Well said Chris.

I think some may be worrying way too much. I will not let my personal preference get in the way of respecting someone trying to express their ability. I personally prefer the old style sung in cajun, but if someone can change the lyrics, even in english, and make a good song, I say go head on, and dont worry what some may think. I think I would prefer someone make good english lyrics than try to parrot the french. The music itself is timeless.

What many dont realize is that what we consider traditional is music that was in the process of being transformed at the time it was recorded, and the music will continue to transform along with society. And we will just have to get used to the fact that as older musicians disappear, the cajun lyrics will continue to become less common.

Bryan,

Sadly, you may be right about as the older musicians "die out" French lyrics may become less common. Personally I don't want this to happen and I am doing everything that I am able to turn the tide if possible.

Unfortunately the reason French lyrics may become less common is because so few Louisianans use French as their language. Sadly today Louisiana (yes, even Southern Louisiana) is by the large part anglophone, not francophone; although some are bilingual. I mean many people respect the past and learn the songs in French and want to learn the language even better (like me) but the it seems that there are few my age (30s-40s) who are FLUENT in French. And there definitely not enough of those who are fluent to be a sizable audience for contemporary Cajun music...I mean there are not enough people who speak French in Louisiana to listen to and buy "new forms of Cajun Music sung in French."

There will always be a segment who treasures the past and appreciates it and wants to preserve some of it but for them, that music is the music of the 1900s and doesn't necessary include new compositions. I think we songwriters and band leaders/members in Cajun music are really facing a crisis today. How do you communicate and make music that communicates life of contemporary Louisiana in French if there is only about 1% of the population who is fluent in French and only about half those care anything about Cajun music! The answer so far has been for bands to go outside of our state and use the world as their audience. Certainly there are enough Francophones in the world who can appreciate new forms of Cajun music. And don't forget all the DANCERS...that has been the group that has really caused many of our bands to go on the road. Most of the dancers don't care if they can't understand the lyrics...they just like to dance! Bands can not make a living playing Cajun music in Louisiana...you have to travel.

Now what is interesting is what Travis Matte is experimenting with. His music is almost all in English and the people can acutally understand and laugh along with the lyrics...this has brought out a whole new audience in Louisiana and they might just be playing full time and making it...but it is not what you and I would call "cajun music" is it?! I like it all right but I don't know if I would like it all night!

If Cajun music is going to reflect current and contemporary Louisiana it is going to have English in it because that is the language that we now speak. I am not excusing it...it is just the facts. I go to CFMA meetings...they are conducted in English, the Le Cajun awards show--English, all television programs---English, Cajun music festivals--English, most of the "Cajun" radio shows (except for public radio KRVS who does not have to rely on commercial advertising support)--English. I don't like it...I miss Jerry Dugas on KJEF on Thu Fri and Sat morning...all in French including the commercials! And there were many others back then also. But I think it has died out because the people who speak French and have money to spend have died out. It is not the Cajun people's fault, it is just what has happened.

I don't think it is fair to put all the burden for saving the French language on Cajun music and Cajun musicians. Many times we get told it is up to y'all...well, no it is not. It is up to families, schools and governments if we are going to reclaim our dwindling use of Cajun French. If we are to truly save the language we can't rely just on the Cajun music audience! There are far to many people...families--adults and children--who need to know how to speak French who will never attend a Cajun dance or listen to Cajun radio or buy a Cajun CD. Believe or not...not everyone likes Cajun music (it's wrong, I know! :0)...there are not enough Cajun music fans in Louisiana to save be a large enough group to rise up and save the language. If it is important to us as a culture, then we need to be taking bigger and bolder steps to save it...Otherwise contemporary Cajun music is bound to be sung in English because contemporary Cajuns speak English.

My 2 cents...

Chris, you made a very good point there about dancers. They don't care if they can hear the lyrics in any language. The voice is just a different instrument to them, and each change of instrument gives the music a lift - kind of 'lifts' the dancers. ( you know all this - I'm just thinking out loud )

Still doesn't excuse the lack of French, though. Even though I might not understand it all, it still sounds better in French.

BJ

Chris, I certainly never want to imply any burden on musicians, or anyone else to save the language. I was just impying what I now grudgingly consider fact. Our language, like world war 2 veterans, is fading each year.

The burden to save our language is not on the musicians, but they happen the best vehicle (in my opinion) to help preserve it. People are more likely to get interested in our language through our music. My heart goes out to everyone of mine and your generation and younge trying to save the language, especially to you musicians because you are preserving more than just the language. But, with little interest in the youth, and resignation among the older generation....

