#The Ardoin Family Band

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19 Radio SG : May 2017 | Robert McLaren 

Part One: La La

La La or ‘La Musique Creole’ is a kind of music played by french speaking black rural Louisianans (and some Texans and Californians). It’s folk music in that it’s old (first recorded in the late 20s), acoustic, and not classical or jazz. But it’s also like blues or country from the late 20s in that it has a direct influence on a modern successor music. In case of La La, that successor is Zydeco.

La La draws heavily on Cajun music, played by white french speakers from the same part of the world, adapting sometimes very old french ballads and waltzes. It’s also thought to have been influenced by African music, perhaps via Juré, a pre-La La  french language music made with call and response singing and drumming.

1. Canray Fontenot (vocals) and Alphonse ‘Bois Sec’ Ardoin - Bonsoir Moreau 

This is the song that got me into La La. I found it first in the form of this  video of Fontenot and Bois Sec playing at the Newport folk festival (1966) (there is a better recorded version on an album I have but I love this clip). I’d listened to bit of Cajun music by then so I had got past the stage where I found the combination of fiddle and accordion overwhelming; I was perfectly primed and fell for La La right away!          

I’ve since learned that Fontenot composed Bonsoir Moreau to be as close to a blues as possible while still being allowed at parties, where blues was thought to encourage improper dancing. I’ve never been able to find out what ‘blues’ means in this context - I take it, Fontenot never recorded any of his true blues.

2. Canray Fontenot - La Valse de Mom et Pop

Canray Fontenot was the son of Adam Fontenot who was considered an equal to the greatest figure in La La, Amédé Ardoin. But Adam, unlike Amédé, declined to have his music recorded because he thought it impious.

Canray has a way of being joyful and restrained at once. There aren't many purely instrumental La La songs (that have been recorded) but I’ve included two on this list because they are some of my favorites.  We get to hear how Fontenot plays when he doesn't have to think about pausing to sing.

3. Joseph "Bébé" Carrière and Eraste “Dolon” Carrière -  Blues A Bébé 

On this track, The Carrière Brothers, play with a rubboard instead of an accordion. La La accordion is played with syncopation (apparently foreign to the Cajun-style) and the rubboard does same job here. I especially like when a strike of the board continues into a scrape.

I found The Carrière Brothers via a documentary on folkstreams.net; watching documentaries about La La is a big part of how I got into the music. Some are good as films, the Les Blank ones in particular, while others just capture great performances and old stories.

4. Amédé Ardoin (vocals) and Dennis Mcgee - Amadie Two Step 

This song is of the many Amédé recorded with the Cajun fiddler Dennis Mcgee, with whom he was able to play white-only dances. As all the liner notes say, Amédé’s voice is plaintive and tragic. This, and the jaunty accordion playing make him sound quite unlike his musical successors. There’s something mythic about Amédé too, known to us as he is through the stories of the great musicians who outlived him. I don’t listen to Amédé all that much as the sound quality can be hard to get past and his (recorded) repertoire doesn’t have the same degree of variety as later musicians. But just a little blast of this song can be quite moving.  

5. Canray Fontenot and Alphonse ‘Bois Sec’ Ardoin (vocals) - Two Step D’Eunice 

This is another Amédé tune and his nephew, Bois Sec, sings on it, mumbling but with power. I don’t speak french so I don’t know what this or many of the songs here mean (sometimes I look at translations in books - but wrenching lyrics from their music is bad enough without the second interference of translating them). So of course, they gather a personal meaning. A few years ago, not long after I started listening to La La, one collection of Fontenot’s songs ended up playing the role of a breakup album (there’s a song about sheep rustling that I still skip over during most casual playthroughs).  

6. The Ardoin Family Band (Bois Sec and his sons - likely Lawrence, Sean, Chris, Dexter and Maurice) - Petite ou Grosse 

Even though they are party songs, I don’t know how I would dance to much of La La music. This is an exception, with that great triple honk of the accordion running through it.

Part Two: Zydeco

Zydeco is described is a mix of La La, Blues, New Orleans Jazz and 50s Rock and Roll. It’s name comes from an old saying, les haricots sont pas salés (meaning something like ‘the beans aren't’ salted’), that’s a way of describing hard times. (think of how les haricots could be transformed to Zydeco if one says it fast, dropping all but the ‘s’ in les and, of course, not pronouncing the ‘h’ or ‘t’ in haricots).

7. The Lawtell Playboys - Colinda 

The Lawtell Playboys are the Carrière family band, influenced by the younger generation (Dolon’s son Calvin and, later, his daughter Beatrice). They play in the early, striped down, style. They have a hypnotic quality when you get a few songs in. I also like the song Colinda (a standard) and the (conjectured) story behind it. ‘Colinda’ is one spelling for an African dance that was once banned in Louisiana - the song appears to have changed things so that ‘Colinda’ is a woman, with whom the singer wants to dance an old-time risque dance.

8. John Delafose and the Eunice Playboys - Jolie Catin

Delafose plays a rootsy Zydeco, still using a button - rather than piano key - accordion. But it’s heavy on drums and rubbord (played here by his son "T.T."). Mosh-pit Zydeco perhaps?

9. Lawrence "Black" Ardoin - Joe Pitre a Deux Femmes

More family stuff: Lawrence "Black" Ardoin is the son of Bois Sec (also in this video).

