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The Spice of the Cajuns

     For French speaking settlers of Southwest Louisiana, there are no stronger tethers to their heritage than their language and their music. The up-beat, folksy music that wafts among the mossy trees of Louisiana’s bayous was crafted as much by Cajun history as it was by the musicians who put their fingers on the fiddle strings and accordion buttons. Developing at the same time as other American folk genres, Cajun music both influenced and was influenced by blues, country and tejano music. In order to tell a more complete story of Cajun music, the story of the Cajun people and their heritage must be told as well.

     During The Seven Years War between England and France in the middle of the eighteenth century, England won control of Canada’s Acadian peninsula from France. When the Acadians refused to assist England in the war, King George II immediately expelled them from Eastern Canada and Nova Scotia, dispersing the population back to their native Normandy and Brittany, throughout the eastern seaboard of the American Colonies, down to Santo Domingo (present day Haiti), and to the French territory of Louisiana. To this day, there are Acadian descendants in the eastern United States and Canada, but nowhere does the Acadian culture thrive more vividly than in Louisiana.

     Over time, many more Acadians arrived in Western Louisiana from the Caribbean and America. A revolution flared up in Santo Domingo in 1790, and French refugees fled to Louisiana, adding even more spice to the mix of Acadians and other French. The refugees consisted of white French, black French and Creoles. Soon, Louisiana culture was infused with Caribbean rhythms, the mystical voodoo religion, and Creole language, which was developed by African slaves as they tried to learn French.

     The songs that the Creoles brought along included influences from French folk music, African field chants and work songs, and religious hymns. The Creole songs fit in well with the Acadian’s music style due to their common affinity for fiddle music. Fiddles could provide a bevy of dance rhythms like waltzes, polkas, and quadrilles. The French people of Louisiana had a tradition of what they called “fais do-dos,” which were simply house dances. Two fiddlers played a cycle of dances that they would repeat over and over as the night wore on. One of the fiddlers would handle the melody while the other handled the lower harmony and rhythm.

     In the middle of the nineteenth century, accordions were being adopted by indigenous cultures all over the world. It has been suggested that a large German population in the Opelousas area of Louisiana probably introduced the accordion to the Acadians. In the isolated prairies and bayous of Western Louisiana, the loud, low-maintenance squeezeboxes began to catch on. Strings were a precious commodity among Acadian fiddlers and the difficulty of procuring replacement strings helped popularize the accordion.

     There was difficulty, however, with the integration of the new accordion and the fiddle. The accordions came in keys that fiddlers had a hard time playing. It wasn’t until after the turn of the century, when accordions were made to play in keys more copasetic to fiddle music that they became the first choice among Acadian musicians.

     THE years between the turn of the twentieth century and the Great Depression yielded an explosion of popularity in nationwide interest in Southern music culture. In the 1920s, jazz music was blaring its way up the Mississippi River to Chicago with blues music following closely behind. Country and Western music was being formed in the rural South and Southwest from a mixture of Appalachian folk music, gospel music, tejano and blues. Each genre sprouted its own legendary and influential performers.

     Among the many Acadian folk musicians there was Dennis McGee (who learned most of his songs from a one-hundred year-old fiddler and whose recorded music is a treasured chronicle of the Acadian music of the early nineteenth century), Joe Falcon, and Amede Ardoin. McGee and Ardoin, a black accordionist, performed together despite the segregation of the 1920s and 1930s. They became popular on a local level with whites and blacks alike, but traveling sometimes became perilous for the duo. They recorded together, as well, and some of Ardoin’s songs are performed and recorded today with only minor changes in the lyrics.

     Also among Acadian music pioneers were Joe and Cleoma Falcon. In 1928, the pair recorded “Allons a Lafayette” – the very first Cajun music record. The Cleomas were also unique not only because a woman was performing in a Cajun band, but because she was also playing the guitar – a decidedly non-traditional instrument for Acadian music. Like the regional music recordings and “race” records that sprang to national popularity in the 1920s, the Falcons’ record sold nationwide. The rising popularity of Cajun music around the country sparked a renewed sense of pride for the Acadians, who had become marginalized by others among Louisiana’s citizenry.

     During the first decades of the twentieth century, the Acadian population was considered and treated as lower class citizens. Schools prohibited the use of the French language which drove many children home to work on the family farms. The lack of education and agrarian lifestyle of the Acadians fueled the discrimination. “Cajun” actually arose from the Creole pronunciation of “Acadian” and was used pejoratively against Acadians. However, the rising popularity of Cajun music and culture all over American was a spark of pride for the Cajuns.

