Podcasts about cajun french

Mike Evans and Brandon Stokley open today’s show talking about all the ways the mornings have made Stoke’s life better before they chat about how often baseball uses the bubbly in the playoffs. We get the world according to Stoke, he tells us all about his approach to risk vs reward when it comes to stuff like skydiving, paragliding, and even the elevator at work. What’s Trending? Why talented players fly under the radar, Coach Prime knows football and he wants you to know, eyes on Georgie, and hero ball in October. The guys wrap up the first hour with the Cajun French word of the day and some 6am listeners ask Stoke about his terribly boring life.

Among the Americans drafted in 1943 to defeat the Nazis in Europe were young Cajuns from Louisiana, who spoke French as their native language. At the time, society tended to view the Cajun French language as a handicap, and the people who spoke it as second-class citizens. All of that changed after D-Day, when where the Cajuns' French-speaking abilities proved invaluable to military operations in Europe and North Africa. They often served as interpreters for the officers and were nicknamed the "Frenchies". Our correspondent Fanny Allard met one of the last surviving Cajun World War II veterans in Louisiana.

On August 11, 1944, a 15-man OSS Special Forces team parachuted into the mountainous region of Southern France to rendezvous with the French Underground and sabotage enemy troop movements. Roy Armentor and Claude Galley—two Cajuns from south Louisiana—were part of this Operational Group codenamed PEG. For two weeks, they conducted hit-n-run missions behind enemy lines alongside their French counterparts. Both were severely wounded and were taken in by local French people. The Cajun French language, which they had been told to forget growing up in school, proved invaluable to their experiences in WWII.

Sometimes life comes full circle. In this episode of For Songs, I welcome back Louisiana-based singer/songwriter Louis Michot of the traditional Cajun band the Lost Bayou Ramblers. Louis first appeared on the show in Fall 2020, at the height of the pandemic. He didn't know it at the time but he was in the midst of writing and recording his first solo album. Three years later, Louis has just released Reve du Troubadour, which is Cajun French for Troubadour's Dream (https://www.louismichot.com/). In this episode, Louis discusses how those eerie first few months of the pandemic resulted in creative output that even surprised him. Although the album is entirely sung in Cajun French, the songs span a much wider range. You'll hear Lee “Scratch” Perry. You'll hear the Pogues, you'll hear classical music. You'll hear…well, you get the point. In addition the music, you're also going to learn something. Louis is as much of a historian as he is a musician, and some of his songs will make you uncomfortable. Learning about the past can be difficult, but that's the point. So sit back and listen as Louis takes us through Reve du Troubadour (https://louismichot.bandcamp.com/album/r-ve-du-troubadour).

Born and raised in South Louisiana, Chef Craig was inspired by his family meals and his grandmother's cooking. His heart and soul are Southern, which transcends into his cooking. After working in some of the world's most renowned restaurants, opening two of his own restaurants in Louisiana, and honing recipes as a private chef, Chef Craig and his wife Kristen moved to Southern California. They began feeding their friends and neighbors from their home kitchen when the pandemic hit. By the end of COVID, they were turning out more than 80 meals per day. The most popular meal was his fried chicken, inspired by his Southern roots and first made famous by Chef Craig in Aspen at the 7908 Supper Club. The idea to open a fast-casual restaurant devoted to his popular fried chicken took on a life of its own, and Le Coupé was born. The name for Le Coupé in French translates to "The Cut." The cut of Chef Craig's fried chicken thigh makes his chicken unique. He uses a technique that frenches the bone of the thigh while keeping the meat intact, allowing for a unique flavor profile and presentation. The name is also a nod to being all cooped up during the quarantine. Le Coupé has become a local sensation in the burgeoning Melrose Hill area of Los Angeles. This husband-and-wife operation was named the best fried chicken sandwich in California by Yelp -- and everyone who tries it! For Chef Craig, Le Coupé represents an opportunity to showcase his take on Southern cuisine inspired by a Cajun-French saying – lagniappe. Which means "a little extra." Chef Craig and Kristen, a former event planner, ensure everyone visiting Le Coupé feels like the experience was a little extra. Today we chat with Chef Craig and Kristen, the founders of Le Coupe about:

To mark French Language and La Francophonie Week, we head across the Atlantic to New Orleans in Louisiana. Located on the banks of the Mississippi, it's the most French of American cities. Some want to preserve New Orleans' rich colonial heritage. In particular, they are striving to save Cajun, an archaic form of the French language directly inherited from the 18th century colonisers. Our France 2 colleagues report, with FRANCE 24's Jack Colmer Gale. 

Warren Perrin could deserve the title of Mr. French (Monsieur Français.) The Lafayette lawyer was a founder of Codofil (the organization to preserve the French language in Louisiana) and founded the Acadian Museum of Louisiana in Erath. Perrin joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with podcast producer Kelly Massicot to talk about several topics including his conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and how the French perceive Louisiana's native Cajun French. Other topics covered include the tricentennial of the colonial Louisiana capitol having moved from Biloxi to New Orleans; and, a victim of the Munich Olympics terrorist attack 50 years ago who had connections in Louisiana. This is a compelling conversation worth listening to.

Across the country, there is fear and confusion inside some hospitals as doctors try to give the best medical care while staying within the bounds of new abortion restrictions. That is especially true right here in Louisiana. As our reproductive healthcare reporter Rosemary Westwood reports, doctors say a new abortion ban could put their patients and themselves at risk. Back in April, Louisiana Considered's Alana Schreiber spoke with Mark Layne, general manager at KVPI Radio Station in Ville Platte, about the station's long history of promoting Cajun French language and culture on the airwaves. And one of their most popular programs is a weekly live broadcast from the world-famous bar, Fred's Lounge.  NPR's John Burnett paid a visit to Fred's Lounge to learn why everyone from loyal locals to French tourists make the trip to dance, drink, and celebrate Cajun French culture. Across the country, a growing number of states are setting up state-funded Education Savings Accounts to give more students education opportunities outside of public schools. This year, Louisiana would have joined them if not for a pair of vetoes by Gov. John Bel Edwards. Capitol Access reporter Paul Braun and our former education reporter Aubri Juhasz discuss the significance – and possible future – of this debate in Louisiana. Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karl Lengel. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman, Aubry Procell, and Thomas Walsh.  You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. It's available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts.  Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you're at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you'd like to listen to. Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Last year, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell's administration proposed a “city-directed internet service” to compete with existing providers like Cox and AT&T. But now, the New Orleans city council has initiated a full fledged investigation into the project after learning that the city official in charge of it maintains two side businesses within the same smart cities industry.  Cultural economy and local government reporter for The Lens, Michael Isaac Stein, tells us more about this controversial project and where it may or may not be headed.  Last month, KVPI, a commercial radio station in Ville Platte, Louisiana, was awarded the “Uniquely Louisiana” award from the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters. The award was due in large part to their Cajun French programming, as the station has a long history of providing bilingual newscasts, music, and talk-shows. Louisiana Conisdered's Alana Schreiber spoke to KVPI's General Manager, Mark Layne, to learn more about promoting Cajun French through the airwaves. Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman, Aubrey Procell, and Thomas Walsh.  You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. It's available on Spotify, Google Play, and wherever you get your podcasts.  Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you're at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you'd like to listen to. Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

465. Part 2 of our interview with Wesley Harris. Our friend Wesley has not only been in local law enforcement for decades, he has also become a local historian investigating Lincoln Parish and North Louisiana. His books include Ruston, Neither Fear Nor Favor, Fish out of Water, Burglary for the Patrol Officer, The Roundup: The Military, the Marshals, and Political Shenanigans in Claiborne and Lincoln Parishes, 1874, William R. Meadows: Slave, Soldier, Symbol. Join us as we discuss that local history with Wesley. This week in Louisiana history. April 16, 1718. Official date of founding of New Orleans. This week in New Orleans history. Acclaimed author Mary Alice Fontenot  was born on April 17, 1910.  She wrote the "Clovis Crawfish" series, in which the title character and his animal friends experienced a host of adventures. The goal of the series, for which she penned 18 different books, was to teach life lessons to children while helping them learn a little of the Cajun French language; Clovis and his pals spoke mostly English with Cajun sayings and songs thrown in. She also wrote other books, including "The Star Seed" and "The Louisiana Experience." Ms. Fontenot passed away on May 12, 2003. This week in Louisiana. Festival International de Louisiane April 27-May 1, 2022 315 Lee Ave Lafayette, LA (337) 232-8086 info@festivalinternational.org Welcome to Festival! Our cultural celebration is known around the globe for its bold and diverse music, food, art & unforgettable experiences. We can't wait to take over Lafayette again next year as we celebrate our 36th annual event with you all. Stay tuned for updates & remember we are all in this together! Transforming downtown Lafayette into an entertainment mecca every April, Festival International boasts top-notch music performances, gourmet food, and handcrafted artworks from all over the place! See you April 27-May 1, 2022. Bon Festival! There's still time to grab your 2021 Official Pin & Poster! Postcards from Louisiana. Alicia Renee — Blue Eyes.Listen on iTunes.Listen on Google Play.Listen on Google Podcasts.Listen on Spotify.Listen on Stitcher.Listen on TuneIn.The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.Like us on Facebook.   

Laissez les bons temps rouler! Host Molly Yeh admits she's butchering Cajun French but letting the good times roll right into the kitchen as the bakers head down to the big easy for some Mardi Gras madness. Our bakers put the fat in Fat Tuesday with King cake inspired treats followed by a boozy parade float cake fit to carry a krewe of Beignets right into our judges' mouths. Is a beignet just a square donut? How much cinnamon is too much cinnamon? Why is there a plastic baby in my cake?? Join us for these questions and more as we welcome a new surprise baker (hello Stephon!) and crown (or rather, ribbon?) this year's Mardi Gras King baker!

We're in the home stretch of the look back at highlights from the first 100 episodes of Twelve Songs, with this episode getting into interviews during the pandemic when COVID affected everybody's plans. Guitarist and producer Chas Justus from Lafayette, Louisiana talks about how COVID made his collection of Cajun French versions of Chrlstmas classics--Joyeux Noel, Bon Chrismeusse--possible.   I really appreciated getting romantic pianist and composer Jim Brickman on the show because someone who has 10 albums of Christmas music has a more nuanced take on it than those who have only dipped their toes in the water. We talked in 2020 about how his Christmas music relates to the music he makes the rest of the year.  Many of my guests are indie musicians, in part because their music frequently lines up best with my aesthetics and ethics, but it's also important to me that we hear Christmas music as something people make today in a variety of forms and not simply nostalgia from our parents or grandparents' generations. Excerpts of conversations with retro soul artist Kelly Finnigan (who made the modern classic A Joyful Sound), Christian vocal group leader Ernie Haase, Jamie Hilsden of the Christmas punk band The Myrrhderers, and Amy Carlson of pop band Office Romance all come from that place, though the conversations are very different.  I hope after hearing this show and the other retrospective shows in this series, you'll want to subscribe to Twelve Songs (if you haven't already), listen to back episodes, and tell your friends. I hope these looks back make it clear that conversations about Christmas music aren't necessarily about Christmas or to be set aside until that time of year. 