Though I have very strong feelings and opinions about the loss of our language(though still alive now), and have at some point in my frustration blamed too much, all we can do now is preserve what we can (all aspects of our culture). And in that regard you are carrying more than your share of the burden, and I, for one, am thankful.

Bryan,

No, I did not mean to direct the entire post toward you, sorry. I don't know you except for the little I know of you from the board.

I also want to say that I enjoy dialog like this and I think it helps us (or me, at least) deal with issues like this and brainstorm for new vision.

First of all I want to say that I am passionately dedicated to preserving whatever can be saved of our music, culture, and language. It has driven me most of my life. I hope people will really read what I wrote a few times over because I think it is something that at least the Louisiana Cajun musicians must think about...and that all people concerned with the preservation of a culture have to come to terms with.

I think we should look at Nova Scotia and see what they have been doing with French. I don't know the whole story there but it seems like they are involved in a sort of renaissance...I know some adults there can't write in French but their children who have gone to school in French of course can.

What I mean to point out is that I don't think that Cajun music is a strong enough force by itself to cause a renaissance in the language. It has been tried quite a few times...Zachary Richard and others. It will take at least as much of a militant movement as he fronted to get any attention on the matter. I find myself frustrated when trying to promote music in French...and sometimes feel like the Lone Ranger. Do you know of any programs or resources for our Cajun musicians? Is there anything to help us turn the tide toward reclaiming our French?

With the news of Spanish-speaking immigrants in the forefront, I would think that proposing governmental programs and incentives for French language is not a popular idea in America at this time. There is already much criticism of the Spanish languages programs for immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Some will say "it is not the government's place to teach a people its native tongue." Other will say "the families should keep it alive if they think it is that important." Personally, we are a generation or two late at this point. Parents can not speak French with their children because they can speak it themselves. There is still also a certain stigma that has lingered and many people don't want to be labeled as "backward-thinking" but want to be progressive. Speaking English was sort of sold to my Dad's generation like that...his parents stopped speaking French to the children and only used it to converse among themselves...this generation is where we 'lost it.' Speaking in English was seen as the way of the future...and also a future much better than the old ways of the past. Now we are a few generations removed from this and it will be very difficult to regain it.

I am not ready to give up or surrender. But I do think the question has to be asked...Can new, and relevant music be composed in French for Cajuns of today whose parents and even some grandparents do not speak French anymore? Probably yes...and to some extent no. People will always honor the past and their "roots" and will never totally abandon them, but I am afraid that much of the new music that Cajuns might compose that truly has lyrics that must be understood by the masses in order to be effective...I am afraid that the language more and more has to be English.

I am not just talking about our regular little dance tunes. I mean ballads and story songs...songs that parallel what you hear on mass radio...for contemporary Cajuns to express big ideas well, it seems that it is too difficult to do so in French.

And I guess what I am also trying to say is, is it right to tell an English-speaking Cajun that any music that they play must be in French for it to be considered Cajun? Cajuns are either bilingual or only fluent in English...you have to go way out in the woods or you have to go to the very, very old to find someone who only speaks in French. I understand the reasoning behind insisting that Cajun music be in French, but there is nothing else like that in our lives today, nothing that is all in French. In some ways I guess, that is the reason to keep in all in French...it is the last stronghold of our French language.

But I sometimes feel like I can not communicate with the younger generations when I am doing music all in French...it is a foreign language to them. To me there has to be some leniency and understanding that in order to get people involved you sometimes have to speak their language...and for the younger generation in Louisiana (right or wrong) that langauge is English.

Please anyone who has ideas, chime in. If you play Cajun music, I think you know what I am talking about. We face some real challenges. What do y'all think?

This merits a new topic, Chris. The future of French in Cajun culture and music. To me, Cajun music has done more than its share for reviving pride in the culture, and if you realize how much interest there is worldwide in the music, well, it's hard to believe but there it is! I would never have guessed!

Those were true words said to the effect that what we call traditional Cajun music today was truly once upon a time quite new, foreign to an older generation, and not always immediately embraced! Shucks, even the accordion we love and identify with Cajun music was new once upon a time. I guess for music lovers like us, music is too powerful a force to contain. Not too much planning we can do, IMO.

