Florida Cajun Zydeco Update! No. 70, November 2018

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Florida Cajun Zydeco Update!

HOR A CE T R AHAN LOVES TO ZYDECO

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NOVEMBER 2018

ON THE ONE, ON THE ONE!

Cover photo by David Simpson — Horace Trahan at South Louisiana Blackpot Festival, 2010

David Simpson

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Horace Trahan, 2000

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No. 70 | NOVEMBER 2018 4 St. Pete Cajun and Zydeco Social Club Dance

Nov. 6 and 20 (6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.) — Caddy’s on Central Free admission. Join us!

Features 6 “On The One” With Horace Trahan

That tune to me is what zydeco is all about, and it’s what Horace Trahan is about.

32 Mojo & The Bayou Gypsies

Firey Cajun concert band in New Orleans, less known in Lafayette.

Cajun Zydeco Community 41 Festival-O-Rama

Some listings from floridacajunzydeco.com/festivals

43 Tom Rigney at Suncoast Jazz Fest “Swing Night”

Friday, Nov. 16 Swing Night features four dance bands at Sheraton Sand Key, Clearwater Beach for $25 at the door.

44 Outside Florida

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The St. Pete cajun & zydeco

Social Club est. 2018

Tuesday, Nov. 6 and Tuesday, Nov. 20 6 :30 P.M. TO 9 :3 0 P.M . Twice monthly Cajun and zydeco dance at Caddy’s on Central in downtown St. Pete on the first and third Tuesdays. Good mix of danceable music by Cajun and zydeco artists singing about death, divorce, drinking and dancing.

No cover charge. No membership dues.

Caddy’s is at 217 Central Ave., St. Pete 33701.

Go to www.FloridaCajunZydeco.com for more information.

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“On The One”

WITH Horace Traha

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n 2013, Horace Trahan came out with

By Special Request that includes one song that has to be considered one of the most exuberant and contagious zydeco dance tunes ever written. Hearing that tune, “On The One (Love to Zydeco),” made me stand up and say, wow!

“Get out of your seat now. Get up and zydeco. Back at the old folks home, they love to zydeco. They get out of that jailhouse, they get up and zydeco. This is the Ossun Express y’all, so get up and zydeco.”

That tune to me is what zydeco is all about, and it’s what Horace Trahan is about. It is a brisk old school tempo (173 bpm), it is fun, and like some other Horace Trahan tunes it’s in an odd key, which makes it all the more appealing to me.

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Horace Trahan at Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival in 2005.

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And it explains how we dance zydeco: “on the one,” as opposed to “and one…” in some other dances. I have played “On The One” for folks who don’t know zydeco, and it has an almost universal appeal.

But “On The One” is not what made Horace Trahan famous.

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orace Trahan is a worldrenowned Cajun and zydeco artist, respected for his ability to “pull the hell” out of an accordion and belt out powerful vocals.

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Doug Garb on flute accompanying Horace Trahan, 2011

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He is known as the author of the much-covered zyde-Cajun classic, “That Butt Thing.” After a successful start in his career as a Cajun recording artist, Trahan changed his focus from Cajun to zydeco music in the early 2000s, something unheard of in his Louisiana Cajun community at the time, and not appreciated by everyone.

Playing zydeco, Trahan had crossed a line, socially. Death threats ensued, I’ve been told.

But after more than two decades in the business, Horace Trahan and the Ossun Express has become a quintessential zydeco dancers’ band, playing not only tunes that make us want to dance, but are lyrically and melodically original and interesting. Horace Trahan often sings about love, justice and acceptance of others, three

Florida Cajun Zydeco Update!

things he sees as being in short supply these days. tanding on stage in his short-sleeved button-down shirt and beige baseball cap, accordion player and singer Horace Trahan does not look the part of the French zydeco superstar. Trahan saves his selfexpression for the music he creates.

“We play some old traditional standards, but mainly we play original music,” says Trahan, an Ossun native. “All the way back from when we did the Butt Thing CD.” Incredibly, Trahan considered “That Butt Thing” as a throw-away, not destined for any recording he was working on.

“We was just cutting up in the studio. It was just a joke that wasn’t gonna be on the record,”

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Horace Trahan and veteran Cajun artist, Hubert Maitre, at the Liberty Theater Aug. 8, 2015, performing Cajun favorites. Trahan and Maitre had performed together regularly at Randol’s in Lafayette, recorded together in 2007, and toured France together. Maitre passed away in 2017.

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says Trahan. “But my friend who had the Maison De Soul record label out of Eunice, Louisiana, he convinced us to keep it. It’s become one of our most popular songs.”