One of the first things you learn about the history of New Orleans is that the city was founded and settled by waves of people from both France and Spain. The relationship between these two European nations on the banks of the Mississippi was anything but simple and clear-cut. For one telling example, the architecture of New Orleans' French Quarter is actually Spanish. The governance of New Orleans swung from one nation to the other over the years, till eventually we became part of the United States. But the influences of French and LatinX people and culture continue to this very day. Valeria Ali is co-founder of a local Spanish language news service called Al Dia, which in English translates to “The Daily.” Al Dia texts the latest relevant local and national news to subscribers, in Spanish. Al Dia is a new project that's part of a larger Spanish language news operation, called Jambalaya News. Jambalaya is the predominant Spanish language news reporting and translation service in the state – around 30% of all Latinx people in Louisiana subscribe to Jambalaya's social media news platforms. Valeria came up with the idea for the text-message-based Al Dia news service and pitched it to a division of Google called Google News Initiative. Google said “yes” and gave Valeria the funds to launch Al Dia in July of 2021. The French influence came to Louisiana from two different directions. French settlers came to New Orleans from France. And French Acadians, who came to be called “Cajuns,” moved to South West Louisiana from Canada. The French from France and the Cajuns – who were originally also from France - spoke two different dialects of French. Today, Cajun French and regular French are more different from each other than ever. But here in New Orleans, a company called New Niveau is dedicated to encouraging the regular use of both dialects. Officially, New Niveau is a digital media agency and production house specializing in content creation, social media management, and live broadcasting. But New Niveau is most passionate about its work in French. They produce around five news stories in French a week, as well as two ongoing video series. One of them is “Le Tac Tac” – in English, “The Popcorn” – a local gossip show – and the other is “Les Nouvelles-Orléans” – which doesn't require translation - a daily news show. Both of these French language shows are hosted by co-founder of New Niveau, Sam Craft. It can be hard to put your finger on exactly what's so great about New Orleans. You can easily make a list of things that are challenging - from potholes to humidity - but it's harder to precisely enumerate what it feels like to walk around the French Quarter, ride the streetcar, eat a muffuletta, catch Zulu on Mardi Gras morning, strike up a conversation with a complete stranger in the grocery store, or hear music. A part of this indescribable spirit is the combination of cultures that built New Orleans. It's the way people here have always embraced difference, and incorporated it into daily life. It's how we got jazz. It's how we got our signature cuisine. And it's how we're continuing, to this day, to build our present and future culture. Valeria Ali and Sam Craft are both working every day to build bridges between people, between lives, and between languages. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at NOLA Pizza in the NOLA Brewing Taproom. You can find photos from this how by Jill Lafleur at our website. And find out more about Louisiana LatinX business in this conversation with ElCentro's Lindsey Navarro.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Down Home Cajun Music- Leo Soileau's Four Aces 1935-1936Leo Soileau was the first Cajun fiddler to record back in 1928. After the Depression Leo returned to recording with a group in the string band style and recorded for Decca. While the group recorded songs in Cajun French; they also covered songs by the Carter Family and other country groups, as well as pop hits of the day. This episode features their English string band songs.Leo's Four Aces was comprised of Leo along with Floyd Shreve and Bill (Dewey) Landry. It is speculated that some of these recordings features Tony Gonzales on drums.Leo Soileau's Four Aces- Green Valley Waltz (Decca 5102)Leo Soileau's Four Aces- Corrine, CorrinaLeo Soileau's Four Aces- Nobody's Buisness If I DoLeo Soileau's Four Aces- Frankie and JohnnieLeo Soileau's Four Aces- Red River Valley Leo Soileau's Four Aces- Birmingham JailLeo Soileau's Four Aces- The Unexplained BluesLeo Soileau's Four Aces- KC RailroadLeo Soileau's Four Aces- Little Darling Pal of MineLeo Soileau's Four Aces- Wreck of Old No. 9*All selections from the original 78 rpm records

Tashia tells Tammy about Daniel Blank (little did she know, Tammy had researched the story for Stump too).  Tashia also shares some Cajun French expressions (and definitions).Show notes links:Help You Find Me free trial  https://helpyoufind.me/go/1051/Help You Find Me 10% off promo code:  GritsSupport the show:https://www.patreon.com/Gritshttps://buymeacoffee.com/Gritswithaside

In 1941, Bernice LeJeune was told by the army that his Cajun French language would be of “no use to the US military.” Two years later, he found himself on the shores of North Africa assigned as a French Interpreter for an American colonel. LeJeune traveled with this colonel all throughout the Mediterranean Campaign and helped maintain liaisons with the French people and the French army at the famous battles of Casino and Anzio in Italy. His Cajun French language served him well; it kept him from the front-line fighting in the foxholes and helped to bridge the communication gab among allies during the crucial Italian campaign. Claude Broussard and E. J. LeBlanc—two other Frenchie Cajuns who fought in Italy—share their stories of combat as well in this episode.

Down Home Cajun Music- The Clement BrothersTerry Clement grew up in a musical family. He and his brothers started a band, modeling their style after their hero; Nathan Abshire. In the mid 50's they recorded one record for JD Miller's Feature label; "Te Maurice" and "Diggy Liggy Lo". As rock and roll became popular, they recorded not only Cajun French recordings for Miller, but rock and roll sides as well. Their recordings from 1960- 1961 are a mix of these styles. They didn't record again till 1984 when they deceided to record a tribute album to Nathan Abshire. La Valse de te Maurice (Cajun Classics LP1001) 1954Diggy liggy lo (Cajun Classics LP1001) 1954Sugar Bee (Rocko 517) 1960Teenage Rock (Rocko 517) 1960French Blues (Zynn 1007) 1960Jacqueline (Zynn 1007) 1960Rock Me Mama (RKS 103) 1960'sWon't Somebody Love Me (RKS 103) 1960'sLes filles Mexie- (Cajun Classics 108) 1961Tout les filles de les bayous (Cajun Classics 108) 1961Step It Fast (Kajun 5023) 1984Pinegrove Blues (Kajun 5023) 1984Le two step d'Iota (Kajun 5023) 1984*All selections from the original 45 and 33 rpm records.

Miriam Trahan grew up in Louisiana of Cajun French ancestry. She tells her story in today's Nobody Knows Your Story episode. She tells of growing up in the primarily Catholic city of Lafayette with eight siblings and how this certainly influenced her in later years. She moved around quite a bit which she talks about, but just how did she end up living on the island of Maui? (You'll need to listen in to find out.) One of the things that intrigued me about Miriam was that she is really into meditation; I mean REALLY INTO MEDITATION. Years ago, I discovered a type of meditation through walking, and I wanted to see how my “mind clearing walks” stacked up against what Miriam teaches. Here's what Miriam says in an excerpt from her Miriam's Meditations website. “When I was a young adult, I realized my path would include explorations into spirituality and consciousness. From 1995-2005 I was fortunate to study pranayama with an advanced breath master, Swami Santiananda, who taught PranaVayu Breath Practice. I attained Levels 1 and 2 with this study. I also earned a 200-hour yoga teaching certification in 2000. My current field of study since 2005 is Light Body, as taught by Duane Packer of Luminessence.” Miriam's Meditations podcast began as a way to share online the breath and meditation classes that I had been teaching here on the island of Maui. Sharing the beauty and blessings of our magical home is an integral part of the meditation journeys. So spend an hour and listen to Miriam's interesting life story and expand your knowledge and understanding related to meditation. I mean, "Who are you when you're not thinking?"Aloha,Larry 

K.C. Jones is a country music artist based in Lafayette, LA. She is set to release her debut solo record, "Queen of the in Between" on June 18, 2021. She is also a member of Cajun French bands Feufollet and T'Monde. She has played on multiple Grammy-nominated projects throughout her career.  https://www.kcjonesmusic.com https://feufollet.net http://www.tmonde.com MUSIC FEATURED K.C. Jones - Heat Rises - Queen of the in Between - I Didn't Mean It Join our online community on Patreon! Gain access to exclusive content, early guest announcements, giveaways, ask questions to our guests, and bonus podcasts! Join for as little as $1 - https://www.patreon.com/hippiesandcowboys   thehippiesandcowboys.com - NEW MERCH AVAILABLE    https://workmansrelief.refersion.com/c/d42e52 - SAVE 15% using the promo code HACCBD at checkout!   https://twitter.com/HippiesCowboys   https://www.instagram.com/hippiescowboyspod/  ALL MUSIC IN THIS PODCAST HAS BEEN USED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE ARTIST AND LABEL

Down Home Cajun Music- Goldband Records Part OneEddie Shuler's Goldband Record label recorded many greats in Cajun music through the late 40's through the 1970's. The label's output reflected the changing styles of Cajun French music and showcased some of the biggest names in the industry. Here's a introductory episode on Goldband Records.Sidney Brown- Chico Two Step (G-1061)Shorty LeBlanc- Boss Cajun (G-1139)Robert Bertrand- Tee Maurice (G-1199)Iry Lejeune- Grande Bosco (G-1041)Joe Bonsall- Light Moving (G-1133)Cleveland Crochet & the Sugar Bee's- Hound Dog Baby (G-1114)J.B. Fuselier- Think of Me (G-1138)Aldus Roger- Duson Waltz (G-1084)Le Roy Broussard- Lemonade Song (G-1048)Robert Bertrand & Jo El Sonnier- Pas Revenir A La Maison (G-1171)Pee Wee Kershaw- Your So Fine (G-1118)Also available on Apple Podcasts*All selections from the original 45 rpm records.

Down Home Cajun Music- Alley Boys of Abbeville In 1939 Vocalion Records was looking for Cajun French bands to record at their first field recording session in Memphis. The Alley Boys (Sidney Guidry, Murphy Guidry, Maxie Toutch and Frank Maihes) paid $125 dollars for a taxi to drive them to Memphis for a recording session on June 30, 1939. The sixteen sides they recorded that day resulted in one of the best sessions in Cajun music.Pourquois Te En Pen (Vocalion 05423) Tu Peus Pas Me Faire Ca (Vocalion 05058)Abbeville Breakdown (Vocalion 05168)Te A Pas Raison (Vocalion unissued)Se Toute Sain Comme Moi Ma (05058)Jolie Petite Fille (Vocalion unissued)Quel Espoire (Vocalion 05424)Moi Et Ma Belle (Vocalion unissued)Je Vous T' Aime Lessair Pleurer (Vocalion 05168Es Ce Que Tu Pense Jamais A Moi (Vocalion 05424)Tu Ma Quite Seul (Vocalion 05423)Jolie Petite Blonde (Vocalion 05167)Apres Jengles A Toi (Vocalion 05057)Te Bonne Pour Moi Estere (Vocalion 05057)Tu Peu Depend Si Moi (Vocalion  05167)

In this episode, Karl learns the ways of boiling crawfish and also how to really screw up some Cajun French. We also discuss some other great stories in this week's episode of TWILA.

