Acadia, Canada and while their families were separated, they ended up in South Louisiana, where they had to start a new life. The feeling they put in this song, perfectly match the atmosphere of the hard times the Cajuns suffered that time. Following are 2 well known Cajun traditionals: “Allons Danser Colinda” (with Mark Hebert on fiddle) and “J’ai Passé Devant Ta Porte”. The lead vocals on the second one were done by Lee’s wife Valerie Benoit, who also sings the part of “sa femme” in “Le Vieux Soulard et Sa Femme” (aka. “Mon Bon Vieux Mari”), another traditional about a worried wife asking questions to her alcoholic man… Note that Lee Benoit’s daughter Maegen Benoit also contributed to this record by playing ‘tit fer and washboard.
Al Berard also wrote 3 instrumentals for this record. “Deux Pas De l’Irlande” is a Cajun sounded but Irish inspired two-step with great accordion and fiddle solo’s. “Cidalise”, named after Lee’s grandmother who raised him, is a relaxing “easy listening tune” to throw all the possible stress aboard.
“Joyeux” is a happy instrumental, including some very beautiful mandolin play by Al Berard.
“La Vieille Memere Par La Fenetre” is a Cajun waltz, written by Maurice Lasserre, about an old grandma who passes her daytime sitting by the window and watching what’s going on in the neighbourhood. I think we all know someone in our neighbourhood who finds there’s no television, like a multi-dimensional reality television…
“Allons Aller Marier” is another goody written by Al Berard. The style of this two-step is somewhere in between Cajun and Zydeco. Especially the accordion has a Zydeco-sound here.
The famous “La Valse Du Bayou Teche” and “Mon Amour Est Morte” are 2 more traditional songs. First one (with Merlin Fontenot on fiddle) is a great, typical Cajun waltz. The other one is a kind of easy-listening folk ballad from Louisiana.
All lyrics are included in French and English!
Yvieboy
more info on :
http://www.leebenoit.com
Added : 9 15, 2006
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Little Cailloux – Live in Gooik
style : Cajun
Little Cailloux, one of the few Cajun bands in Belgium, has a brand new CD. Twelve tracks from the CD were taped during a live concert in a church in Gooik, on August 2005. Two other tracks were taken from another concert in Lessines, on April 2006.
These musicians from Anderlecht, near Brussels, really know how to play real Cajun music. Eric Zborowski is a wonderful accordion player and his wife Chantal Boulanger a great fiddler. Lead singer and guitar/banjo player James De Backer also does a great job and Damien Lardot’s percussion makes the whole thing sound complete.
Opener is a real fine version of “La Danse de la Limonade” (The Lemonade Song), a great song that also has been recorded by Nathan Abshire, Leroy Broussard, Mrs. Rodney Fruge, etc.
In Will Balfa’s “Blues du Cajun” Eric takes the mouth harmonica, to make it sound a little bluesier. Also it gives a beautiful backing sound and the accent is more on the fiddle.
Chantal takes the vocals on “J’ai Passé Devant Ta Porte” (one of the most played Cajun waltzes after “Jolie Blonde”) and on the funny duet “Mon Bon Vieux Mari” (aka “Le Vieux Soulard et sa Femme”). With her smooth voice, she’s doing a real good job there…
“Les Talles de Ronce” includes wonderful Cajun accordion & fiddle solos. “Rolling and Tumbling”, is a real good blues song built up around slide guitar and some harmonica riffs and solos. This version sometimes sounds a bit improper, because the tempo (on the different instruments) is not always similar, but who says good old blues has to sound clean and correct? Another good blues song, reproduced by Little Cailloux, is “Baby Please Don’t Go”.
“Bill Brown” is a nice instrumental with mouth harmonica, fiddle, spoons and a real fine banjo job, done by James De Backer.
“La Valse des Bambocheurs” is high-rated Cajun music! This waltz from Dewey Balfa is very well played by these Belgian Cajuns. The mouth harmonica sounds great in combination with the fiddle and doesn’t affect the (bluesy) Cajun feeling on this song. The vocals are also very well done and the ‘tit fer also brings a great contribution to that Cajun feeling.
Really surprising also is their version of Steve Earle’s “Regular Guy”. They made a great Cajun styled version out of this song that leans a bit close to “The Back Door”.
Cailloux’ enthusiastic version of the Cajun classic “Madeleine” is very well done in a sincere traditional way.