Sometimes Trahan’s lyrics take on moral dilemmas, as in his tune “Same Knife Cut the Sheep Cut the Goat.” The story in the song is from an ancient proverb talking about how “what you put out is what you get back.” In 2016, Trahan released a single titled “The Government’s Been Dirty Since Day One,” which a lot of people have assumed is a commentary on the election of Donald Trump. Not at all.

“That’s an old song I wrote 15 years ago.”

Trahan says. “I wrote it at the same time as “Legalize It,” “Keep Walking,” “Guilty,” “King of

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Sand.” That was a more rebellious time in my life. But that song isn’t about this election. People were asking me if it’s about the [recent] election.

What it’s about is like, Christopher Columbus didn’t really discover [America]. He was greeted by people who’d been living here for thousands of years. But then you moved here, now you live here and you take over. That’s day one. My song is not about one administration or another; it’s just about a fact.” rahan tapped into music early during his childhood in Ossun.

“I remember when I was too short to reach the record player myself, I loved when mommy and daddy spun “Splish Splash” or Hank Williams’ “A Country Boy Can Survive.” I

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started playing saxophone in fifth grade, guitar at 12 years old, then accordion when I was 15.

Six months after picking up the accordion I had my first paying gig at Prejean’s restaurant in Carencro, with the Branch Playboys. I got a little money and all the Cokes I wanted to drink.”

Trahan’s first time singing and playing in public came about by accident. He was jamming in Eunice’s Jean Lafitte Acadian Culture Center when a woman working nearby in the Liberty Theater overheard him. When Trahan was invited over to the theater, he sang such a moving rendition of “Viens Me Chercher” that audience members were wiping their eyes and he received a standing ovation.

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ccording to music reviewer Linda Seida, Horace Trahan took an incident from Louisiana’s history, gave it a twist of his own, and used it to teach himself a second language. The historical event in question began around the 1920s when Cajun children were not allowed to speak in Cajun French at school, only English. Most of the Cajun children were being raised in homes where only Cajun French was spoken. The theory was that such a complete and total immersion would better help them learn English, and so better prepare them to face the English-speaking world that awaited them. Outside the Cajun communities, those who spoke Cajun French were commonly discriminated against and disparaged.

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Horace Trahan at Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival on May 5, 2018.

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Trahan, not old enough to remember that time, drew on the pride he felt for his heritage, and set out to learn French. He devised his own language immersion program, speaking nothing but French until he learned it. Today, Trahan sings in both English and French, and he also composes in both languages. Ossun Blues, his first album, released through Swallow Records in 1996, includes lyrics in both languages. His soulful style drew comparisons to Iry LeJeune.

Trahan grew up in Ossun, LA, not far from Lafayette. Felix Richard, his second cousin, gave him instruction on the accordion. Felix Richard is also credited with teaching Zachary Richard.

Trahan went on to travel with famed Cajun artist D.L. Menard.

Florida Cajun Zydeco Update!

“He took me all over the world,” Trahan says.

“Then I started the original Ossun Express around ‘96 or ‘97.”

In 2010, Trahan would more-or-less marry into his new band.

“I knew Shane Bernard, he plays the drums,” Trahan says. “It just so happened we’d been playing together for four or five years, when I asked him one day, ‘What’s your sister doing?’

And that’s how she and I met.” rahan’s wife, Chantell Trahan, now handles marketing for the band. “I film them, do write-ups and bios,” she says. “When we started dating in 2008, Horace wasn’t playing with his own band, and I asked him why — ‘cause I remember, he grabbed

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Horace Trahan at Festivals Acadiens et Creoles in 2010.

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that guitar and did some acoustic stuff for me, then he grabbed his accordion and played. After I saw that, I been helping.”

Trahan also inherited Chantell’s father, Rodney Bernard.

“He sits in and sings old-time rock’n roll songs with us, like “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” but with the rubboard,” says Trahan. “Mr. Bernard been playing for years, longer than I’ve been alive. It’s a great honor to play with him.”

Today, along with his relatives Shane and Rodney, Trahan employs Doug Garb on sax, flute and harmonica, James Prejean on the bass guitar, and Cook Morvant on the guitar.

“This band started with me and Prejean and it has been mostly the same people playing together

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The New Ossun Express at Louisiana Folk Roots Rootstock 2013.

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James Prejean, Rodney Bernard, Horace Trahan, Doug Garb, Ronnie Rue and (not shown) Shane Bernard on drums.

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for 15 years,” says Trahan.

Chantell sees the particular makeup of this band as the key to its success.

“They are all very talented, but more than that very versatile and diverse,” she says. “Horace is 40 and can speak French fluently. Whereas I am 5 years older, and never learned the language. So the fact that they can sing in French and English, that’s diversity. And the background of the band members are Cajun and Creole, and even the saxophone player has German in his background, and Irish, so they have that cultural versatility.”

