It was the night a small corner of South West Louisiana came
to the Birmingham suburb of Kings Heath. It was also the night a few folks
gambled on a musical style that was slightly left field. One thing for sure was
that few would argue that the Cajun Country Revival left any of this Kitchen Garden
Café audience short changed. Perhaps all that was missing was a hearty serving
of gumbo or a delicious portion of jambalaya in the interval, but that could be
food for thought!
A major factor in the success of this show was the sheer
quality and stature of the four musicians accumulated for this collaboration of
one of the purest strands of American roots music you could wish to hear.
Anybody with any knowledge of Cajun music (and that is not a precursor for
extracting great pleasure from attending the show) would be aware of the Savoy
family and we were fortunate to be blessed with the presence of Joel who
assumes the role of band leader for the Cajun Country Revival. One half of this
combo is sealed with the interaction between fiddle playing Joel and the
accordion maestro Jesse Lége. Listening to Jesse’s playing for a couple of
hours, taking on board Joel’s accolades and following up with some background
research reveals him as one of the greats of Cajun music with numerous awards
bestowed upon him.
The other half of the quartet that comprises the Cajun
Country Revival have their roots a lot further north than the state hugging the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Bassist Nadine Landry hails from Quebec with the obvious
Francophile link between her heritage and the roots of Cajun. Stephen ‘Sammy’
Lind completes the line-up, predominately played guitar during the show, but sporadically
gave a fiddle playing masterclass when in tandem with Joel. He and Nadine are
also members of the Foghorn Stringband, operating out of Portland Oregon, and
bring a touch of traditional old time country music to the fuller sound of the
Cajun Country Revival.
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| Joel Savoy and Jesse Lege |
With the vocals of Jesse being predominately in Cajun
French, we were reliant on Joel’s enlightened introductions, which increasingly
became a valuable theme of the evening, as the lingual element. However we
learned the background of a wide range of traditional Cajun numbers, of which a
fair few circumnavigate the party atmosphere famous for that part of the USA.
This extended to proclaiming the virtue of rural Louisiana music as opposed to
that from New Orleans and the story surrounding the re-staging of Mardi Grass
in Joel’s hometown during the first few days of Lent to appease the team from
the HBO TV blockbuster Treme.
Joel, Jesse, Nadine and Sammy were just coming to the end
of their UK tour when popping into the Kitchen Garden Café and I’m sure would
be welcome back anytime in the future. They had to slightly adjust to playing
to a seated audience as their style is much more suited to a gathering on their
feet. Maybe next time whip away the chairs and create that Louisiana Saturday
night feeling that is synonymous with Cajun music. Cajun Country Revival gets
the big thumbs up here and provides a timely reminder to the incredible wealth
of American roots music.