This week's conversation with Marissa centers on North American French and North American Spanish. Marissa is a multilingual content creator and champion for all language learners! For this episode, we focused on dialects of French and Spanish spoken, and often marginalized, in North America. We were both eager to shift the French discussion away from Europe and talk about our French speaking neighbors here in our own country. Marissa talks about the Acadiens and Cajun French and how the language was distributed from Canada all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. We discuss stereotypes that affect French speakers in North America and how misrepresentations of Parisian French in the US have been harmful to North American francophones. She also talks to us about how learning to speak the dialect of Spanish that her neighbors and clients speak has opened doors for her and enabled her to make connections in her community. And, because Marissa has been working on relearning her heritage language of Polish, she even gives us a little bit of insight into how that personal and emotional journey has been coming along. This episode is so full of facts and data and even a mini quiz for us where I find out a surprising fact about Cajun French that I never even realized. Big thank you to Marissa for this fact filled conversation and for sharing all of your knowledge with us. As always, if you enjoy this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review the Speaking Tongues Podcast on Apple Podcasts so that other language lovers like ourselves can find the show! Ok, let’s chat To Find Marissa: Instagram: @multilingualmarissa Website: https://relearnalanguage.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMvi1KPAwXNWYSa5AeJn89g Puerto Rican Spanish Learning Resources: https://relearnalanguage.com/puerto-rican-spanish/ Learning Louisiana French: https://relearnalanguage.com/learning-louisiana-french/ Speaking Tongues Podcast: www.speakingtonguespodcast.com Follow on IG: @speakingtonguespod Follow on Twitter: @stpodcasthost Like our Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/thespeakingtonguespodcast Support the Podcast: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/speakingtongues --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/speaking-tongues/message

David Cheramie, CEO of the Bayou Vermilion District ("BVD"), joined Discover Lafayette to discuss the operations of his organization. Passionate about his calling to preserve our unique culture while educating others on the topic, and stressing the interdependence of our people with the land and water, Cheramie brings a poetic voice to our podcast. Serving as CEO of the BVD since 2011, Cheramie previously served as Executive Director of CODIFIL, the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana. His entire adult career has focused on francophone issues, from teaching in schools to educating others about the unique culture our region enjoys. He calls himself a "member of the lost generation," a child and grandchild of a French-speaking family who never taught the young ones to speak the language due to the stigma of speaking "Cajun French" in the 1950s and 1960s. But fourteen generations ago, his family moved from France and his nuclear family raised him in the French ways; he always wanted to learn the language. An opportunity to spend a year in Montpellier, France as a sponsored student of CODIFIL gave him the opportunity to become fluent. An added bonus and the most wonderful lagniappe, Cheramie met "the prettiest French girl," to whom he has now been married for almost forty years. Cheramie shared the beauty of learning a second language and how the "floodgates were broken" when he realized he was speaking, thinking, and dreaming in French. "I felt this was my real personality coming out." He lived in France for seven years and worked as a clothing salesperson in stores throughout Southern France. Calling it a great experience as he got to know the people and culture, he became indistinguishable from the French natives. People were shocked to learn that he was a U. S. citizen and hadn't grown up in France. In January 1989, a chance encounter with Dr. David Barry at a banquet celebrating the Bicentennial of the French Revolution led Cheramie to come back to Louisiana. At that time, Barry was Department Head of Foreign Languages at USL (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and was creating a new Ph.D. program in Francophone studies. He successfully courted Cheramie to move back and join the program; Cheramie became the second person to earn a Ph.D. in Francophone studies. Cheramie was inspired by Dr. Barry Ancelet, another USL professor, who has been an active spokesperson in promoting the Acadiana culture and dispelling myths that denigrated the "Cajun." A prolific writer, Cheramie began writing in French and quickly published three books of poetry which were published by Centenary College's "Les Editions Tintamarre. Since those early days, he has published dozens of articles and has been a keynote speaker and presenter at conferences around the world. David Cheramie is a passionate spokesperson for helping people understand the symbiotic relationship between our culture, the land and water. "We're a part of the land and the land is a part of us. It's inseparable. We wouldn't have the same culture if it weren't for the fisherman, the hunters, the trappers, the farmers and ranchers. It informs our culture. " Cheramie authors En Francais, S'il Vous Plait in French and English for Acadiana Profile Magazine, and his writings bring to life the unique culture we enjoy in this region. Focusing on artists, musicians, the food, historical figures and events, he captures the essence of what makes South Louisiana so special. Cheramie quoted the old saying, "The spoken word flies away but the written word stays," to reinforce his belief that writing in French/Cajun words will guarantee that ensuing generations will retain the knowledge of this precious culture and its manner of speaking. The BVD was founded in 1984 by an act of the Louisiana legislature to beautify, manage, and preserve the Vermilion River. It is overseen by a nine-member board whose members are appointed by various e...

Chas Justus' musical taste ends around 1965, he says, and he has made his living playing in roots music bands in Southern Louisiana--the swing band The Red Stick Ramblers, and more recently in The swamp pop band The Revelers. Last fall, he brought together a number of his musical friends to record Joyeux Noël, Bon Chrismeusse, an EP of classic Christmas songs sung in Cajun French. He talks about how the project came about, and how COVID-19 helped make it possible.  Along the way, he turns me on to a couple of tracks--Belton Richard's Cajun French version of Buck Owens' "You're All I Want for Christmas," and Chicago guitarist Joel Paterson's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I first interviewed Justus in 2015 for MySpiltMilk.com. Here's that story on The Revelers. In this week's episode, I also talk about My Holiday by Mindy Smith, a Christmas album that I think merits more far attention than it gets.  

While the 1950's and 1960's found the up rise of many independent labels, the first one in Louisiana devoted to Cajun music was started by J.D. Miller. Starting in 1946, J.D. started his first label, Fais Do Do. Over the next couple of episodes, we will devote episodes of the podcast to labels Miller created for Cajun music. Down Home Cajun Music- A Fais Do Do Series 1947-1955 Starting in the late 1940's, J.D. Miller starting recording Cajun French music in Crowley. He first started the Fais Do Do label, there he recorded Happy Fats and Doc Guidry, Lee Sonnier, Jimmie Choates and others. He followed with his Feature label where he recorded Amadie Breaux, the first recordings of the Sundown Playboys, Aldus Roger and Pee Wee Broussard. J.D.'s labels were the first independent Cajun labels in Louisiana giving many artists a platform to record at. He continued recording Cajun French music till around 1955, then shifted his focused on country and blues. His first labels would be some of the many that he started.Happy, Doc and the Boys- Gabriel Waltz (Fais Do Do F-1000) 1947Lee Sonnier- Chere Catan (Fais Do Do F1002) 1947Jimmie Choates- Chere Meon (Fais Do Do F1009) 1948Amadie Breaux- Acadian Two Step (Feature F1023) 1950Aldus Roger- Hix Wagon Wheel Special (Feature F1028) 1954Sundown Playboys- Welcome Club Waltz (Feature F1037) 1951Louis Spell- Lover's Waltz (Feature 1040) 1952Pee Wee Broussard- M&S Special (Feature F1064) 1953Cleveland Mire- Hudson Breakdown (Feature F1033) 1951Abe Manuel- Hippy Ti Yo (Feature 1098) 1955Austin Pitre- Prison Two Step (French Hits F500) 1955(JM Recordings)*All selections from the original 78rpm records.

Early Cajun Honky Tonk 1948-1950With the success of "Jole Blon" and "Pine Grove Blues", more Cajun artists started to record. They mixed their Cajun French with driving rhythm and steel guitars to create a new style of Cajun Honky Tonk played though the dancehalls. In this mix of early recordings we explore some of the early artists and some rare recordings. After 1950, the dance hall scene exploded with new artists and record labels releasing this music.Jimmie Choates- "Petite Negres" Fais Do Do 1009 1948Nathan Abshire-"Chere Te Mon" Hot Rod 103 1949Joe Manuel- "Your Papa Threw Me Out" Folk Star 102 1949Lawrence Walker- "Country Waltz" Khoury 601 1949Tan Benoit- "Gueydon Waltz" Hot Rod 105 1949Ernest Thibodeaux- "Jennings Two Step" Hot Rod 105 1949Chuck Guillory- "Teiyut Two Step" Feature 1015 1950Harry Choates-"Gran Mamou" Macy's 124 1950Amedee Breaux -"Jole Blonde" Feature 1023 1950Iry LeJeune- "Lacassine Special" Folk Star 100 1950*All selections from the original 78 rpm records