One of the other music styles, that became a real speciality for Little Cailloux, is Quebec folk music. Their work on the instrumental “Suite de Reels des Frères Brunet” is incredible! The accordion here is played in real Quebec style, which is very different from the Cajun style. Single notes are played with very fast finger action. It really sounds amazing in combination with that beautiful fiddle sound and also Damien Lardo is doing a wonderful job here by tapping his feet and playing the spoons. Another great foot-tapping folk instrumental is “Reel du Pendu”. On this fiddle tune, together with “Cajun Fiddlesticks” (with the “J’étais au Bal” lyrics), Chantal really demonstrates her talent. The same thing surely can be said on “La Marmotteuse”, which is another instrumental.
Well done, Little Cailloux!
more info on :
http://www.littlecailloux.be/
Added : 9 12, 2006
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Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers – The Traveling Man
style : Zydeco
Dwayne Dopsie, the youngest son of the late Zydeco hero Rockin’ Dopsie, started his career at age 6, playing washboard on stage with his dad. A year later he learned to play the accordion. Dwayne continued to perform with his father’s band till Rockin’ Dopsie, sr. died in 1993 and after that he stayed on with the family band which was taken over by Rockin’ Dopsie Jr., his older brother. Dwayne later also joined Tony Delafose and had his own band, called “Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Son’t Pa’Salé”. In 1999 he started his actual band “Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers”.
Dwayne’s new CD “The Traveling Man” is full of energy. It includes 10 tracks with 40 minutes of Zydeco music with a soulful feeling and a bluesy rockin’ drive. The band produces a very full sound and the accordion-, saxophone- and guitar-solo’s are technical very strong. All songs are self-written originals.
more info on :
http://www.dwaynedopsie.com
http://www.whiteoakproductions.com
Added : 9 3, 2006
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Amanda Shaw – I’m Not A Bubble Gum Pop Princess
Most biographies start at an age around 13 or later. But in Louisiana there’s a girl now, named Amanda Shaw, who already had a quite spectacular biography at age 13. When she was 3 years old she told her parents she wanted to learn to play the violin. At age 4, she started studying classical violin. When she was 7, she already performed as a soloist with the adult orchestra. One year later she moved to Cajun fiddling. At age 13 Amanda already had done an impressive set of performances and also released 3 cd’s.
The name of her 3rd cd (released in 2004) was “I’m Not A Bubble Gum Pop Princess” and include 11 tracks. I recently heard this cd for the first time and have to say I’m quite impressed. Opener is "Should I Stay Or Should I Go", a Rock classic from the Clash. Her real fine voice (which is getting stronger) and her wonderful fiddle play made a great song out of it! The fiddle solo’s really sound brilliant in this song!
“Perrodin Two-Step” is a wonderful instrumental Cajun instrumental. As you can expect, no problem for Amanda to play this tune really beautiful with all her feeling. The title track is a cute song with a nice melody that hangs in your head for the rest of the day. Country legend Hank Williams is honoured with a slow bluesy version of “Long Gone Lonesome Blues”. “Sassy Miss Talullah” is another bluesy track in the same style. This one includes fine piano & guitar work, but also note (for those who didn’t know yet) a fiddle also sounds very good in Blues music. There’s a beautiful, kind of lazy, atmosphere in “Lover’s Waltz”, a melodic fiddle song.
“Who Stole The Hot Sauce” is a fine Zydeco song from Chubby Carrier and fiddling Cajun legend Dennis McGee is honoured with a real good version of “Adieu Rosa”. In “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend” Amanda’s love for Rock-music comes up again with her interpretation of Ramones-music. With “Ugly Day Stomp”, a Cajun instrumental, Amanda demonstrates her fiddle talent once more to close out this CD.
A recent video clip of this talent (at age 15) can also be found on www.youtube.com . Just type “Amanda Shaw” or “Cajun” and see & hear this wonderful young fiddler in action. Goosebumps insured!
Yvieboy
more info on :
http://www.amandashaw.com/
http://www.whiteoakproductions.com
Added : 8 25, 2006
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Kermit Venable passed away
Kermit Venable passed away from a stroke. Kermit was a real great Cajun accordion player (and also singer & fiddler) from Church Point, Louisiana that moved to New Orleans in the late 80's.
Kermit was mostly active in the New Orleans scene, but also toured in Japan and travelled to Europe to perform his music.
With his BeauBassin Cajun Band (including Danny Collet), he made a real beautiful CD called “BeauBassin Cajun Band” for “Sound Of New Orleans”. 16 from the 18 songs of that CD were also released on a Cajun Favourites-cd on MasterTone.
