Welcome to old and new friends who are interested in discussing Cajun and other diatonic accordions, along with some occasional lagniappe....
CAJUN ACCORDION DISCUSSION GROUP
Well, just got in last night from 5 great days in Breaux Bridge at the Crawfish Festival. Man, were we able to OD on some outstanding music! We stayed at a wonderful B&B called Cajun Country Cottages, which just happens to be managed by a real sweet lady named Sandy Vidrine. She is Courtney Granger's and Christine Balfa Powell's cousin. The website for the B&B is listed above. I highly recommend it as a place to relax. We (My wife and I) stayed at the main house. Nothing like sitting on a rocking chair on the front porch, playing your accordion, and watching the wind blow the Spanish Moss in the big oak trees! Sandy fed us crawfish boudin for breakfast(along with listening to KBON) if we wanted it,as well as other good stuff, and later each day I attempted to wipe out the crawfish population of Louisiana, 3 pounds at a time, at every place that had up a sign. Highly recommend 'Crazy Bout Crawfish' which just opened up.
The music was superb! Got to hear Balfa Toujours, of course; Geno; Basin Brothers (a pleasant surprise as I had never heard them before); Pine Leaf Boys ( Wilson Savoy is a very personable young man; asked me if I would like to play on stage, but I told him, 'only if he wanted to run everybody off'); Hunter Hayes ( a 'cutie-pie', according to my wife); Steve Riley and Mamou Playboys ( still my favorite), Travis Matte ( whose music my wife and several other mature ladies described as "electric", i.e, I think they liked it ) and Rosie Ledet. Heard some other bands ,too, but consuption of a whole load of those little-bitty 10 ounce cans rendered my memory kind of foggy in spots. Even could buy beer on Sunday morning, Amazing to a Texas boy. We had the unexpected pleasure of running into some couples from San Antonio that we know well, but didn't know that they were Cajun music fans. Jimmy and Shirly Stazney and Gary & Jeannette Trial. Jimmy plays the piano accordion in his own Oom-Pa-Pa band, and Gary is the fiddler for the Countrymen C&W band. They had both been coming to the Festival for over 10 years. It's always good to find old friends in unexpected places.
Finished off with a vist to Pat's in Henderson on Sunday night where we heard Kevin Naquin & the Ossun Playboys, got to enjoy more crawfish, and dance with the A/C running. Way too crowded at Whiskey River.
Left Monday morning on the way back San Antone and went through Eunice with the intention of stopping at the Savoy Music Center, only to discover they are closed on Monday. Was dissapointed, but Marc needs his days off, too.
This is definitely not my last trip to SW LA. I mean, where else can you pull into a gas station ,fill up the tank , buy some boudin and graton plus a Cajun CD that you don't already have, then go in the behind door and blow $ 50.00 on the slots? Not in Texas! And, as I was instructed to say by several folks, " Ah lak dat, me"
JB
Yes, Sandy Vidrine said that Stephanie and Chris Baker, who now own the CCC B&B, bought it from the couple who own the house across the lake, and that he was a baptist preacher who also had a radio fishing show, but I can't remember what she said their name was.
It was great to sit on the back porch and listen to the frogs and kaydeedids, and watch the bream and bass rippling the lake. Made it hard to think about havin' to go back to work today.
JB
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