Partially buried skeletal remains were uncovered while on an organized search for a missing boy back in December of 2018.  Evangeline Jane Doe was found in a rural, grassy area in Ville Platte, Louisiana. The identity of this woman remains unknown. Forensic experts at LSU FACES were able to determine a few key points of her identity. However, no sketch for Evangeline Jane Doe has been made available thus far. Authorities have very little to go off, and the case has since gone cold.  Further testing is available through public funding at the 501(c)3 non-profit, DNA Doe Project. After a night of bingo, grandmother and mother Carolyn Riggins disappeared.  70-year-old Carolyn Riggins was last seen on July 11th, 2020 at the Watauga Road Bingo in the Fort Worth, Texas area.  Carolyn had reportedly been on a winning streak that week and had scored a few winning pots the night she went missing.  Authorities were able to establish a partial timeline. Her 2002 tan Lincoln Town Car was caught on camera on I35 driving north of her home and was time stamped for 5:30 AM on July 12th.  Her family have created a Facebook page called “Finding Carolyn” for anyone that might have further information. www.mysteriesofthebayou.com   Scarlett (00:03): Yeah. Roy (00:03): Hey, hello, and welcome to the mysteries of the by you podcast, where you are a true pod, true crime podcast. We're going to be focusing on, uh, cases that come out of Southwest Louisiana, Louisiana as a whole. And of course beyond we don't, we're not going to be totally locked into the area, but my name is Roy and this is Scarlet. Hello, Scarlet. How's it going? Pretty good. How about you? I'm good. Good. You know, I'm based in the Dallas Fort worth area. The reason for my passion for this is not only for the true crime part, but for the area is spent a lot of time down there and it's kinda my adopted hometown area. Uh, I love the people, the food, the culture. Um, there's nothing about it that I don't like. So I like to spend as much time down there as I can. And Scarlet is based in the, uh, you're out of the Lafayette area, correct? Scarlett (00:59): Correct. Yeah. I, um, uh, I, I grew up here and I'm back here and I second everything you just said, except for, I don't like the hurricanes, the mosquitoes and the audio, but you guys have a little bit of that yourselves too, so we're all kind of in the same boat. Roy (01:14): Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've had the, an extra dose of the hurricanes this year. It seems like I know that you've, uh, you've had two of them that you've dodged in the last month or so. Scarlett (01:23): Yeah. And guess what? We have some, I think there's a tropical storm, uh, midweek this week and we're almost in November, so Roy (01:31): Gosh. Yeah. They said it's been a while. I know we made it through our alphabet and then they started working on this, the Greek alphabet or some other kind of alphabet, but anyway. Scarlett (01:43): Yeah. Roy (01:43): Right, right. So I'm going to tell, you know, we'll both kind of tell our story on this episode. We want to, um, you know, why we got into this, why it's important for us. Uh, first a couple of things. Number one, you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google play, and Spotify. We have a website www dot mysteries of the, by you. We're on a Facebook Facebook page and a Facebook group. Eventually we hope to, you know, have enough followers and enough interest that we want to get into some group discussions. We also want you to reach out to us if you have a case submission ideas or especially if you have any information on something that we're talking about, um, you can, all, you can reach out to info at mysteries of the, by you or Roy or Scarlet, either1@mysteriesofthebayou.com. We'll be glad to answer you. Roy (02:40): Or, um, you know, on Facebook you can send us some meshes, whatever, whatever works best. But I got into this true crime. Um, w when I was a kid, there were three girls that went missing from a mall here in the Fort worth, in, in Fort worth and no trace of them ever. So there were some renewed interest. Um, probably, uh, two, three, four years ago, local guy did a podcast. And I thought it was really interesting because, you know, this is something that's been around with not much activity on it for the last 40 years. So there was another girl who unfortunately, a little bit older than me that was murdered in, uh, the same timeframe about 1974. And, uh, he also covered her case, brought a lot of renewed interest. And then lo and behold, about a month ago, um, the police actually, uh, saw, well, they think they solved the case. Roy (03:40): They arrested a guy, processed him. It was a new form of DNA that they were able to extract some, uh, uh, use a smaller amount of DNA and get more out of it. So it was unbelievable, but, uh, I think what, what I didn't understand at the time is that how it, especially in 2020, but how could people just fall off the face of the earth and never find a trace of them, never hear from them. It's unbelievable. And in some instances, um, it's people, the people and their vehicle both just disappear, never to be seen again. So really piqued my interest. And then the next thing, I started listening to a lot of different podcasts and it's like, Oh my gosh, this is so widespread across the U S it's it's rampant. I mean, people just go missing every day, never to be heard. Roy (04:34): So anyway, just peak my interest, not only from that investigative side, that, how does this happen, but also, you know, of thinking about how, how, how do families live with that? And so, you know, we want to be very, uh, family and victim focused. We aren't gonna victim shame, or we don't care about what their lifestyle was. It, uh, matters that they were a person and that there have either been killed or that they are missing. So we want to help as much as we can bring more information, there's never closure. So it's not like we're going to find closure for the family. Cause I don't think that happens, but, uh, you know, at least having the information to solve the mystery about what happened. And so that's kind of how I got into it and why I'm interested. Uh, Scarlet, what about yourself? What, what peaked your interest in true crime? Scarlett (05:30): Oh, well, that's a really great question. Um, you know, I know a lot of people that are involved in true crime, they have some kind of tacit, uh, connectional almost in a way that you do where you knew of someone or it happened in your hometown. And it, it kind of in a way, whether you were cognizant of, but not, it kind of shaped your life going forward, especially like you said, for these families that just don't have the closure. Um, but you know, it's, it's interesting. I read somewhere that, you know, um, there's a lot of interest in true crime cause it, it almost makes us feel a little bit safe in our own lives. It kind of gives us some control, you know, knowing what else, you know, these horrible things happen. Um, and it's out there and it gives us some kind of understanding, but again, like, you know, kind of second what you said, uh, I just so much sympathy for these families and, you know, especially doing something like this and you sit at your computer and you start to Google things, uh, you just see the, the frequency with which this happens and, you know, in your own town even. Scarlett (06:28): Um, so it just kind of broadens that, understanding that this really does happen to people. And then, you know, they have to figure out how logistically, you know, w what life is like and how to, you know, the aftermath and just the day-to-day and how challenging that could be. Roy (06:42): Yeah. And I like these, uh, the three girls that went missing, you know, their families have pushed this with the police. You know, the police can only go so far. There's, um, you know, they're clues and they run them down. But after a while, it's like, you know, where do we go from here? So the families have been really involved with keeping these investigations moving and then family and friends, and, um, you know, in the three girls that went missing, they actually, uh, last year, 2018, maybe they actually pulled some cars up from the bottom of a Lake thinking that they may have some something to do with it. Yeah. So it was a big undertaking, but one of the, uh, girls brothers, uh, you know, he's instrumental in keeping the Facebook page alive and keeping the stuff out there. So, you know, that's great. Roy (07:31): I hope that we can bring, uh, you know, a little bit of help to a family, you know, we're, we're starting out. So I'm gonna, you know, ask or beg mercy from the, you know, people that may see the show we're trying taping, um, on, uh, on zoom. So we can put it up on YouTube for you. But, um, we're gonna start with some fairly, uh, small cases that don't have a lot of information we're doing that just so we can find our footing on how we're going to be able to communicate and talk back and forth about these and make it interesting. We will try to keep these, um, you know, we'd like to do about a 30 to 45 minute episode, those tend to work best. And, uh, you know, just present the facts. We're not going to add a lot of color. Roy (08:19): Uh, w you know, we just want to present what we know as the facts. We don't want to speculate on what may or may not have happened. I don't think that's fair to families, especially of the missing, to speculate on all the bad things that could have happened to the individual, because, um, you know, I view it as my family, that somebody was missing. Uh, you know, we're going to hold out hope, even though at some point you have to give in to the realization, they may not come back alive, but you always want to hold out the hope until, you know, for sure. So, you know, we don't want to speculate on all the bad things that may have happened. We just want present the facts and say, Hey, if you've seen these people, or if you saw something, you know, reach out to law enforcement, get them involved. And, um, even if you think it's something tiny or, um, have no, you know, of no value, let them make that determination because they may be able to put it together with another clue, uh, you know, one in one equal two, and it may, it may, uh, you know, it could be the thing that turns an investigation. You just never know. Scarlett (09:26): Yeah. And I'm so glad that we're doing this, uh, you know, via video, because I'm hoping that, you know, we go to Walmart or something, eventually enough people, you know, we'll see our faces and maybe they'll, uh, when that'd be great, if they just, you know, you're in the shopping line at Walmart and says, Hey, I watched your book. I listened to your podcast. And I got, you know, got this, you know, case or this information or this family member, how cool would that be? Right. Roy (09:49): Right. Yeah. That's the best, the best thing that could happen is we find out that somebody listened to the show and what it was able to, you know, help solve something. Uh, you just never know, uh, part of it is the, it's a game of numbers. It's the more people that put the message out to the bigger audience, the, that it gets to the better chance of, uh, you know, having a break in a case that that's the great thing about this day in time is, you know, used to, you saw you had a local newspaper and, um, the story ran there. And if you didn't read that, or if you weren't in that area, you may not really know. But today, um, you know, this show has been, uh, you know, we've been trying to get the show off the ground for about a year and just been some setbacks here and there. Roy (10:37): But even over that time, we've had visitors to our website, into the podcast from all over the world. So it's such, it's such an awesome thing to have that kind of a reach. So, you know, we're excited and, uh, what we're going to do. I think at least the first couple episodes, like I said, we've got a, we're going to go over two cases, each one, uh, they're sparse details. So we're not going to be long and in-depth into each one, but this way, uh, you know, it just, uh, gives a chance to, to families, to maybe, uh, to get some answers. So unless you have anything else, you just want to jump right in. Scarlett (11:18): I miss, I wish I had a better icebreaker. I, um, you know, just encouraging me. I, I, I do have a, not to sensationalize it in any way. Um, but you know, you mentioned the seventies, you know, a case, you know, that this kind of inspired your true crime. Um, my mom had a Ted Bundy's story around mid seventies. Yeah. And it shouldn't, we shouldn't lead with that. The, and the hook or something really short stories. She went to school in, uh, Pocatello, Idaho. And, uh, he happened, he had the cast and he was at this kind of a local watering hole bar. It was just college kids. It's a real small town. Everybody knew each other. And he said, hi, I'm Ted. And he was kind of strange. And he had a cast and everybody remembered him because it was just, he struck out he wasn't a part of the college crowd. So how crazy is that? Six degrees everyone's I think he started talking to enough people. They might have one of these crazy stories. It's like six degrees of Ted or something in that time period. Roy (12:14): Yeah. Yeah. That's for sure about the six degrees. Uh, you know, that's one thing I always, uh, talking to new people, you always try to find that connection and it, it's always amazing that, uh, there's always something, maybe an event or a person, but usually you can find some kind of common ground there. All right. Well, let's jump into this one. Um, this is one that's been kind of bugging me for probably the better part of a year. Now. It is the, um, it comes out of evangelism parish in Louisiana, and it it's basically called the, uh, evangelism parish, Jane DOE. And what happened was in 2018, December, 2018, there were some remains found of a young lady and they still haven't been identified. And kind of the backstory we'll get into is that, um, the way that this, uh, the skeletal remains were found, what are that? Um, there was a missing child in the area. And, um, so the police over in Ville Platte, or called out to search for this child, and as they're searching, they, um, come across these bones and you, you know, a little bit more about the, uh, the, um, the child they were searching for. You have a little information on that, don't you? Scarlett (13:38): Yeah. Um, you know, it's always horrible when a child goes missing. So naturally, uh, this was an all man on board. You know, they had four wheelers, they had people on horses. They even the Cajun Navy, uh, even came out to lend a hand in the search and rescue, but the child was found, uh, it was, it looked like a runaway case. And so child was found safe. So that that's good. And unfortunately, this, they happened to stumble upon these remains of this, you know, person, unfortunately. Roy (14:10): Yeah. And while you brought them up, it's probably good that we'll just stop for a minute and, uh, say, well, why would the Navy be involved in a search that was that far in, but, uh, if you've never been to, yeah, yeah. Now they're, they're great. They help out a lot. And even through these last hurricanes, they were a big help evacuating and looking for people. But in this particular area, there are a bunch of rice fields that are flooded rice fields, crawfish farms. So anyway, there is a lot of water around as well. So if I'm also, so they found these remains, they were partially buried. They were in a green space by a barn. It it's from I've read. It said it was kind of out in the middle of nowhere, but it was basically, there were some, uh, another house close to it. And they said that the neighbor that lived there at the time was known to have interaction with high risk women. And, you know, I think that's important because Speaker 3 (15:12): Especially Roy (15:13): In a small area, like evangelism parish, it was all over the news. So I feel very strongly that had this young lady been missing from that area. It would have been solved immediately, but it just makes you believe that maybe she was from a different area and whether she was in this area voluntarily, or whether she had been trafficked to the area. We don't know. But again, the impetus for us wanting to do this show is because if this young lady came from outside of the evangelism parish, or, you know, even the South, what that region of Southwest Louisiana, this is where we're hoping if you have someone that, you know, of friend or family that's missing, that kind of fits into this age group or a range that, you know, you may, um, be a good thing to check with the authorities, just to see if it happens to be that Speaker 3 (16:11): Okay. Roy (16:11): She, um, uh, so the, the, some of the other information, she