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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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Zydeco Joe – “Black Cat”
style : Zydeco
Joseph Adam Mouton, a.k.a. Zydeco Joe, and his Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler Band has a brand new CD out on ZG Records. “Black Cat” includes 7 tracks and is good for 34 minutes of pure Zydeco-music. All tracks are self-penned by Zydeco Joe and have a typical danceable rhythm.
Opener “Caroline Riding In The Buggy” will be a real Zydeco two-step dance hit. Title track “Black Cat” is about a cat that frequently came over to Zydeco Joe’s family porch, while they all were playing music. “Poppa Jack” is a story about Joe’s uncle.
“They Tried To Steal My Chicken” is a bit in the same funny atmosphere as Boozoo Chavis’ “Dog Hill”. More typical Zydeco-humour in “You Can’t Rooster Like You Used To”.
The typical Zydeco two-step goes on with “Jack Rabbit Zydeco”. “Why Can’t We Get Together”, the slower song from the CD, is a message for everybody in these hard times, in a kind of Zydeco-Gospel-Blues-Soul atmosphere …
The music from Zydeco Joe and the Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler Band (who will play at the Cajun & Zydeco-festival in Saulieu, France) is a must for all Zydeco-dancers!
more info on :
http://www.zydecojoemouton.com/
Added : 7 26, 2006
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Jimmy Thibodeaux & Zydeco Joe at Saulieu, France
It's almost Saulieu-time again, so be prepared for the 13th Cajun & Zydeco Music, Film & Food Festival in Bourgogne, France from the 3rd till the 7th August.
The following bands will be playing:
Jimmy Thibodeaux & Gumbo Cajun Band (USA)
Zydeco Joe & Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler (USA)
The Hackney Ramblers (GB)
Cajun Roosters (D/GB)
River Zydeco Band (NL)
Des Fais Do Do (NL)
Creole Cats (D)
Ton Ton Gris Gris (F)
Bayou Chicot (F)
Blue Bayou (F)
For more info on this wonderful festival, check out the link our mail to bayouprod@aol.com
more info on :
http://www.bayouprod.com/
mail to :
bayouprod@aol.com
Added : 7 19, 2006
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Vince Anthony – Bayou Juke-Box
style : Swamp-pop
Vince Anthony, a well-known Swamp Pop artist since the sixties, is still a very active singer and performer. “Bayou Juke Box” is the name of his brand new CD on Midnight Gold.
Covers include real good Swamp Pop versions of T. Graham Brown’s “I Tell It Like It Used To Be”, Larry Williams “The Hoochie Coo” and Sam The Sham’s “Wooly Bully”.
And again, Vince himself wrote a big part of the tracks (12 out of 17).
It’s all good stuff, but just to mention some of my personal highlights of his songs: “Is It Over” which has that lovely typical strolling Swamp Pop beat from South Louisiana, “Honey Chile” and “Lucy Lou” (both real soulful Swamp Pop), and “Zydeco, Fais Do-Do, Swamp Pop Music”, a rhythmic song with the most typical Swamp Pop ingredients (Rock’n’Roll rhythm, Country guitars and Soul-music accents) included.
This CD is a good proof that good ol’ Swamp Pop music is still alive!
more info on :
http://www.vinceanthony.com/vince_anthony_purchase.htm
Added : 7 17, 2006
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Cleoma’s Ghost
“Mon Coeur Est Avec Toi”, which is a real fine traditional Old-Time Cajun CD by the band Cleoma’s Ghost (see earlier review), is nominated by CFMA for the category “best Cajun recording by a band outside of Louisiana”. Cleoma’s Ghost is a 2-piece band (Roger Weiss on fiddle and vocals, Buffy Lewis on guitar and vocals), based in the state of New York.
Organisers who are interested in this traditional Cajun duo can contact them by e-mail on their website (see link below). Roger and Buffy would be very glad to come to Europe…!
more info on :
http://www.cleomasghost.com
Added : 6 27, 2006
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3rd Frisian Cajun weekend
Here's the flyer for the 3rd Cajun & Zydeco weekend on 27th - 29th October 2006, in zeilschool (sailing club) Pean, Friesland (North of Holland).