On my recent trip home to Louisiana, I picked up Shane Bernard's book The Cajuns: Americanization of a People, read it as fast as I could, and I am still reeling with mixed feelings. The book is a few years old now but still very relevant. Where it left off, if I understood it, is that the French immersion movement in public schools in Louisiana is encouraging, but we will have to wait and see. Some folks who know a lot more than I do affirm that you need French to survive in order for the culture to survive. The fact that I wrote that in English speaks volumes, and leaves me with a worried heart, for sure, but what can I say?

Hey Neal!
Glad you joined the topic!

Here's another book for you:

Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a people
1803-1877
Carl A.Brasseaux
University Press of Mississippi

I need to get that book you spoke of...I love reading things like that.

I also enjoy those type books. Another I have that gave great insight into how the south Louisiana gumbo pot of diversity came to be put together is Carl Brasseaux's "French, Cajun, Creole, Houma-A Primer On Francophone Louisiana". Mr Brasseaux answers lots of questions.

Another one I loved was "Cajun Sketches", by Lauren Post written in 1962 largely about customs which were at that time dying. Lots of pics.

Dad, the geneology buff, gave me a stack of those type of books that I havent finished going through yet.

Chris I have many times wrestled with your same dilemas, and have come to the same conclusions. I think we have at least 2 problems here, interesting the youth in the music, and interesting them in the language. In a perfect world they would be interested in both. And if interested in the language, there would have to be more support from several different sources to make it work.

A young gentleman named Rocky Mckeon who has visited here occasionally has a radical idea that I didnt like at first, and the purist in me still doesnt like. But he proposes interesting the youth in the language, not with things of old, but the things they are interested in today. There will always be some kids interested in the old traditions, but most arent, or wont be until older. He sings rap songs in cajun (yeah I know, but think about it). He also comes up with cajun terms for things kids today talk about. Maybe, just maybe, if that approach might work to interest the youth in the language today, then maybe sometime they may become interested in the music, and other things also.

But for now, I feel the music style must also be preserved, even if in transition. If young people pick up an accordion and play cajun style, but sing lyrics in english, I would, with some lament, applaud them. It is, as you know, a result of factors that are not their fault. And maybe those with an interest in the music, might strive to learn the language.

I am trying to teach my kids what I can of the language, and they like the music some. Unfortunately I have moved to Texas and they only hear it from me (and they say it with a funny accent). But they know more than their cousins in the Mamou area, and that is sad, but not their cousins fault. When I see that picture of you with your family all playing cajun music, I can only hope you know how fortunate you are.

Hey that rap idea might not be so bad...I don't like a lot of rap but it is mainly because of the subject matter.

When I visited France a few years back, I saw the Jetsons in the Basque language! I starting asking around about the people and their language and I think I understand that they have had to struggle to keep their language alive and have it accepted by France and Spain. I thought to myself...what if we had cartoons in Cajun! What if our kids grew up on that...hmm...same feeling in Montreal when I visited. If we had as much French TV as they do then we would be getting somewhere! It is a virtual immersion! When all the digital cable and satellite TV...why not?

I think if you get popular music and TV in CAJUN French then you might could save it...that is the way to reach the younger generation...through pop culture probably.

Yep, that's kind of the idea. I invited Rocky to come join the converstation. I feel he is on the right track. Nobody understands the young folks like young folks do. And I really feel if they got interested in the language at a young age, by however means it took, at a later age they would take interests in the more traditional aspects. Now, how to elect Rocky governor.

Bryan;

Is this the same Rocky? See the website link above.

I have enjoyed his site a lot recently.

Peace,
Griff

That's him.

Ça, c'est juste le début de Rocky. Va 'oir les autres websites au-dessus. Mon, j'crois qu'i' faut prendre l'attention des enfants avec les affaires qu'EUSSE aime pendant qu'eusse est jeune.

That's just the beginning of Rocky. Check out the other sites above. I believe that it's necessary to grab children's attention with things that THEY like while they're young.

Peut etre tu devrais commence un autre linge, neg, c'est trop en bas.

Tant pire. Si eusse connaît pas comment venir en bas de la page, eusse va pas le 'oir. C'est juste comme ça.

Rocky

Well I want to thank all you folks for you opinions and leads.

As an old timey banjo picker I can not begin to count how many time I have heard completly diffrent words and titles to the same melody.

When these same tunes were slicked up in the 60's by the Kingston Trio etc. it peak the interest of an entire generation who went back to the musical roots. They creating a new crop of musician to preseve the original style.

I like the sound of Cajun music it is lively and toe tapping. I am suprised that it is not used to sell cereal or advertise water parks like Bluegrass has.

There will always be those musicians who preserve the original music form and those who expand on it possibilities. I would just like to hear more of it.


RPr