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bonsoir,
catin FRIDAY - 7:00PM It happened one night in Chicot State park around a campfire. Four girls, all friends, playing music and visiting until the early morning hours. They realized that they shared the same vision that Cajun music should be unafraid and unabashed, full of energy and raw emotion. Since that night, Bonsoir, Catin has emerged as one of South Louisiana's most exciting new Cajun bands. visit their website |
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the
figs FRIDAY - 8:00PM What began as a garage jam session for girls who "aren't musicians" has quickly become a harmony-focused clunky little band, taking their place among the lafayette roots rockers. With guitar, bass, drums, ukelele and banjo, these girls are making the old new again, playing sassy swing, melancholy old-time, and romping old country tunes. visit their website |
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ann
savoy & her sleepless knights FRIDAY - 9:00PM Jazz virtuosos and old friends Tom Mitchell and Kevin Wimmer are back together again supporting the sultry, swinging vocals of Ann Savoy. Joining them in the band are Ann’s talented sons, Joel and Wilson Savoy, joined by the red hot rhythm section from the Red Stick Ramblers, Chas Justus, Eric Frey, and Glenn Fields. These musicians have played and recorded with a virtual “who’s who” in the music industry, among them Linda Ronstadt, ,John Fogerty, Elvis Costello, Bette Midler, Emmy Lou Harris, Dan Hicks, Alysson Krauss, Peter Rowan, Charlie Byrd. The band, with the exclusion of Tom Mitchell, resides in southwest Louisiana where they are leaders on the local Cajun music and swing scene. visit their website |
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pine
leaf boys FRIDAY - 10:00PM Steeped in music since children and hailing from Eunice, Elton, Lafayette, Seely, TX, and Iota, the Pine Leaf Boys have been making a name for themselves as being not only a young group of musicians, but preserving the traditional Cajun sound, while allowing it to breathe and and stretch with those who play it. They present their music in multiple configurations such a twin fiddle, duo accordion/fiddle, bass, drum, and even stomping jurés. Their music is not classified solely as Cajun music, but rather Louisiana music, ranging from waltzes to rocking two-steps to and raunchy Creole blues, bringing in new, young audiences and some who have never heard of Cajuns. visit their website |
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belton
richard FRIDAY - 11:00PM Belton Richard, born in 1939 in Rayne, has been a very popular Cajun musician for decades. During the 1960s and the 1970s, his dancehall band, the Musical Aces, attracted crowds wherever they went up. After retiring from performing regularly, he has begun in 2002 to appear at a number of festivals and other venues. Even while he was not active on stage, his songs continued to be part of the standard repertoire of most Cajun bands. |
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acadien SATURDAY - 1:00PM Acadien Cajun Band excels in performing a variety of Cajun music, from roots music out of the folk tradition, to dancehall tunes, to original songs, and whatever they do sounds good because these young musicians are both talented and committed. All Night Long, the 2007 CD released by the Acadien Cajun Band, builds on their first recording with more traditional songs, sometimes with new lyrics, along with three new songs by Ryan Simon, the band’s founder. visit their website |
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jay
& bjorn peterson SATURDAY - 1:45PM (Valcour Stage) Hailing originally from the other end of the Mississippi in Minnesota, and now living in the other Acadia, in Eastern Maine, the father and son duo of Jay and Bjorn Peterson play guitar, fiddle and electric mandolin, and feature music steeped in the swing traditions from the Cotton Club to the cottonfields. From fiddle tunes, early western swing and honky tonk to ballads and blues, they perform at festivals, fairs and clubs in their new home on the Maine coast. Jay is a veteran of Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion, many Folk Festivals in the midwest and Canada, as well as Legion Halls and rodeos, and now hosts a weekly roots music program on WERU-FM in Blue Hill, ME. For 25 years in Minneapolis he played in country and swing bands in Minneapolis before heading east. He's been a regular staff member at Fiddle and Dance at Ashokan in New York since 1986, and lectures on country and western music history there as well as on college campuses. Son Bjorn has been playing fiddle for more than half of his fourteen years, and plays with a dexterity and authority that is uncommon in someone his age. |
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feufollet SATURDAY - 2:15PM For the young members of La Bande Feufollet, who have been among the most promising exponents of Cajun folk music for the past decade, the Cajun repertoire of Southern Louisiana, is at once familiar and constantly intriguing. It's a way to have fun and play music, but also a way to understand and fathom the roots of their culture, their heritage and even their own identity in the wilderness of mainstream culture and society. visit their website |
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carl