Maximum 100 folks allowed!
So if you're interested you better hurry up and send an e-mail to:
kuindersma@hetnet.nl
Added : 6 23, 2006
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3rd European Cajun & Zydeco award
On Saturday 17th June the award-prices for the best European Cajun & Zydeco musicians, bands & cd’s, were given during the (Cajun &) Zydeco-festival at Raamsdonkveer, Holland.
Check the link below for the results!
Congratulations to the winners and all other musicians & fans who keep that great music alive!
more info on :
http://www.cajunweb.de/award/
Added : 6 22, 2006
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Hamawé Roots Festival
Great music and atmosphere, last weekend in a small town next to Virton in the Belgium Ardens.
On Saturday night (the night before the festival) we enjoyed a jam session at the organiser’s home. When we heard live Cajun music coming out of the house, we occasionally passed by a few times… The owners were so friendly to let us in. So we could join a small private concert from the Savoy Family Cajun Band (Marc, Ann, Wilson and Joel) and some members of the Straps (which is a talented Belgian Old-Time Country band from that neighbourhood). Later when Marc and Ann Savoy were tired (jetlag), they went to sleep and Jan Schelpe (guitar) and I (Cajun accordion and vocals) joined the jam session with Wilson Savoy (fiddle, vocals, guitar, accordion), Joel Savoy (fiddle) and some Straps.
This already was a great experience, so the weekend couldn’t go wrong anymore.
The next day, it was festival-time. The place was filled with enthusiast people from the region and cowboys, roots- and Cajun-fans (and musicians) from Belgium and Holland.
The first act was a one-man band, with Johan Dupont on the piano. This young, but very talented, musician from Florenville (Belgium) played a real nice set of authentic ragtime and boogie-woogie. Second act was an acoustic blues trio with M. Lelangue, T. Crommen & K. Mulligan (including acoustic guitar, dobro and blues harp). After that the organising band (and local heroes) “The Straps” came up. The crowd was very enthusiast with their real good set of old-time country, hillbilly, bluegrass & country gospel (all with a portion of humour and a big “Lucky Luke-value”). When it was Cajun-showtime some members of the Savoy Family Cajun band started to realize that Belgian Orval –beer is stronger than Budweiser, Miller or Abita Amber…
But fortunately this didn’t affect their great act. Ann Savoy still sang with the same smooth voice and accompanied with acoustic guitar and ‘tit fer (triangle). Marc Savoy played on 2 of his self-made “Acadian” accordions. What a wonderful sound! Marc really is a master on playing “chanky-chank” in a very cool way. Joel Savoy, also a very friendly, cool & talented guy, plays the Cajun fiddle (hand-made by Michael Doucet’s son) on a very beautiful traditional way. “Pine Leaf Boy” Wilson Savoy took a dive in the “Orval river” before he came on stage… But being drunk was not too much of a problem for such a talented all-round musician. If Wilson can’t play it, it ain’t a musical instrument! He’s a great singer, fiddler, piano and Cajun accordion player. On the piano, he even demonstrated some Rock’n’Roll with a Jerry Lee Lewis-song, but especially his beautiful Cajun vocals (which is a bit in Dewey Balfa’s style and also sounds a bit like Courtney Granger, that other great talented Cajun fiddler-singer) impressed me. On the end, the other bands also joined them on stage and it all worked really well. Johan Dupont took the trumpet this time and, believe it or not, it really worked well on the Cajun songs. The whole thing resulted in a kind of Dixieland Cajun Grass-band...
See more pictures on the link below, that brings you to the website of the Straps.
Yvieboy
more info on :
http://www.thestraps.be/
Added : 6 9, 2006
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Cajun & Zydeco festival Dortmund, Germany
The only bad thing we can say about this festival was the weather. The organisation, the bands, the crowd, the atmosphere, the drinks and the food (jambalaya and gumbo included) were great! Because the rain didn’t allow an “open air-festival”, all bands played inside. But the good food was a reason to take a shower outside.