Trahan and Chantell currently run the Redemptive Process record label as well as their Cajun Creole Lawn Service.

“You can definitely feel the family in everything

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we do, you know?” says Chantell. “Even our kids play music, my son plays drums and sings, my girl likes to dance and sing, and plays a little accordion. When you keep it about the family, it makes it easier for you to do what you’re inherently meant to do.

“It was always in Horace, but family helps make it more real, and more comfortable, in a way that lets you be who you are.” o make it in music, Horace looked to his elders. His dad told him to get a steady job, and he watched his accordion mentor, Felix Richard, work as a carpenter during the week so he could play festivals on the weekends.

“From experience, I see the only way to make

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At Liberty Theater performing for Cycle Zydeco and a wedding.

a living playing music would be to remain on the road. I choose not to be away from my family, so that’s not an option.”

“I currently hold a full-time position within the Lafayette Parish School System, and I’ve been there a total of 13 years, having left and returned six years ago,” says Trahan. “My wife, Chantelle, has worked as a temp driver for FedEx Ground

Florida Cajun Zydeco Update!

since 2009.

“She and I also recently started a lawn service, Cajun Creole Lawn Service, LLC. We work with my father-in-law, Mr. Rodney Bernard, and my brother-in-law, Shane Bernard, with the intent to keep growing.”

The music business comes with a long list of expenses. Trahan says, “Our music expenses include studio time for recording new albums; copyright fees; artwork; ordering CDs; band photographs; website maintenance; paying our five band members; paying our sound company; buying radio advertisement as needed; ordering T-shirts; and postal fees. Other band projects, such as our ‘Same Knife Cut the Sheep Cut the Goat’ music video, and my wife’s nearly-

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completed documentary, ‘Cajun & Creole, Black & White,’ are larger, pre-planned projects included in our expenses. Overall, sometimes ends meet, and sometimes they don’t.” ritic George Hollier praised Trahan’s first album in 1996. “Evoking memories of Cajun music as it was performed during the post-World War II era, Horace Trahan’s Ossun Blues is exactly what the recording’s subtitle says it is: Authentic Cajun French Music. And in an era when so many young accordionists are aiming to become the next Zachary Richard, Trahan is decidedly heading in the opposite direction. His accordion style is remarkably true to form, and you get a strange feeling that this effort is more reincarnation than

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emulation.”

While Trahan’s music has changed dramatically since then, critics still like what he’s doing. Dan Willging reviewed Trahan’s 2018 effort: “Until the End marks the final chapter of Horace Trahan’s conceptual trilogy that began with 2010’s Keep Walking and continued with 2012’s All the Way. The title track cleverly concatenates all the titles to result in ‘we gotta keep walking yeah all the way until the end.’

It’s another way of saying live life to its fullest but with plenty of ‘bon temps’ in between.”

On the one.

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redhotmojo.com

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MOJO's THEATER SHOWS CONJURE UP LE BON TEMPS IN NEW ORLEANS

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ister Mojo — Mojo being the only name he goes by — heads up Mojo and the Bayou Gypsies. The band has played in theaters in New Orleans and toured worldwide since 1985. And though Mojo resides in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, a small community smack dab in the middle of Cajun and creole culture and music, few of his neighbors in Breaux Bridge know what he does.

“People ask, ‘Is that your name?’ And I tell them, ‘The IRS and the police know my name and that’s it,’’’ he said.

Mojo lives on a ranch in Breaux Bridge, but his management and booking company have been in Chicago since 1985.

He’s been a musician for more than 50 years,

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and has played every genre imaginable, he said.

“And my music is all original,” he said. “My music is not Cajun. It is not zydeco. It is Mojo music. And in fact, it’s red-hot Mojo music.”

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t was at a very young age when he realized he wanted to play music forever, he said. “I grew up in a family where the children were the entertainers,” he said. “The time was early television days and there wasn’t much to watch.

After a meal and a family gathering, the children were the entertainers and the first time I got to entertain I was three years old.”

He has always been writing original music as well, he said.

“It was always important to express what was

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redhotmojo.com

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Florida Cajun Zydeco Update!

inside of me, because I could never hold it in,” he said. “That caused some interesting problems for me in school. But my mama always said, ‘Thank God those teachers never helped you be normal, or you could never make a living.’ She also said, ‘You can’t jump around like a monkey forever,’ but I'm going to try.”

“What we do is a total immersion in the Mojo experience,” he said. “The audience is the biggest part of the show. When people look at the stage, it’s very difficult for them to figure out who the musicians are and who the audience is because everybody is in the show from the first note to the last note.”

