Sam's Big Rooster
The Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band
Arhoolie records
<http://www.arhoolie.com>
REVIEW BY BILL NEVINS
Cajun music is people's music at its deepest. It is the songs and dances of survivors of colonial wars, religious and class persecution and racist callousness. The Acadians ("Cajuns") of French North America were forced to flee British invasion and subjugation and make their way to the very unwelcoming, semitropical climate of Louisiana, where they eked out a living in the back woods and swamplands.
Like the Irish and the Chicanos, the Cajuns clung to their cultural treasures up to recent times, when the fad for all things Cajun risked trivialising and diluting their heritage.
That is not going to happen while strong cultural revivalists like the Savoys and Doucets are alive, and they are handing the task on to the next generations. Savoy-Doucet itself, a band now 23 years young, is truly a treasure.
Some years back, I saw this band perform indoors on a rainy afternoon at the Rhode Island Cajun-Bluegrass Fest. Mike Doucet was there with his "big-time" project, Beausoleil, which at that time was at its most far-reaching phase of experimentation: electric guitar, calypso-reggae-bayou blends, the whole nine eclectic yards. (Beausoleil has got far more traditional since.) But for this set, Doucet was a member of the Savoy band, subject to the discipline cheerfully imposed by leader Marc Savoy. Doucet had to sit in a chair while playing, old-time Cajun style.
About half way through the set, Doucet's fiddle seemed to bob up and down like a divining rod as the tune got faster and more complex. His head began to wobble and his feet were tapping furiously. Savoy, never cracking a smile, and plugging along on accordion, exchanged puzzled glances with guitarist Ann Savoy.
It looked like something was about to bust loose from Doucet, Aliens-style! It did. Leaping up and kicking back the chair, Mike shouted, "I just can't keep that rock 'n' roll fiend down!", or words to that effect, en francais. The Savoys did not laugh openly, but they kept right on playing, wild man on fiddle shuffling in their midst.
At least, that's the way I remember it happening. I do clearly remember asking Doucet about the sources of Cajun music and being treated to a long, winding, fascinating dissertation on how it all started with Celtic drummers beating logs deep in the French countryside, then progressed through transportation, rebellion and replantation of cultures, so that the folk music of La Louisianne is traceable back to primal rhythms, deep spiritual feelings and unspoken belief.
They don't call Doucet the "mystic Cajun" for nought.
And that's why it is such a joy to see him smiling out from the cover of this CD, decked out in colourful Beausoleil finery and framed by the happy faces of Ann and Marc Savoy, with Marc proudly holding up a prize chicken for us to admire!
This CD embodies resolved contradictions: tradition and sophistication. Among Cajun bands, perhaps only Savoy-Doucet and the latter-day Beausoleil really pull off this magic trick.
Joined by young Joel Savoy on bass and fiddle and the raucous Minneapolis Bonetones band on two live cuts, the Savoy-Doucet Band takes us through gentle waltzes ("La Bonne Vie"), tear-inducing songs sung by Ann ("Un Tramp Sur La Rue", "Party Girl's Blues") and wild Cajun-grass rave-ups with Marc shouting deep-voiced encouragement to his colleagues: "Git it, Doucet!"; "Get on it, git down under it, git all around it! Woooooo!")
This is one of the best Cajun records I've heard. Variety, good dancing, and it bears up to multiple listenings, more fun each time. And great, informative liner notes, too.
Strongly recommended! Enjoy!
[Bill Nevins is a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has written on Irish politics and cultural topics for a number of progressive publications.]