Big Bayou Bandits ( www.bigbayoubandits.com ) played an enthusiastic set of good ol’ Cajun (such as “Lafayette”, “Choupique Two-Step”, “Ouvre Cette Porte”, “One Step A Chaumant”, “J’suis Content D’être Un Cajun”…), Bayou Rockabilly (like “Back Home Again In Louisiana” and their own “Paddle On The Bayou”) and Bluegrass (“Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and “Miner’s Prayer”). A lot of variation for a 3-piece band!
The Swamptones (www.swamptones.de ) from Germany played great Zydeco with all its ingredients like Swamp Pop, Rock’n’Roll and New Orleans Rhythm ‘n’ Blues. Their set, full of Louisiana Party music, includes songs like “Don’t Mess With My Toot Toot”, “Who Stole The Hot Sauce?”, “What You Gonna Do”, etc.
Le Clou (www.leclou.com ) is a professional band including some French people living in Germany since many years. With their own style and sound they did a nice set of Canadian & Cajun folk-rock. Traditional sounding fiddle and accordion are backed by powerful drums, bass and rhythm guitar.
The Zydeco Alligators (www.zydecoalligators.de ) is a real good German Zydeco-band. Zydeco also in the wide meaning of the word! Their set included Louisiana Party songs like “Big Mamou”, “Jambalaya”, “Dat Crawfish”, “Walking To New Orleans” and their own “Louisiana Ball” (a song that echoed in my head, and in the hotel where the Zydeco Alligators and Big Bayou Bandits stayed, the whole night long)…
Great atmosphere in the “ballroom” and also backstage with this sympathic musicians!
Thanks also to Uwe Meyer and the whole organisation of FZW. (check out the link below for some pictures of the festival)
I hope this weekend the weather will be better at Hamawé-festival (where Savoy Cajun Family Band play on Sunday) near Virton…
more info on :
http://www.fzw.de/sites/galerie.php
Added : 5 30, 2006
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Crawfish Kings – Zydeco Boogaloo
This band from Finland was formed in 1995. Since 2000 the members of the band are Jarkko Helin (on accordion and vocals), Tommi Tenkula (on bass and vocals), Janne Salo (on drums) and Marko Aho (on guitar).
Singer-accordionist Jarkko Helin, who is the only original member of the band, has toured several times in Europe as accordionist for Cajun Du Nord. He also build his own (Cajun styled) “Crawfish accordions”.
After “Guaranteed To Make You Dance” in 2001, “Zydeco Boogaloo” (November 2005) is their second CD.
Opener is a rockin’ Zydeco version of Boozoo Chavis’ bluesy zydeco song “Paper In My Shoe”. The album continues with “Evangeline Special”, a great instrumental Cajun traditional. This is one of the songs where the accordionist (and of course also the other musicians) demonstrates his talent.
New Orleans traditional “Iko Iko” has a funky dance sound. Flaco Jimenez already surprised me earlier with his Tex-Mex version of the Beatles’ “Love Me Do”. Well, the Crawfish Kings made their Zydeco version of this song. “Zydeco Boogaloo” is a frantic zydeco accordion-instrumental, here done with vocals. More famous zydeco tracks on this CD are “Give Me Just A Little Time”, “Zydeco Mardi Gras”, “Lula Lula Don’t You Go To Bingo” and “Zydeco Shoes”. D.L. Menard’s classic “Back Door” and Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya” are also present on this cd.
Find out more of this talented rockin’ Zydeco band on their website.
Yvieboy
more info on :
http://www.crawfishkings.com
Added : 5 11, 2006
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 Big Bayou Bandits t-shirt
Summer is on the way, so time to do some shopping.
Big Bayou Bandits are helping you with those unpleasant choices like WHAT TO WEAR .... ?
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This eye-catching garment will make you stand out in the crowd.
Order today !!!
This high quality t-shirt comes in two colors kaki and black and cost only € 12.
ORDER NOW !!!
more info on :
http://www.bigbayoubandits.com
mail to :
info@bigbayoubandits.com
Added : 4 26, 2006
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