Doors at 7:30 pm; Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8:00 pm; Show at 8:30 pm
Tickets are $15
Longtime Ashkenaz favorites and leaders in Louisiana’s Cajun music community, accordionist Jesse Lége and fiddler Joel Savoy team up with Portland, Oregon’s Old Time revivalists Foghorn String Band, calling the combined crew Cajun Country Revival, for an unforgettable night of dance music. It’s a journey deep into rural America’s roots with music that has delighted audiences around the world, celebrating rather than “performing" the music that brought them together: Cajun and Old Time music.
Jesse Lége defines traditional Louisiana dance hall music. Growing up in a rural, pre-electricity home in Gueydan, Louisiana, Lége spoke Cajun French and learned music from relatives, neighbors, and the family’s much-loved battery-powered radio. His unmistakable, hard-driving style of accordion playing and his powerful voice get even the most staid listeners up on the dance floor. Lége has been honored with nearly every Cajun music award extant, including induction into the Cajun Music Hall of Fame in 1998.
Joel Savoy has shared the stage with Lége for 15 years. Linda Ronstadt proclaims, “Joel Savoy is one of my favorite musicians on just about any instrument, but on guitar and Cajun fiddle he is truly outstanding.” Son of Cajun music royalty Marc and Ann Savoy, he is one of the most requested fiddlers in Southwest Louisiana today. Growing up in Eunice, Louisiana, at the feet of most of the living masters, he experienced a strong sense of what makes Cajun “Cajun”; as a result, he has developed a fiddle style that is at once authentic and on the cutting edge. In 2006 Savoy launched Valcour Records, which has garnered one Grammy Award (for the Savoy-produced all-star “The Band Courtboullion” CD in 2013) and nine Grammy nominations to date. He has worked and played with the best of the best in south Louisiana as well as folks like John Fogerty, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Earle and T-Bone Burnett.
Completing the revival is Portland Oregon’s Foghorn Stringband, made up of Caleb Klauder (vocals, mandolin, fiddle), Stephen “Sammy” Lind (vocals, fiddle, banjo), Reeb Willms (vocals, guitar) and Nadine Landry (vocals, upright bass). Credited for igniting the Old Time Renaissance in the Pacific Northwest, the Foghorn Stringband continues to stand out as the shining gold standard for American string band music. With eight albums, thousands of shows and more than a decade of touring under its belt, it’s no surprise that this band, as proclaimed by Stuart Mason, The Fiddle Freak, "has blossomed into a full-blown force of nature that threatens world domination."