was about 20, uh, she had been there, they think for about five to 10 years and, uh, they speculate that her age was 25 to 35 at the time of discovery. So kind of applying a little bit of simplistic math to that. You would think that her current age today would have been probably in the 32 to 47 range. So if, if you know, somebody who was missing that may be in that, you know, 32 to 47 that went missing, uh, when would that have been, you know, maybe 2008 to 2013, that kind of fits that timeframe? Um, Speaker 3 (17:02): She was, uh, Roy (17:05): They, uh, speculate that she was of mixed descent, probably of, uh African-American and, uh, French Cajun, uh, origin, if I'm not mistaken, when I was going to put this up, sorry about that. I was gonna, uh, I'm gonna put up a little, we're gonna try this and see what it comes out like on our recording. But, um, this is some of the information that we found here on the evangelism parish, Jane DOE, uh, yeah, she was of mixed Cajun French and African descent, female in, um, Speaker 3 (17:46): So one Roy (17:47): Thing else we did, we reached to the Louisiana state police, uh, of course it's an ongoing investigation, so they were not willing to either provide us with more information or, you know, we did offer them a chance to come on and talk with this. And again, uh, because it's an ongoing investigation and I think that's something that we have both, uh, come to terms with a few of the other cases that we've been investigating, basically the same thing. So a lot of times we're going to be able to provide to you information that we found, um, doing internet searches, just because of the, uh, thirties, uh, you know, they need to hold some of this information close just in case they, uh, do make an arrest that, uh, it, it makes it a little more difficult when some information is out in the public. They like to hold it and that way they can use it in interrogation. Scarlett (18:48): Yeah. And, um, I know that we had talked about this pre show. Um, you know, and I'm just so curious that, so it looks like, you know, they, they reported that they found a skull with possibly some teeth. And then, um, you made the, you know, you brought up the thought that if it's she's, you know, they were able to tell that she was female, possibly they found other remains the pelvis, uh, and whatnot. Um, you know, I wish we, you know, too bad. We're not, we don't have any forensic knowledge. I I'm just so curious, you know, how much is needed to do, um, one of these facial reconstructions, you know, how, how much DNA, how much, how much goes into that originally, we don't have those answers. Um, but unfortunately with this case, uh, they weren't able, or they haven't been able to, or they're working or they're backlog, but there there's no image to match this report. Roy (19:38): Yeah. And I had read that they have sent the remains to LSU and, uh, LSU has an awesome program where they do some facial reconstruction. I'm sure that they are, you know, trying, uh, the other thing that's really popular now is, uh, looking at DNA and going backwards is because if I'm just like myself, if something happened to me, they looked at my DNA. Um, if I don't have any in the system and it can get that way, you can get in the system a lot of ways, either through a criminal convictions, it can get there through, um, I think some military police school districts. So there's a lot of ways that your DNA can get in the system, but when somebody is found, they can't do, they can't match their DNA. So what they can do now is they will kind of start working it backwards to see if they can find some relatives and then narrow it down that way. Roy (20:36): And kind of how that works is, uh, like myself, I've gone through, uh, uh, Google 23 and me, but people cannot access, uh, DNA there to do a comparison. So there are a couple of other services. One of them that I'm aware of is it's Jed match GED match. And basically if you upload your DNA there, you're given the authorities the, uh, permission to, you know, try to match it against these unknown cases in that way. It may even if it, you know, if it wasn't me, it may be, uh, you know, they may find somebody that it links close to me. And then, you know, they start the conversation. Is it, you know, brother, sister, father, mother, child, or, you know, they can, our cousin, you know, they start seeing how far away you are, uh, uh, I guess, of a match to this particular DNA. Roy (21:32): And then they can kind of start down that path of figuring out who it may have been. And it's funny because that's actually how the, uh, the 46 year old case that they just solved here in Fort worth. That was part of how that happened was, you know, they found a way to work with this, uh, smaller bit of DNA. And, uh, they matched it to the guy's brother actually. So, you know, they got a match through the, uh, through Jed match, I think. And then they said, well, um, it come up, it comes up as one of these three brothers, we just don't know who, so then they started taking their DNA into, got a positive match on it. So very interesting. The technology that we have today. Scarlett (22:19): Yeah. W I was just going to say, since you brought up Jed match, that was also, you know, gained a lot of notoriety for the golden state killer Joseph Dangelo was, um, they used family DNA and were able to place him, you know, bring him his DNA to the crime scene as well. So it's just interesting. Roy (22:37): So anyway, um, if you have, you know, if you have a loved one that's missing, if you have any more information, uh, you know, if you were in the area at the time and maybe know more about this person, uh, you know, this, uh, young lady who she may have been, where she might've been from, please reach out to either, uh, the veal plat, um, police department. You can reach out to the Vangelis parish Sheriff's department, or the Louisiana state police is involved. So, uh, just reach out to one of those and, uh, you know, please let them know what, you know, it may be able to help solve this and at least give, uh, give her a name. Roy (23:18): All right. If nothing else we'll move on to the next one, this one here. Uh, actually we just paired it, uh, with this other shorter case, it's really not out of, uh, Southwest Louisiana, but it is very current. And that's why, it's why we felt the need to go ahead and put it out. This, this lady is actually missing from the, uh, Fort worth Texas area. Her name is Carolyn Riggins, and she is age 70, about five, nine, and about 200 pounds. So, um, basically she was, uh, at a bingo hall playing bingo at the, and then just turned up missing. And they, this, she eventually, she went missing from on July 11th. So it's been, um, we're going on big, going on three months now. Speaker 4 (24:17): Yeah, Roy (24:17): Yeah. She, uh, let's see, she was last seen July 11th, around 10:30 PM at the Watauga road. Bingo, for those familiar, with the area that's at, uh, mid cities Boulevard and, um, roof, snow area think they caught her. She was on camera at the bingo parlor. And then also they saw her car driving by the convenience store that was up on the corner. They really didn't see that she was the one driving, but they did. Uh, they did see the car go by. So, uh, by, you know, accounts from people there that she had one, uh, several jackpots that night and, uh, on the days leading up to that, that she had won, uh, some, some other smaller pots. So they feel like that she may have had a lot of cash on her, or if somebody had been watching her, they felt like that she had a, um, had a lot of cash with her. Uh, she was last, seen her car is a tan Speaker 4 (25:19): Or pewter. I've read both, Roy (25:22): Uh, on this flyer. It says tan 2002 Lincoln town car, Texas license plate, C Speaker 4 (25:27): E G B one four five three C G B one four five three. Roy (25:34): Uh, this poster is off of the, uh, find Carolyn, uh, Facebook page. There's also an Instagram page. And then, uh, finding Carolyn at, um, Twitter as well. They also have a website set up so you can send, uh, if you have any information, send it to info@findingcarolyn.com. There is a $5,000 reward for, uh, tips leading to find her, you know, this is kind of a kind of strange number one. I know the area of very well. Um, so, you know, I, I can place exactly where this bingo place is while she may have come out of there. Uh, what's bizarre though, is that, that I have read that she was there, like at 10 30 at night and left, and her car was seen early the next morning, about 30 miles North of there, uh, on our 35 in Denton, Texas at the highway three 80 interchange. Roy (26:36): So, um, again, it was just picked up on a license scan, so there's no picture who was driving the car, but, um, yeah, it's just, uh, it's certainly sad for the family again, uh, uh, us had messaged, uh, one of the family members. They were, um, at the time we had talked, they were still setting up, uh, they were a new search for some wooded areas that were behind this, uh, being go parlor. So they were kind of involved in that and I don't think they really had the time to give us, so, uh, hopefully we'll try to catch back up with them because, uh, it was her sister. I would love to have her on as a guest and talk to her more about this. Um, there were really not much else there have been no transactions on any of her cards, our credit report. Roy (27:32): Um, she did have her purse, but she didn't have her cell phone as for some reason she'd left it at home. So, uh, the, she does take medication that she does not have. So, um, then, you know, that's another reason why the family is desperately trying to find her because it's been so long. The, um, that's really about all I know, but because it was timely, you know, we felt like that, uh, from looking at the distribution of listeners that we've had in the past, you know, we do have a pretty good crowd out of the DFW area. So we felt like it would be, uh, you know, worth, at least mentioning this, to see if we can generate some information for the family. Scarlett (28:23): Yeah. Um, I guess just one thing to add, and again, um, this is possible. So on the Facebook page, someone had, uh, you know, maybe it could be a lead, maybe not a lead, maybe just something to think about in the background. Uh, if anyone's thought of maybe checking, uh, WinStar casino, it's, uh, North of Denton, if she had been, you know, if the bingo parlor had closed or her maybe not even her or whoever maybe was driving that vehicle that they pinged at 10:30 PM, or I'm sorry, 5:30 AM on July 12th the next day. Possibly it was on its way to the casino. Roy (28:59): Yeah. That casino is just across the red river in Oklahoma. So yeah, that, that is definitely a possibility. And you know, this is, uh, one of the cases, again, you know, as we said, I said in the beginning, don't want to speculate because there there's so many things that could have happened. And, uh, you know, what we're hoping is that they can still bring her home alive, but the, um, this is kind of the, kind of, one of those interesting parts is that, uh, they have not found the car either. So how does the, you know, how does Carolyn and the car go missing and not be seen for three months? Because, um, you know, generally even if the car had been abandoned, you know, the, they run the plates, they figure out, at least we have that. So another thing that I know that the family has been doing is looking along, uh, you know, 35 going towards that casino to see, uh, you know, if there's ditches that a car could have run off in that you couldn't see them or bodies of water that it might have gone into as well. Roy (30:04): Um, and that happens, um, again, you would think in a huge metropolitan area like this, that that's an impossibility, but I'll tell you it's not actually a ride out here, uh, close to my house about, uh, well, it's been a few months ago. It was back during the summertime. There was a car, two people in it. They had just run off of, um, a major interstate, but they hit down into a ditch and a culvert at just the right angle that you could not see them from the road bed. So about two, three days later, there's a guy has a flat tire running down the road, pulls over and just happens to pull over right on top of this vehicle. And, um, you know, he looked down and saw him and unfortunately one of the gentlemen passed away. The other was saved. But, uh, you know, again, it's stranger things have happened that you can run off the road in a huge metropolitan on the major highway that, you know, has thousands of cars going over to every day and still not be seen. Scarlett (31:16): Right. And I just so much sympathy for her family. You know, I can't imagine something like this, you know, she was a mother and a grandmother and just not really having the answers of, you know, what happened that night. Roy (31:29): Exactly. Exactly. So if you have any information, uh, we'll just kind of recap if you have any information on Carolyn K Riggins, again, she's missing out of Fort worth, Texas since, uh, July 11th of this year, 2020. And then, um, the other case that we covered is the oops, the evangelists and Jane DOE, uh, she was found in, uh, evangelism parish. I'm sorry. Yeah. Ville Platte. Yeah. Veal plaid in evangelism parish, uh, Louisiana, uh, she was found in 2018, but they suspect again that she had been there for, uh, five to 10 years and they, uh, estimated her age to be about 25 to 35 when she went missing. So, um, if you have any information on that, please again, reach out to the proper authorities and let's see if we can, uh, help solve one of these two cases. That's really all I've got. Um, again, uh, we're going to kind of find our way through this been interesting, uh, also using new technology, like I said, uh, we had, uh, anticipated doing the audio for the podcast for sure. But then we, uh, decided to try to couple it with the recording and, uh, try to put it up on YouTube as well. We'll see, uh, see how that goes. And if you have, uh, something nice to say, please reach out and let us know. Don't, don't be mean we're still, Scarlett (33:04): We're trying, we're gonna figure it out. Roy (33:07): But, uh, yeah, if you have some, uh, positive critiquing, please let us know. Uh, you know, we want to make the show interesting where people want to listen. Uh, and we also want to, you know, try to help help these families as much as we possibly can to so anything we can do along those realms, if you have any case submissions, please reach out to one of us. Uh, um, roy@mysteriesofthebayou.com or scarlet@mysteriesofthebayou.com, or you can hit us on either Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, um, uh, yeah, we will be up on LinkedIn, uh, but also, um, Instagram be sure and reach out. Scarlett (33:50): Yes, we do dove Nido wing doves as well. We take down and smoke, so smoke mail as well or anything we're connected on everything. Roy (33:57): Exactly. Yeah. And, uh, Scarlet just met awesome, uh, technology. She just messaged me like, Hey, you forgot something here. Definitely. Uh, you know, we're just starting out. And so w we want to have a mission to help other businesses as they're starting out. We've. Um, the first one again, is up here in the Dallas Fort worth area. It just happened to be going to another place to eat last weekend, drove by an old, uh, farmer's market. And lo and behold, they had turned it into the Cajun, a Cajun market in Colleyville, Texas. So, um, went in, talked to the Phil and Debra, really nice people there got me some Bhutan and some cracklin. So it was, uh, it was really good. Uh, he had some good product and, uh, that's one thing I miss about not living in Louisiana. And the Southwestern part is the, uh, the Bhutan. Roy (34:57): I could, I could eat that stuff every day. So it was nice to find a place. And, uh, yeah, if you're a new business that has anything to do with the Southwest Louisiana area, also reach out to us. We'd love to drop a plug in for you and, uh, you know, try to help try to help these new businesses has gotta be tough with the COVID and everything that's going on. Starting a new business is tough any day of the week, but with the COVID on top of that and everything that's going on, I'm sure that it's even more difficult. So we want to get out patronize them and, uh, you know, show a little love for, for these guys for sure. Scarlett (35:34): Okay. Roy (35:38): All right. So before we go, Scarlet, do you have anything else? Scarlett (35:43): Uh, no. Just, I want to thank everybody for listening and, you know, think our family, I hope they're listening as well as the whole movie. You know, few fan base are already at least. Hi dad. Roy (35:56): We got our, we got our two followers already. Yup. All right. Well until next time I'm Roy I'm Scarlet. Y'all be careful. Be careful out there.  

