Calling on help from our Canadians here. Could I put you in touch with a Toronto university student who contacted me asking if I knew any Canadian performers of Cajun music? The student is working on a term paper, I think, and would like to ask some questions. Thanks!
can you tell your contact to check Swamparella's web site.
They are a Toronto based band and Cajun music is their thing.
Peter Gellard is the box player and has been playing for some twenty odd years.
I know Peter prsonnally but I would rather that your contact get in touch with him trough the band web site or since the band members lives in Toronto to visit them at the Gladstone hotel where they play every Friday nights.
Hello I understand you are interested in the canadians who are involved playing cajun music. There is a band here in Montreal that I organize called Grouyan Gombo.
We play mostly cajun as well some trad. creole repertoire. I have a strong interest in the music for the las 15 years. Please check out our myspace link posted above and feel free to email me anytime....
About the influsnce of Cajun music in this country that I know about :There is also the band, "Josephine" in Quebec City, basically Gaetan Jobin and Sylvie Larose, as well as Michael Ball In Ottawa who I often play with , as well as Nicole Blanchette in Granby, there is a band in Peterborough, Ontario whose name I don't recall I have met as well...A lot of Acadian musicains from new Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and the Isle de la Madeleine also have been influenced by Cajun music, including "Blou", "Suroit", "Edith Butler". there is also a FrancoAlbertain singer from Alberta calles Crystal Chiasson if I am not mistaken,,,,,There is more Cajun impact on this country than one muight imagine. Many Traditional music people here visited Louisiana in the 1970's and invited Dennis Mcgee, D. L Menard, Marc Savoy, Dewey Balfa, Boisec Ardoin to play here back then . More recently, Hadley Castille and Bruce Daigrepont, Sacaulait, Al Berard and the Basin Bros, Filé, Wayne Toups, CJ Chenier, Nathan & The Zydeco Chachas , Rodie Romero, Balfa Toujours, Feufollet, The Savoy Family Band, Marce Lacouture, The Red Stick Ramblers have all been ambasadors for S.W Louisiana music in Quebec. We appreciate any chance we have to hear that good music.
Harlan
Very interesting discussion. I did my master's research in ethnomusicology on the French-Canadian immigrant community in Southern New England (Rhode Island and Connecticut). Among the songs in the repertoires of various musicians there were "Colinda," "Lache-Moi La Patate," and "L'Arbre Est Dans Ses Feuilles."