Canray Fontenot composed the song to annoy a guy called Joe Pitre - who he admits wasn’t, in fact, a two-timer. It’s since become a Zydeco standard after John Delafose had something like a hit with it. (Delafose even recorded a few spin off songs: ‘Joe Pete Lost His Two Women’ and ‘Joe Pete Is Broke’ - a bit like all those ‘Peggy Sue’ songs from the 50s.)

10. Clifton Chenier - Zydeco Et Pas Sale 

This is it! I was on the front top deck of a bus at night and I gave this a listen even though I didn’t like Zydeco at the time - too messy, too much of a racket. I knew Chenier was the king - the guy took to wearing a plastic crown and cape by the 70s - so best to give it another go with this one.  Zydeco Et Pas Sale just hits you so hard - it was how I felt when I heard Little Richard when I was six and charged about the house. I was on the way to a party… and rued that Zydeco wouldn’t be playing there.

11. Clifton Chenier - Louisiana Blues 

This is a Zydeco blues and one of the best. It has that heroic quality to it, like Howling Wolf or Janis Joplin. Chenier also conveys the wet heat of Louisiana as if that too is wearing him down.

12. Queen Ida & the Bon Temps Zydeco - Grand Mamou

Queen Ida’s music is a crazy fusion of styles, mirrored by her frequent moves between French and English in the same song. She is from California and brings in lots of Mariachi and 60s country music. I listen to Ida if when I feel excited.

13. Jeffery Broussard and The Creole Cowboys - I'm Coming Home / Bring it on Home 

I found Jeffery Broussard while making this list - I’ve had lots of fun going back into the ‘research mode’ of music consumption. He is still playing so I’ve set myself on going to Louisiana to see him live. Here he plays Clifton Chenier’s I'm Coming Home in a medley with Sam Cooks Bring it on Home. It’s a good example of how English has come in to Zydeco music, as well as covers of english-language songs. Plus sick rubbord playing!

Bonus tracks

14. ‘Juré’, interview with Dorestine Ledet (here). If anyone wants to translate this, I’ll buy you a drink and a copy of Les Blues Du Bayou on vinyl).

15. ‘Whether they like or not, I go’, interview with Canray Fontenot and performance of Les Barres De La Prison (here)

Disclaimer: all facts and stories are written from memory (of documentaries, filmed interviews, liner notes and books). I haven’t gone back to the source to check on each point (as I sometimes can’t remember which point came from which place). If you want some good academic material on this music I can send it your way.

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Listen In

Exploring a cultural landscape through live music 

The eighth annual Cane River Music Festival was held on May 20, 2017 at Oakland Plantation, part of Cane River Creole National Historical Park in Louisiana.  Local residents, musicians, and visitors gathered to celebrate the vibrant legacy of Creole music and continue the long tradition of live music on this landscape.

Discover more about the evolution of Creole music and life on Oakland Plantation in our latest article: The Cane River Music Festival

Goldman Thibodeaux and the Lawtell Playboys perform at the 2010 Cane River Music Festival (NPS Photo).

For about two centuries, Oakland Plantation was operated nearly continuously as a cotton plantation and farm under the Prud’homme family. By 1799, over half of the population of Natchitoches was composed of enslaved individuals whose labor created the foundation and wealth of the plantation economy that came to dominate the region. 

The fertile lowlands of the Cane River, surrounded by a network of rivers and lakes that marked various trade routes, shaped the physical and social development of the plantation. During colonial life and beyond, interaction among American Indians, free and enslaved Africans and individuals of African descent, and French and Spanish colonists produced a Creole community unique to this region. 

Creole Music at Cane River

The Cane River Creole culture is rich with the blended influences of these various ancestries. This is particularly evident in the Creole musical tradition, and the Cane River region has a long legacy of socializing through music and dance. While the region and its music have evolved through generations, the annual music festival at Cane River Creole National Historical Park continues the tradition of live music on the landscape. 

Amédé Ardoin, seen here c. 1912, was born in Louisiana in 1898 to a French-speaking black Creole farming family. He became a legendary accordionist who was among the first Creole musicians to record his music (Public domain, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities). 

Early Creole music was known as juré singing, which comes from the French jurer, meaning “to testify.” It was typically performed in a call-and-response style with the rhythm provided by hands and feet. 

Later Creole music began to incorporate guitar, fiddle, accordion, and washboard - all instruments that were easily transportable. The style blended elements of rhythm and blues with French singing, and it was a precursor to the zydeco music that was popularized in the late 1940s and 1950s. 

Over time, music traditions in the region have both endured and evolved. The sound of Creole music transformed with the influence of other musical forms and the addition of amplified instruments. 

A musician displays a rare cheesebox guitar at the 2012 music festival (NPS Photo).

Like other aspects of Creole culture, the traditional music that contemporary bands play at the festival is a reminder of the unique mix of continuity and change on this cultural landscape. 

Visit the park website to learn more and plan your own visit! 

Juke Joints, Dance Halls, and House Parties: A Legacy of Music on Cane River 

Big Max and the Harmonics performing at the Cane River Music Festival in 2017 (NPS Photo).

This was adapted from an article that first appeared at nps.gov: Cane River Music Festival. Special thanks to friends at Cane River Creole NHP and in the NPS Southeast Region for this story!