The stereotype is an old one: people in Southwest Louisiana like to party. People come from all over the country, from all over the world even, to party in places like Eunice, Mamou and Lafayette. Anyone who lives in these places can confirm this. People in Southern Louisiana like to drink, and they do so often.
The stereotype falls short, however, by offering a limited version of how Cajuns and Creoles drink and how they talk and sing about drinking. People in every part of the world drink, but people in Southern Louisiana don’t just drink, they create powerful artistic expressions about drinking, songs and stories that place drinking within the currents of a vital, dynamic culture, visions of the bottle weaving in with the pain of lost love, the turning cycles of death and rebirth and the rituals of celebration and mourning that order and nurture our spiritual and social lives.
Yes, Cajun and Creole musicians do get drunk. In fact, as I write this, there is a drunk Cajun sitting right next to me, playing the accordion. This is not the point, however. In the songs collected on this album, we can see that Cajuns and Creoles do far more that just get wasted. In these songs, drunk people dream. They waltz. They get their guns and go out in the middle of the night and kill raccoons. When their bottles are empty, they stomp their feet and play furious, driving dirges on the fiddle. People all over the world get drunk on Saturday night and have hangovers on Sunday, but Cajuns drink a glass of lemonade and then write a song about it.
It’s not particularly interesting or important that people in Southern Louisiana like to drink. Of utter importance, however, are the wild and sometimes strange things they do when they drink and party together, and the soulful, brilliant way they transform these activities into song.
We hope this album is a good example of both.
- Producer Joshua Clegg Caffery
Tracks and Performers (Titles spelled as licensed):
1. Allons Boire un Coup Joel Savoy, Linzay Young, Richard Burgess
2. Whiskey C’est Mon Ami Racines
3. Mon Bon Vieux Mari Anna Laura Edmiston
4. La Bouteille a Ruiné Ma Vie The Lost Bayou Ramblers
5. La Valse du Bambocheur Courtney Granger and Friends
6. Si J’aurais des Ailes Ann and Joel Savoy
7. Drunkard’s Dream Feufollet
8. Table Ronde Cedric Watson
9. Pine Grove Blues The Pine Leaf Boys
10. One Scotch, One Burbon, One Beer Racines
11. La Jog a Plombeau Cedric Watson
12. Blues du Saoulard The Red Stick Ramblers
13. Drunkard’s Waltz Joel Savoy
14. Quand J’étais Vaillante Ann Savoy and Jane Vidrine
15. Parlez-Nous à Boire Chris Stafford
16. Rye Whiskey The Lost Bayou Ramblers
visit Valcour Records' website for samples and more records