& kelli jones SATURDAY - 3:00PM (Valcour Stage) Carl Jones is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist that once played with The Rising Fawn String Ensemble (Norman and Nancy Blake with James Bryan)He still plays with James Bryan and his daughter, Rachel, whenever possible. He is a performer and instructor at many of the festivals and camps around the country and often performs as a duo w/ Beverly Smith at home and abroad. Known for his wit and easy going manner; Carl’s simple approach to life comes across in his playing and his songs. His daughter, Kelli, is presently living in Lafayette where she is attending college and playing lots of music. She is becoming known for her soulful singing, great fiddling (Cajun & old time), as well as her songwriting. |
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lafayette
rhythm devils SATURDAY - 3:30PM In Louisiana, music and dancing contribute to the "Joie de Vie" we celebrate, sometimes with devilish frenzy. The Lafayette Rhythm Devils provide a tight, technically precise sound, but more importantly, through their sound, they share the joy and excitement that is Cajun music. The Lafayette Rhythm Devils embrace the opportunity to perform Cajun music with enthusiasm and the indisputable joy that is associated with our unique culture. On vocals, Kristi Guillory and Randy Vidrine fill the air with emotion and energy. Chris Segura adds fuel to the fire with his rip-roaring fiddling, improvising in and personalizing each tune. Donand LeJeune on drums and Yvette Landry on bass provide the driving beat that is the "Rhythm of the Devils"! visit their website |
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matt
kinman FRIDAY - 4:30PM (Valcour Stage) Matt Kinman (pictured on banjo at left with the Old Time Serenaders), from Cadiz, Kentucky via Bumpis Mills, Tennessee, performs traditional Southern music on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, bones, and feet. Singing in his own cowboy balledeer style, he has been featured on the Grand Ole Opry, the Ernest Tubb Record Shop's Midnight Jamboree, and the Tennessee Fall Homecoming. visit his website |
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square
dance called by nancy spero SATURDAY - 5:00PM Nancy Spero lives in Ithaca, New York, and has been calling square dances, contra dances, and community/family dances in the northeast since 1988. Her dances provide high-energy fun for all participants--from newcomers to seasoned dancers. One of her passions is calling rip-roaring Old Time Square Dances to the irresistible rhythms of Southern Appalachian old-time music. If you can walk, she'll have you movin’ and groovin’ to the music in no time, even if you have never tried square dancing! |
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mayhem
stringband SATURDAY - 6:00PM (Valcour Stage) In a medium somewhere between songcraft, energized theatrics, blazing solos, heart-wrenching harmonies and plain ole' good time, the Mayhem String Band has a reputation like few other bands. Their brand of coutrified outlaw bluegrass conjures up the ghosts of Hank and Waylon by creating chaos and taming it in the same performance. These men play string music, raw and agressive, with simple hope that people will listen up, catch the buzz and get to dancing. visit their website |
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balfa
toujours SATURDAY - 6:30PM Balfa Toujours is a brilliant young band that has been making a name for itself not only in the Cajun music scene of Southwestern Louisiana, but also in the larger realm of all traditional music. The Balfa name conjures up memories of the famous Balfa Brothers, who took their soulful, empassioned music from the prairies of Mamou to the far corners of the earth. Now, Balfa Toujours (meaning Balfa still and always) is making sure the name will maintain its place for generations afterwards. visit their website |
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ginny
hawker & tracy schwarz |
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ed
poullard & preston frank SATURDAY - 8:00PM The Frank Family, from the small rural community of Soileau in Allen Parish, is one of the great Creole musical families. According to Michael Tisserand, Preston Frank, father of Keith Frank, can trace his musical lineage at least as far back as his great-grandfather Joseph Frank Jr., an accordion player, and his great-great-grandfather, Joseph Frank Sr., who played fiddle. Neither ever recorded. His great-uncle Carlton Frank, one of the few Creole fiddlers still playing, performs on with the family band. |
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tony
davoren SATURDAY - 9:00PM (Valcour Stage) |
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king
bees SATURDAY - 9:30PM |
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racines FRIDAY - 10:45PM If you took all the roots of Southwest Louisiana music and grafted them together, you would end up with Racines. Their music, like the roots they are named after, draws life from the nutrients abundant in the local soil. In this corner of Louisiana, that means Cajun, Zydeco, Creole, Swamp Pop, Blues, and more. Riley on accordion, Wimmer on fiddle, Reed on bass, Stafford on guitar and Field on drums – with some AMAZING double fiddle treats by Wimmer & Reed. visit their website |
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red
stick ramblers SATURDAY - 12:00AM The Red Stick Ramblers play a mixture of Cajun fiddle tunes, Western Swing, traditional jazz of the 1920s and 1930s alongside a steadily growing number of tradition-inspired originals. Based in Southern Louisiana, they build upon the songs of seminal fiddlers like Dennis McGee and Dewey Balfa, along with jazz and country swing bandleaders such as Bob Wills and Django Reinhardt, finding a common thread of danceable rhythms and strong, elegant melodies. visit their website |
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