This weekend Jesse Lege was in town (Rochester and Ithaca), and his band, Bayou Brew, just tore it up, playing 3 shows over 2 days. Jesse played with the same two Upstate NY fiddlers (Susi Mills and Bill Henrie) that Ray Abshire chose for his show at the Earlville Opera House in August. We are lucky to have such talent up here on the North Coast. The band stayed at a friend's house, where I got to hear the new recording of Ed Poullard, Cedric Watson, and JB Adams, playing under the name Les Amis Creole. This is traditional Creole music, played with incredible virtuosity and soul. I've seen Ed and Jesse perform together at Augusta and at the Springtime Reunion CZ Festival. Both musicians play with power and grace, each bringing a unique style to Louisiana dance music.
Russ... we got back last week from Festivals Acadien and saw Jesse on the main stage...given all the bands we saw at the festival, Jesse, IMHO, ranks at the very top as a power player. He has superb dynamics and his choice of notes is both fun to see and great to listen to. He's on my 'must listen to more' list from now on...
Totally concur...Jesse is the total package. Had a chance
to jam w/ him during Festival week (guitar only...lol) and
was amazed by his command of the instrument and his
vocals.
More on Les Amis Creole - you can pick-up their new CD on the Arhoolie web site. I attended Festivals Acadiens and didn't see the CD for sale in the Lafayette area, so I ordered it from Arhoolie and it's a pretty fine CD. I love the format - accordion, fiddle & guitar.
I will definitely order it , there can never be enough good creole music . Did you ever hear Joe Semien's accordion recordings from L.A.?, They were not so well distributed, but what a great feel he had!
On Creole music, I'm with you. The Poullard, Poullard, Garnier CD is always in the CD player in my truck. I also picked up The Carrière Brothers, “Musique Creole” recently and enjoy that as well. I'm not familiar w/ Joe Semien, but I'll add that to my "must find" list of tunes. Thanks for the tip.