The band recently released an album called Lagniappe! Ala Mojo.

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“‘Lagniappe’ is a Cajun word for a little something extra,” Mojo said. “Like if you order a slice of pie and they give you a scoop of ice cream free. I put out that album in 2017 and on that album are songs that are no longer in the show but people request all the time. We have a limited amount of time onstage; we can’t play every song that everybody loves. So what I decided to do was put those songs that everybody loves that we don’t have time for on a record and they can take it home.”

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f you are looking to get in the Mardi Gras mood, this is a perfect show, he said. Mojo and his band have performed throughout the world and in various venues. From opera

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and vaudeville houses to stages in front of the Canadian parliament, he creates a colorful show wherever he goes.

“Our show really is the embodiment of the spirit behind Mardi Gras,” he said.

“Every day is Mardi Gras with Mojo and the Bayou Gypsies because we don't know if we’re going to have tomorrow,” he said. “So we make sure everyone has a wonderful today.”

PS

Info on Mojo: redhotmojo.com

If you’re traveling to southwest Louisiana and need a place to stay, you may be able to stay at Mojo’s place in Breaux Bridge. https://www. airbnb.com/rooms/5114632

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Florida Cajun Zydeco Update!

FESTIVAL-O-RAMA NOVEMBER 2018 Nov. 8-11, 2018 — Riverhawk Music Festival (Brooksville, FL) Elizabeth Cook, Reckless Kelly, Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand, Shiny Ribs, Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen, Frank Vignola Trio, Mitch Woods and His Rocket 88s. Website: http://www.riverhawkmusic.com/

November 8-11, 2018 — Cracklin Festival (Port Barre, LA) Bands include Lance Dubroc, Clay Cormier & The Highway Boys, Jamie Bergeron and the Kickin Cajuns, JC Melancon and Bayou Rock Band, Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys, Dustin Sonnier and The Wanted, Delta Badhand, Johnnie Sonnier and Cajun Heritage, High Performance, Warren Storm and Willie T with Cypress. Website: http:// www.portbarrecracklinfestival.com/

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Tom Rigney PR Photo

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November 16-18, 2018 — Suncoast Jazz Festival (Clearwater Beach, FL) Featuring Tom Rigney & Flambeau, Cajun band from San Francisco.

Tom Rigney frequently performs in fiddle duets with Michael Doucet on the west coast. The Friday Night Swing Dance starts with a dance lesson at 6:15 p.m., followed by a swing dance band at 7:30 p.m., Tom Rigney and Flambeau at 8:45 p.m., Professor Cunningham at 10 p.m., and Dave Bennett Quartet closing the evening from 11:15 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. Tickets to Fright Night Swing Dance are now available online for $22.50 in advance, as well as other ticket packages. https://www.suncoastjazzfestival.com/

Nov. 30 through Dec. 2, 2018 — Bradenton Blues Festival Bands include Welch-Ledbetter Connection, Mr. Sipp, Shakura S'Aida, Chris Cain, Harper and Midwest Kind, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, Kelley Hunt, Trey Wanvig, Bridget Kelly Band, Memphis Rub Band, Bryan Lee. Website: www.bradentonbluesfestival.org/

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Swing Dance

Fri., Nov. 17, 2018 — Suncoast Jazz Fest (Clearwater Beach) Four bands including Cajun band Tom Rigney and Flambeau from San Francisco play 7:30 p.m. to quarter past midnight at Sheraton San Key in Clearwater Beach. Cost is $25 at the door (but some tickets available at Wednesday Swing Dance at Gulfport Casino for just $20).

6:15 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

8:45 p.m.

10 p.m.

11:15 p.m.

Swing Dance Lesson with Sam Mahfoud Theresa and Paul Scavarda and friends Tom Rigney and Flambeau Professor Cunningham and His Old School Band Dave Bennett Quarter

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Photo by David Simpson

Outside Florida Atlanta Cajun Zydeco Association Dance Saturday, December 1, 2018

Gerard Delafose and the Zydeco Gators The Zydeco Gators was established by Gerard Delafose in 2007. Gerard is a 3rd generation Zydeco Musician. He is the grandson of the late great John Delafose and the nephew of the legendary Geno Delafose. General admission: $18 non-members.

Info: http://aczadance.org/

Gerard Delafose

NYC Cajun Zydeco Events http://www.letszydeco.com/

Philadelphia Cajun Zydeco Events http://www.allonsdanser.org

Houston Cajun Zydeco Events http://www.zydecoevents.com/texaszydecoevents.html

Southern California Events http://www.icajunzydeco.com

Portland Events http://www.cascadezydeco.com/

Seattle Events http://gatorboyproductions.com/