  You can't miss this Sound Behavior episode 027 with child actor/musician, Keith Thibodeaux.  If you watched any TV during the mid to late 1950's & 60's you would recognize him as "Little Ricky" on I Love Lucy or Opie's friend "Johnny Paul Jason" on the The Andy Griffith Show. Keith Thibodeaux, also known as Richard Keith, is an American former child actor and musician, best known for playing Little Ricky on the television sitcoms I Love Lucy and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. He was billed as Richard Keith because his Cajun French last name, "Thibodeaux", was considered too difficult to pronounce by producer Desi Arnaz. He is the last living regular appearing cast member from I Love Lucy.

This Week's Geek - Miranda Rozas:Social MediaIG - @sexydragonbuttmuncherKeep an eye out for a documentary in the works! This Week's Topic - All Things Cajun:(Source: Wikipedia - Cajuns)The Cajuns, also known as Acadians, are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and in the Canadian maritimes provinces consisting in part of the descendants of the original Acadian exiles—French-speakers from Acadia in what are now the Maritimes of Eastern Canada. In Louisiana, Acadian and Cajun are often used as broad cultural terms without reference to actual descent from the deported Acadians. Historically, Louisianians of Acadian descent were also considered to be Louisiana Creoles, although Cajun and Creole are often portrayed as separate identities today. Most Cajuns are of French descent. The Cajuns make up a significant portion of south Louisiana's population and have had an enormous impact on the state's culture. While Lower Louisiana had been settled by French colonists since the late 17th century, the Cajuns trace their roots to the influx of Acadian settlers after the Great Expulsion from their homeland during the French and British hostilities prior to the Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763). The Acadia region to which modern Cajuns trace their origin consisted largely of what are now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island plus parts of eastern Quebec and northern Maine. Since their establishment in Louisiana, the Cajuns have become famous for their unique French dialect, Louisiana French (also called "Cajun French", although the dialect predates the Acadians' arrival in Louisiana), and have developed a vibrant culture including folkways, music, and cuisine. The Acadiana region is heavily associated with them. This Week's Thanks:Thanks to Visager for our theme song “Welcome Player.” You can find more of their music at visager.us. That’s V-I-S-A-G-E-R dot U-S. Remember to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and all your favorite podcast sites. And hey while you’re there leave us a review! We LOVE them. Thank you for listening, dear listeners. We’ll be back next week!

Making a Scene Presents an Interview with Jim Odom of Louisiana's LeRouxTheir 1978 Capitol press release read, "LeRoux takes its name from the Cajun French term for the thick and hearty gravy base that's used to make a gumbo."  LeRoux's eponymous first album was a musical gumbo that blended various instruments and music arrangements into a spicy, mouth-watering southern rock sound. In fact, their Southern anthem 'New Orleans Ladies',voted Song of the Century by Gambit Magazine, simmered with the laid-back feel of the "Big Easy," evoking images of Bourbon Street and the bayou.

If you're a woman, it's turning out to be a weird year. Suddenly we're all up in arms about whether or not the State is going to let you have an abortion. If you're a woman who would prefer to have the choice about whether or not to have an abortion, rather than leave that decision to a guy in Baton Rouge, Amy Irvin is your best friend. As the Executive Director of the New Orleans Abortion Fund, Amy is literally out there fighting for you. So, hey, cut her a bit of slack if she can't remember the phrase "pro choice" after a couple of cocktails. Theophile Bourgeois IV is a tattoo artist and the front man for New Orleans band Them Ol' Ghosts. Theophile, pronounced Thay-o-feel (it's very Cajun French) has graduated from tattooing drunk people from his old shop next to strip parlor, to working banker's hours from his shop on Oak Street, in Uptown New Orleans. TBIV has a disarmingly beautiful voice, even when singing the acerbic love song he wrote for his wife, "Bitch, I wrote this song for you" with tender loving lyrics like "“I know you’re worried I’m a narcissistic inconsiderate asshole, but don’t you worry baby ‘cause this heart belongs to you.” Given that we're almost halfway through the year, Theophile Bourgeois might be your best find of 2019 so far. If you're interested in the truth, so is Jonathan Blake Vasquez. Jonathan recently moved to New Orleans from Dallas, and brought his Truth Hurts Podcast with him. It's a no-punches-pulled look at life. And what we find out in this conversation is that the whole enterprise has the unlikely subversive intent of turning us all into Vegans.  Back to the being a woman thing again for a moment. If you're a woman, no doubt you've been hit on in almost every way imaginable. Well, guess what? There's one more way you hadn't imagined. Happy Hour photographer Alison Moon is back in town on a break from her stint as a grad student at Oxford University, with alarming tales of how the brainiac class of guys try and get women into bed. It's fairly unbelievable so in the interest of spoilers we won't ruin it for you. But if you've got time to kill, this insight is almost worth the whole price of admission to this Happy Hour. If you want to see some photos from this show, head over here. It's also available as a video at https://www.facebook.com/neworleanspodcasts/ Happy Hour is recorded live at Wayfare in Uptown New Orleans. Photos by Jill Lafleur.