     The spike in Cajun popularity prompted the famous folklorist John Lomax to visit Louisiana in 1932, to record and document folklore and folk music for the Library of Congress. His efforts to understand and appreciate folklore and music in their most fundamental forms – in the homes and daily lives of the Cajuns – provided access to the naked culture that lied beneath the polished, overplayed dance hall favorites that gave a merely shallow impression of Cajun life. Lomax’s efforts also inspired the youth of the Depression Era to seek solace and redemption in their own, true musical culture.

     Radio also helped to elevate Cajun music in American consciousness. In the 1930s, Radio was on the rise and was becoming an important part of the dissemination of regional music all over America. Radio stations located in Eastern Texas played country and western swing music that was heard in Western Louisiana by the Cajuns. Blues radio stations from Mississippi also reached the radio sets of Louisianans. Because, in part, of radio, folk music styles began influencing each other, creating innovations in style, instrumentation and structure among the various genres. Some Cajun bands simply retooled country tunes and translated them to French. Some country bands incorporated aspects of Cajun music into their songs.

     The influence of country music on Cajun music contributed to the decline of accordions as an essential Cajun instrument. Many bands throughout the 1930s followed the trend and abandoned their accordions for the more traditional, and country music string-band formulas

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     IN the meantime, black French musicians were listening to blues music from radio stations which carried urban blues from Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, and Houston, and seeing blues musicians live as they toured the Mississippi Delta region. Frustrated by the limitations of the single row of buttons on their accordions, the black musicians who wanted to emulate the blues style found liberation with double-row and triple-row accordions which rose to the challenge of blue notes and scales.

     When the United States entered World War II, many American men were shipped off to war. The Cajuns were no exception. For those who stayed behind, East Texas became the land of economic opportunity. Cities like Port Arthur, Texas, boomed in the oil industry and Cajuns moved west to take advantage of the higher wages that the refineries offered over the hardships of farming. Their exposure to Eastern Texas urban areas and Texan country music inspired Cajun musicians to evolve even further by assimilating new country and country-swing rhythms.

     During the war, a black accordion player from Opelousas named Clifton Chenier, moved to Houston, like many Louisianans, looking for work. While he was there, he was amazed by the music of the rhythm and blues bands he heard. He eventually returned home and melted the French language with saucy blues music and created zydeco.

     IN the late 1940s, Cajun and zydeco music grew steadily in popularity and influence with the help of radio. Returning G.I.s were eager to hear the Cajun music they were used to. Accordions came back into fashion. A few recording companies sprang up and introduced Cajun musicians like Iry LeJeune and Nathan Abshire, and early zydeco musicians such as Clarence Garlow, whose 1950 single “Bon Ton Roula” climbed the R&B charts to number seven. A popular radio show called The Louisiana Hayride first aired in 1948 and showcased new musical talents. Hank Williams is probably the best known talent to have been discovered on the Hayride. Williams was taken by Cajun music and took an old Cajun song called “Grand Texas”, turning it into his big hit “Jambalaya (on the Bayou).” Cajun musicians responded in kind by taking his influence to heart.

     Two accordion players rose to fame in the mid-1950s with the emerging prominence of zydeco music: Clifton Chenier and Boozoo Chavis. Chavis gained notoriety in 1954 when he recorded the song, “Paper in My Shoe.” Clifton Chenier and His Red Hot Louisiana Band incorporated an electric bass and a full drum set with the more traditional guitar and Chenier’s piano-key accordion, and fine-tuned the sound that came be known as zydeco.

     The 1960s also saw a boom in Louisiana music. The Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island placed Cajun musicians on the same stage with popular folk music luminaries Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was created to highlight Louisiana’s culture and music. Both events helped to steer the younger generation of Cajuns back to their heritage while presenting Cajun and zydeco music to the increasingly interested American nation. Michael Doucet and his band, Beausoleil came into prominence in this decade as well.

     As for zydeco, its popularity continued well into the 1970s and 1980s due to the musicians’ dedication to pass the zydeco tradition down through the generations. For instance, Clifton Chenier’s son, C.J., took over the Red Hot Louisiana Band and continues to tour the world.

     From their beginnings in Canada, through the peril of expulsion, and the passage of decades, the Cajun people have proven fierce protectors of their culture and heritage and enthusiastic nurturers of their own cultural evolution. Here in the twenty-first century, Acadian culture is alive and kicking. One of the most important preservatives of the culture has been the Cajun and zydeco music that still jumps all over the world thanks to current zydeco stars like C.J. Chenier, Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Chas, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Cajun stars Beausoleil, Michael Doucet, David Doucet, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys and Bruce Daigrepont. With their help, and the help of generations to come, Cajun and zydeco music will continue to thrive and evolve as it travels the world.