Yeah Larry, I've enjoyed that debut release from Mamou -- I've got it on vinyl -- it's a treasure. It does have some distorted guitars and gratuitous jammin' on it -- I love their version of Jolie Blon'.
I'm not sure who first decided to mix Cajun with a lil' bit of metal, I suspect Mamou -- Mamou or the Bluerunners, but both examples are cool in the idea that it brings something different to the table. One could argue that it was Zachary Richard or even Beausoleil, particularly the early concoction of [that] band called, "Coteau."
That said, none of these examples would prepare you for Travis Matte's new mix. He takes the mixture a step further incorporating hip-hop into that already boiling gumbo. Even my band has dabbled with some zydemetal, which will be on our CD, slated to relase in a couple of months.
Why do bands do stuff like this? There's a lot of different answers, it really depends on who to ask. For me, it's fun and appeals to folks who would normally never dream of mixing zydeco and metal; Cajun and hard rock...
Here's a lot of history... lemme break out the chalk...
This marriage of genres is nothing new to modern music. It is, in fact, what keeps music evolving. It's also often the first step for many to begin on a journey back to the roots.
Example: Jimmy Metalhead who lives in a world of tattoos and skulls would never listen to traditional music... until that one day he heard a kickace tune that had a squeezebox in it. He buys the CD (or steals it off of peer-to-peer for free) and hears a tune with more of a trad-vibe. He can't resist listening to the trad-vibe. He steals other tunes from similar artists. Next thing you know, Jimmy is getting into Paul Daigle.
It may work the other way around, too, where Allen Theriot, an elderly farmer from Port Barre hears Mamou's version of Jolie Blon' and the next thing you know he's locked-in to the metal show on KRVS. But I doubt it.
There's all kinds of rock and roll today. There's classic rock, folk rock, Americana rock, wimpy emo rock, Euro-rock, punk rock, Brit-pop, garage, garage horror, goth, metal, speed metal, deth-rock, the list goes on. But there's an edge in today's heaviest rock that makes Metallica look like elevator music. Likewise, there's bands like Travis' Kingpins that would make Mamou blush... but it's all but impossible to make that comparison. Mamou took the traditional route and rocked it up with the sound that was edgy at the time. Travis is breaking original ground using all genres that are popular.
So as it was stated here before... Like it or hate it... fusion is inevitable. It's been around since popular music became... popular music. Black slaves took African rhythms, scales, chords and field chants and invented the blues. White guys took the blues, added country and caffeine and came up with rock and roll. Black guys took the blues, added gospel and jazz and came up with soul. Rock and soul got together to create bands like The Beatles, Chicago, Hall and Oates, Boz Scaggs, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel... the list is too long.
In today's popular music, hip-hop shares the top of the Billboard. Many folks don't know that it's origins are from Jamaican reggae, back in the day of "toasting" over dubplates from mobile DJ trucks. But that's the truth -- an innovation. But that's a whole nuther thread of typing and I'll spare ya's.
Music... It's a never ending metamorphosis and it's forever interesting and inspiring.
There are a couple of early Joel Sonnier singles on Goldband where he experimented with s distorted guitar rock sound combined with the accordion- I like the one called Tasso Gumbo. Then also Cleveland Crochet's blues numbers were early also early rockin blues/accordion experiments. To me they sound classic and yet still fresh now.
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