2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Lost Bayou Ramblers by Andre and Louis Michot. In this episode of Discover Lafayette, the brothers had just come back from a five-month touring hiatus and visited with Jan Swift about their journey to becoming an established international presence on the music scene. Worklight Pictures created the “rockumentary,” On Va Continuer, capturing the personal and professional story behind the band, whose members also include Johnny Campos (electronic guitarist), Eric Heigle (electronics and acoustic guitar), Bryan Webre (electric bassist) and drummer Kirkland Middleton. The film looks at the modern Cajun culture and the importance of sustaining the Cajun French language. Mark your calendar for the celebration of Lost Bayou Rambler’s 20th anniversary on September 28, 2019 and viewing of the film at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Growing up, Andre and Louis performed Cajun music as members of Les Frères Michot, the band their father, Tommy Michot, and uncles formed in the 1980's. While they had taken lessons to learn guitar (Andre) and classical violin (Louis), their talent blossomed when they picked up instruments and taught themselves the intricacies of the accordion (Andre) and fiddle (Louis). Andre has actually mastered the art of building accordions as an adult musician, and the brothers have learned to play other instruments by ear and by watching each other as they jammed together and with Les Frere Michot. The Lost Bayou Rambler’s musical lyrics are performed solely in French, but the men didn’t grow up speaking the language. It took a solo journey by Louis to St. Anne’s University in Nova Scotia in 1998 to learn French and that is where he picked up the fiddle, using an instrument his grandfather had handed down. For Louis, learning the language was facilitated by singing the words and learning the rhythm as he played the fiddle on the streets. In August 1999, the brothers booked their first gig as a yet-to-be-named band at Café Rue Vermilion in downtown Lafayette. On the way, Louis stopped by to see his friend, the late Ryan Domingue, who asked what their name was. When Louis said, “We don’t have one,” Ryan offered up “Lost Bayou Ramblers” which both young men loved. For background on this story and information on the Rue Vermilion Revival and Flood Relief Fundraiser in 2016, visit here. Lost Bayou Ramblers received a Grammy nomination for its 2007 release of Live a la Blue Moon. In 2012, the band released Mammoth Waltz with the help of producer Korey Richey and guest artists Gordon Gano, Scarlett Johansson, and Dr. John. Mammoth Waltz was named #2 in the “Top 21 Louisiana albums of the 21st Century” by Times Picayune. Lost Bayou Ramblers’ contribution to the score of Beasts of the Southern Wild in 2012 brought them renown worldwide, and we end this interview with the haunting melody of their music from the film. After their live appearance on NPR’s World Café, Lost Bayou Ramblers was rated #1 on “David Dye’s five favorite live music moments in and out of the World Café studio.” And then, in 2017, the band won a Grammy for Best Regional Roots Music Album for Kalenda. The bands' performance on the 2017 PBS documentary series American Epic, solidified Lost Bayou Ramblers' international reputation as an iconic Cajun band. Lost Bayou Ramblers recently released their score to the highly acclaimed and award-winning Rodents of an Unusual Size, which aired on PBS earlier this year. The film documents the unusual relationships people have with the large rodents. The music was released on March 29 and is available via Bandcamp on CD, and all major streaming and paid download sites. You can check out the music here. The spoken words of Louis and Andre are inspirational and engaging. Their story is worth a listen. Thanks to the brothers for sharing their journey.

Forget about comic books - what if EVERY Disney IP merged together for gigantic multi-feature series? We attempt to visualize what this fan fest might look like! Note: NO Avengers Endgame spoilers here (because we all hadn't seen it yet). Warning: This episode contains Freddie's very bad interpretation of a Cajun? French accent? We're still unsure.

Welcome to episode fourteen of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. Today we’re looking at “Jambalaya” by Hank Williams. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.  —-more—- First, a brief apology — this podcast is up about twenty hours later than normal. I used up my buffer over the Christmas and New Year period, and had to deal with some family stuff on Saturday, my usual day for recording new episodes, so everything was thrown out a bit. Everything should be back to normal by next episode.   Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.   There are many good biographies of Hank WIlliams, but Colin Escott’s is generally considered the best. Williams’ recordings are all in the public domain now, so there are many great, cheap, compilations of it. This one, with ten CDs for ten pounds, is probably the best value. And I mention an episode of Cocaine and Rhinestones in the podcast. This is the episode I’m talking about. The episode on Bob Wills I mention is here, to save you digging through the archives. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript The music that became rock and roll had many different progenitors. The cliche — which we’ve already established as being very wrong — is that it was a mixture of the blues and country music. While that’s very far from being the actual truth, we’ve also seen that country and western did have a substantial influence on the development of rock and roll. And yet so far we’ve only looked at one country and western star — Bob Wills, back in episode three.  Now, this is probably the correct balance — early rock and roll grew primarily out of rhythm and blues records — but it would be ahistorical in the extreme if we were to completely ignore the growth of the hillbilly boogie, which is the branch of music that eventually led to much of what we now think of as rock and roll and rockabilly. Obviously, even from its name you can tell that hillbilly boogie was hugely influenced by boogie and R&B, but it was its own unique thing as well. If you haven’t heard of it, hillbilly boogie is a type of music that grew out of Western Swing, and which itself later turned into honky-tonk music. It’s music that combined country music instruments — guitars, fiddles, and steel guitars, primarily — with the rhythms of boogie music, and it was a big, big, genre in the late forties and fifties. It was less subtle than Western Swing was, with most of its subjects being drinking, fighting, sex, and boogie-woogie, in approximately that order of importance. This was party music, for working-class white men who wanted to get drunk, hit something, and have sex with something. But as is often the case with music that appeals to such primal emotions, much of the music had a power to it that was far greater than one might expect from the description, and some of it rises to the status of actual great art. And in the right hands, some of the hillbilly boogie music could be as powerful as any music around. The hillbilly boogie craze started in 1945, with a record called “Guitar Boogie” by Arthur Smith: [excerpt: “Guitar Boogie” by Arthur Smith] You can hear in that some of the Django Reinhardt influence we’ve already seen in the Western Swing genre — that’s still a fairly sedate version of hillbilly boogie, more intellectual than it quickly became. A few years later, the genre had gone a lot further down into the gutter: [excerpt: “Shotgun Boogie” by Tennessee Ernie Ford] So today, we’re going to talk about a song that was — as far as we can tell — a collaboration between two greats of the country field: Hank Williams, who is pretty much the epitome of the 1950s country musician, a man who could perform in many country and western subgenres; and Moon Mullican, who was a far less versatile musician, one who pretty much only played hillbilly boogie, but who managed to be a massive influence on early rock and roll as a result. You’ve probably heard of Hank Williams, but you’ve probably *not* heard of Moon Mullican, yet Mullican was massively important to the development of both country and rock music. He was a hillbilly boogie piano player who could play faster than almost anyone around, and who could keep a pounding left hand going while playing lightning-fast trills with his right. If you listen to his piano playing, you can see in particular exactly where the other great Louisiana piano player Jerry Lee Lewis takes his style from. Mullican was, like many of the hillbilly boogie players, equally influenced both by country and blues music. You can hear the influence of people like Bob Wills very clearly in his music, but you can also hear people like Bessie Smith or, especially, Big Joe Turner, in his style. Most of his early influences were blues singers, although he didn’t sound very blues: [excerpt: Moon Mullican “What’s the Matter with the Mill?”] That’s a cover of an old Memphis Minnie blues song, but it’s absolutely country and western in Mullican’s performance. We’re again looking at one of those musicians who would take influences from everywhere, but transmute them into his own style. And this is something we need to talk about more when we talk about influence. There are, roughly, three things you can do when you hear something you like from outside your genre. One is to completely ignore it and continue ploughing your own field. Another is to switch over completely and copy it totally, either for one song (like the white people who would record knock-offs of black hits) or for the rest of your career — we’ll later be looking at the way that young white English men were so impressed by the blues that they set out to sound as much as possible like older black American men. But the third thing you can do — the one that tends to lead to the most interesting music, and to the best art in any medium and genre, is to take what appeals to you about the other work, see what about it you can get to work with your own style, and incorporate it. Cover your inspiration’s song, but do it in your own style and arrangement. Borrow that rhythm, but put your own melody line and lyrics over it. That’s the way most truly interesting creative artists work, and it’s what Mullican did. You hear any of his records, and you can hear a whole host of different influences in there, but he’s not directly copying any of them. People like that are the most important vectors for different musical ideas and the creation of new genres, and the most important influence that Mullican brought into country music, and which through him became a major influence on rock and roll, was Cajun music. Cajun music is music made by the Cajun people in Louisiana. There’s a whole lot of stuff around Cajun people that involves social class and racial stuff that, frankly, I’m not the best person to talk about — I’m likely to say something that is very offensive while trying to be well-meaning, because I simply don’t know enough to talk sensibly. But the main thing you need to know here is that Cajun people are — or certainly were at this point — looked down upon by other residents of Louisiana, and by other Americans, and they have their own culture — they have their own cooking, largely involving things that many other cultures would discard as inedible, very heavily spiced; and they have their own language, Cajun French, rather than speaking English as so many other people in the US do. It’s Cajun and Creole culture which makes New Orleans, and Louisiana more generally, such a unique place, and which makes its music so different from the rest of the US. That’s not the only factor, of course, but it’s a big one. We’ve talked a little bit already about New Orleans music, and Cajun music definitely plays a part in that style. But Cajun music has its own unique traditions, which we can only briefly touch upon here. If you’re interested in hearing more about Cajun music as it applies to *country* music, as opposed to its influence on rock and roll, I’d recommend the episode of the great country music podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones on Doug & Rusty Kershaw. I’ll link that in the show notes, and it’s definitely worth checking out. But this is, of course, a podcast about rock and roll music, and so I’m going to talk about the influence that Cajun music had on rock and roll, and that mostly came through the style of zydeco, which is a genre that mostly grew up among Creole people – black people in Louisiana who speak the same Cajun French as the white Cajuns. The name “zydeco” itself, tells you quite a bit about Cajun and Creole culture generally. There are a few plausible explanations for the word’s origins, but the one I prefer is that it’s a mispronunciation of the phrase “les haricots” — French for “the beans” — as used in the Cajun French phrase “Les haricots ne sont pas salés” — “the beans aren’t salty”, a phrase which idiomatically meant “things are difficult” or “I’m tired”. “Zydeco ne sont pas salés” was the title of a song recorded by the great zydeco accordion player Clifton Chenier, among others: [excerpt “Zydeco ne sont pas sales”: Clifton Chenier] Zydeco is very closely related to another genre — fais dos dos music. This is music that’s mostly played by white Cajun people, and it features the accordion and fiddle as the main instruments. Fais dos dos music has a strong Western Swing influence too, as you can hear for example in “Bosco Stomp” by Lawrence Walker: [excerpt “Bosco Stomp”, Lawrence Walker] And Moon Mullican brought that fais dos dos music right into the mainstream of country music. You can hear it best on his hit “New Jole Blon” which went to number two on the country charts in 1951: [excerpt “New Jole Blon” by Moon Mullican] That’s a really strange mixture of fais dos dos music and Western Swing. You’ve got that high “ahh” sound that Bob Wills would make, and traditional country instrumentation, without the prominent accordion, but you’ve also got a thoroughly Louisiana melody, and you’ve got lyrics in an odd mixture of Cajun French and English, with lots of mentions of typical Cajun foods. It’s a really *odd* track, frankly, not least because of the way he’ll sometimes just depart totally from any conventional idea of melody and start singing random notes, trying to get as much lyric as he can into a space. There were other Cajun musicians who played country music, of course, and vice versa, but if you listen to Mullican’s records you get a real sense of someone who is equally at home with both kinds of music. Now let’s talk some more about Hank Williams. I try to assume, when I make these podcasts, that the people listening to them have absolutely no idea about any of the music I’m talking about — for everyone who knows far more details about the career of Benny Goodman or Bob Wills than I could ever fit into a half-hour podcast episode, there’s someone who has literally never heard of those people, and I try to make these shows equally listenable to both. I’m going to try that with Hank Williams as well, but that means I’ll possibly be sounding patronising to some of you. Hank Williams is, by far, the most famous person I’ve dealt with so far in this series, and so you might think that I could just skip over the basics. But rest assured, there is someone listening to this who has never heard of Hank Williams and will appreciate the background. So, Hank Williams was, as you may have guessed from that preamble, the most important single figure in country music, possibly ever and certainly after the death of Jimmie Rodgers. He had thirty-five hits in the country top ten, of which eleven went to number one in the country chart, and he wrote dozens upon dozens of country and gospel classics — “I Saw the Light”, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”, “Lovesick Blues”, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, “Cold Cold Heart”, “Hey Good Lookin'” and far more than I could name here. He was, in short, the most important songwriter alive during his very short career. And it *was* a very short career. His career as a recording artist started in 1946 — though he’d been a live performer for quite a few years already by then — and ended in 1952. In that six-year period, he basically redefined country and western music. Unlike Moon Mullican, who basically did his one thing very, very well, but didn’t do anything else, Hank Williams varied his style enormously. Where Mullican would pull different genres into his own style and incorporate them, Williams would somehow make the definitive records in a whole slew of different subgenres, while still always sounding like himself. He started out, as so many musicians in the 1940s did, basically as a Jimmie Rodgers tribute act. Jimmie Rodgers the Singing Brakeman — not to be confused with the similarly-named blues musician — was one of those people who, if this series was going just a little further back in time, we would definitely be covering. His yodelling country blues was the most popular country music of his time, and massively influential on everyone. One of the things I’ve talked about a lot in this series is the way that black and white musicians would collaborate and bounce ideas between each other far more than most modern people believe. While I would never for one second want to downplay the massive amounts of racism in the early twentieth century (or even the levels at the moment, which are lesser but not as much less as many of us would like) there was not as much segregation by genre as modern listeners will assume. Jimmie Rodgers, as an obvious example, is considered the founder of country music, but listen to this: [excerpt: “Blue Yodel Number 9”] That’s Jimmie Rodgers on vocals, singing in his normal style, backed by Louis Armstrong and Lilian Hardin Armstrong. That’s the father of country music playing with two of the greatest black musicians of their time, singing a song which is far closer to the blues of W.C. Handy than to what most people now think of as country music. And this was the most influential country singer of the thirties. Every country and western performer in the late thirties and forties was working in the margins of what Jimmie Rodgers did, but by the time Hank Williams finally got a record contract, he was very much his own man. His first big hit, “Move it on Over” in 1947, is a fun example of hillbilly boogie. Indeed, if you listen to it, you might see the resemblance to a very famous rock and roll song we’ll be looking at in a few weeks: [Excerpt: “Move it on Over” by Hank Williams] But that wasn’t the only style that Williams could do — he made gospel records, heartbreaking ballads, and uptempo dance music, and he was good at all of it. He wrote a catalogue of songs that still gets covered — a lot — to this day, and he was popular enough that his name has given his son and grandson successful careers in the country music world, though neither of them has one millionth his talent. And like Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams’ appeal crossed racial boundaries. Johnny Otis used to tell a story about his tour bus stopping at a truck stop somewhere in the middle of the US, and getting out and seeing Williams there. Otis was a fan of Williams, and struck up a conversation, introducing him to Little Esther — and it turned out that Hank was a Johnny Otis fan. They all chatted and got back on the bus, and it drove off. Little Esther’s mother asked Esther who she’d been speaking to, and she said “Just some cowboy”, but when Otis said it was Hank Williams, Esther’s mother screamed “you turn this bus round right now!” — she was a fan and she desperately wanted to meet him. Fats Domino, too, was a fan of Hank Williams, and so were many other rhythm and blues musicians. Williams was listening to rhythm and blues, and rhythm and blues musicians were listening to him. Don’t let the cowboy hat fool you. EVERYONE was listening to Hank Williams, except for the pop audience — and even they were listening to WIlliams’ songs when, for example, Tony Bennett recorded them: [excerpt: Tony Bennett “Cold Cold Heart”] At the time we’re talking about his career was on the way down. He was twenty-eight years old, but he was often in agony with back pain, and he was drinking too much and taking too many pills to numb the pain. He was getting divorced from his first wife, who was also his manager, and he was missing so many shows due to alcoholism that he was about to get fired from the Grand Ole Opry, the popular country radio show which was responsible more than anything else for making him a star. His life was, frankly, in a mess. But he was still the most popular singer in country and western music, and he was still making great records — and one of the records he made, in June 1952, was a song he probably co-wrote with Moon Mullican, called “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” I say “probably”, because no-one knows for sure, but it seems likely that Mullican co-wrote it, but wasn’t given songwriting credit because he was contracted to a different publisher than Williams. Mullican recorded his own version of the song the same month, and Mullican’s version had slightly different lyrics. Let’s take a listen to Mullican’s version — the less successful of the two — first. [excerpt “Jambalaya” by Moon Mullican] Now let’s hear an extract from Hank Williams’ version: [excerpt: “Jambalaya” by Hank Williams] As you can see, the two versions have a lot of basic similarities, but they both bear the unmistakeable stamp of their creators’ sound on them. Mullican’s has a far more hilbilly boogie or Cajun sound to it, while Williams has far more of a straight-ahead honkytonk country sound. But both tracks still have the same basic attraction to them — this is a celebration of Cajun culture, and in particular a celebration of the way Cajun people celebrated — their food, their music, and their dancing. “Jambalaya, crawfish pie and filet gumbo”, “pick guitar, fill fruit jar, we’re gonna be gay-o”. And this is at a time when Cajun people were, as far as the wider audience was concerned, about the lowest of the low if they were thought of at all. There’s a defiance to the song that may not be audible to modern listeners, but is definitely there. The guitar player on Williams’ record, incidentally, is the great Chet Atkins. Like Hank, he was far more influential in country music than in rock and roll — though he always denied that he was a country guitarist, saying rather that he was “a guitarist, period” — but he was one of the great guitarists of all time, and also produced a handful of early rock and roll classics. But again, for now, just note that the session guitar player there is probably the most influential country guitarist ever. But what we can see from both versions of “Jambalaya” is that there was an appetite in country music for a kind of music that was rather broader than the styles that the major labels were interested in. If you just looked at the history of Nashville pop-country, you’d think that country music was as bland and whitebread as the crooners who were dominating popular music at the time, but country music was a stranger, and more eclectic, music than the media impression of it would have you think. It was a music that had as much to do with the blues as rhythm and blues did, and which had an audience that was far happier with experiment and new ideas than you might think. In the 1950s, this tendency in country music would lead to a number of subgenres of its own, many of which would be major influences on rock and roll. There was bluegrass, which started in the late forties and which we’ll be talking about a lot later, and there was rockabilly, as well as country music sounds which never had much influence on rock and roll but which had much of the same energy, like the Bakersfield sound. But “Jambalaya” is a record which had the same kind of crossover appeal as “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” had in the opposite direction. Like the stew from which it takes its name, it takes elements from a variety of different areas and throws them together, creating something that had a much greater appeal than you might imagine. “Jambalaya” would go on to be a staple of early rock and roll music — it was especially loved by musicians from Louisiana, like Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis, both of whom made great piano-driven records of the song. Williams is remembered now as a country musician, but that’s largely because he died before the rock and roll craze — had he lived, it’s entirely possible we’d now be thinking of him as a rockabilly star. [excerpts: “Jambalaya” by Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis — short excerpts back to back] Sadly, Hank Williams would not live to see the immense influence he was having on a generation of young musicians who would go on to revolutionise not only country music, but also rock and roll. Barely six months after recording “Jambalaya” he was dead. His back pain had led him to drink even more heavily, he’d developed even more of a dependency on pills, he’d developed a reputation for unreliability and missing shows — he was a mess. And on New Year’s Eve, 1952, while he was being driven from Tennessee to Ohio, for a show he had to play on New Year’s Day, he fell asleep in the back of the car and never woke up. When his death was announced at the show he’d been driving to, the audience laughed at first – they thought it was just another excuse for him not turning up. His last single, released a month earlier, was titled “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive”. He was twenty-nine years old.  