Ron van Doorneveld (accordion player from the Downtown Cajun Band, a Dutch traditional Cajun band) informed me Kermit also used to play in Belgium with the legendary Creole fiddler Canray Fontenot.
Added : 8 21, 2006
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New e-mail address!
Dear Cajun Corner-visitors,
Please note I have a new e-mail address!
I didn't receive any mails on my old address since a few weeks...
The new one is updated on this site now.
If you've send me an e-mail from this site (since the last 6 weeks) and you didn't get an answer, please re-send it...
Best regards & lache pas la patate!
Yvieboy
Added : 8 18, 2006
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LA 56 – “Bayou Music”
style : Swamp-pop
All members of LA 56 (named for the highway that runs through the small fishing town of Chauvin, Louisiana) have had experiences as fishermen. With their CD “Bayou Music” these Cajun folks also prove to be real good Swamp Pop musicians.
Opener “Baby, Baby Please” (written by Jessie Lambas and LA 56’s guitar & accordion player Joe Trahan) is a wonderful Swamp Pop ballad in the style of Cookie & the Cupcakes’ fifties hit “Mathilda”. Following in the same beautiful style is Fats Domino’s (& Dave Bartholomew’s) “Valley Of Tears”, which is also well-known by Buddy Holly, Mickey Gilley, Brenda Lee, Faron Young and different Swamp Pop artists. Another real Swamp Pop goodie is “Missing You”, which I only knew from Johnnie Allan, who also did a Swamp Pop version of Johnny Bond’s “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight”. LA 56 also chose for the French Swamp Pop version of this song, that also has been played by many Bluegrass artists. Bluesy Swamp Pop is brought with Slim Harpo’s “Raining In My Heart” (which is not the same song as Buddy Holly’s “Raining In My Heart”). With Big Joe Turner’s “Flip, Flop & Fly” they speed up to a rockin’ tempo. The Louisiana Cajun & Zydeco atmosphere comes up with “Alligator Walk”, a wonderful song (that also has been covered by Johnnie Allan on “The Ultimate Louisiana Experience”) from The Mojo Blues Band. When you click the link below to their website, you hear LA 56’s beautiful version of this song.
“Your Picture”, a ballad from Bobby Charles (Robert Charles Guidry), is a real beautiful Swamp Pop classic. LA 56 also put a real Zydeco track on this CD, with Horace Trahan’s funny “The Butt Thing”.
“When You Say You Love Me” and “It’s You I Want”, 2 originals, are real fine Swamp Pop ballads, written buy Joe Trahan.
A very good CD from a real good Louisiana Swamp Pop band!
more info on :
http://bandla56.com/
Added : 8 15, 2006
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Donna Angelle & the Zydeco Posse’ – "Workin’ It"
style : Zydeco
Donna Angelle (born Donna Charles in 1951 in southwest Louisiana) has released her 5th CD. By the name of “Workin’ It”, Donna Angelle & the Zydeco Posse’ offered MTE Records some real good work.
The CD starts out with a lot of rhythm and Zydeco enthusiasm in “Rodeo Show” and “Creole Woman”, two great self-written songs by Donna and washboard player Michelle Citizen (who are both responsible for most of the songs on this CD). Donna demonstrates her decent vocal capacity with Soul-ballad “I Rather Go Blind”. With her successful song “Old Man Sweetheart” (that already was included on different compilation discs), she pays tribute to Zydeco legend Boozoo Chavis. “Catin”, the only song in French here, is a fine waltz. Once the jitterbuggin’ “Rockin’ It Steady” runs out of its intro, it’s hard to stand still. On “Don’t Let The Green Grass Fool You” Donna plays some nice full sounding accordion riffs again. Title track “Workin’ It” is another of her typical up-tempo Zydeco two-steps. Boozoo’s “I Got A Paper In My Shoe” surely doesn’t need any introduction, but Donna sings the spicy version with “I Got A Pepper In My Shoe”… This 12-track CD, who surely is a must for everyone who care about good Zydeco music, ends with a rhythmic Christmas song “Zydeco Santa”.
And of course not to forget is the great professional back-up from the musicians of Zydeco Posse’ and some additional guest musicians.
With this CD, Donna surely has reserved her place within the big Zydeco-acts.
more info on :
http://www.zydeco-diva.com
Added : 8 11, 2006
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