Welcome to episode fourteen of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs. Today we're looking at "Jambalaya" by Hank Williams. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.  ----more---- First, a brief apology -- this podcast is up about twenty hours later than normal. I used up my buffer over the Christmas and New Year period, and had to deal with some family stuff on Saturday, my usual day for recording new episodes, so everything was thrown out a bit. Everything should be back to normal by next episode.   Resources As always, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.   There are many good biographies of Hank WIlliams, but Colin Escott's is generally considered the best. Williams' recordings are all in the public domain now, so there are many great, cheap, compilations of it. This one, with ten CDs for ten pounds, is probably the best value. And I mention an episode of Cocaine and Rhinestones in the podcast. This is the episode I'm talking about. The episode on Bob Wills I mention is here, to save you digging through the archives. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript The music that became rock and roll had many different progenitors. The cliche -- which we've already established as being very wrong -- is that it was a mixture of the blues and country music. While that's very far from being the actual truth, we've also seen that country and western did have a substantial influence on the development of rock and roll. And yet so far we've only looked at one country and western star -- Bob Wills, back in episode three.  Now, this is probably the correct balance -- early rock and roll grew primarily out of rhythm and blues records -- but it would be ahistorical in the extreme if we were to completely ignore the growth of the hillbilly boogie, which is the branch of music that eventually led to much of what we now think of as rock and roll and rockabilly. Obviously, even from its name you can tell that hillbilly boogie was hugely influenced by boogie and R&B, but it was its own unique thing as well. If you haven't heard of it, hillbilly boogie is a type of music that grew out of Western Swing, and which itself later turned into honky-tonk music. It's music that combined country music instruments -- guitars, fiddles, and steel guitars, primarily -- with the rhythms of boogie music, and it was a big, big, genre in the late forties and fifties. It was less subtle than Western Swing was, with most of its subjects being drinking, fighting, sex, and boogie-woogie, in approximately that order of importance. This was party music, for working-class white men who wanted to get drunk, hit something, and have sex with something. But as is often the case with music that appeals to such primal emotions, much of the music had a power to it that was far greater than one might expect from the description, and some of it rises to the status of actual great art. And in the right hands, some of the hillbilly boogie music could be as powerful as any music around. The hillbilly boogie craze started in 1945, with a record called "Guitar Boogie" by Arthur Smith: [excerpt: "Guitar Boogie" by Arthur Smith] You can hear in that some of the Django Reinhardt influence we've already seen in the Western Swing genre -- that's still a fairly sedate version of hillbilly boogie, more intellectual than it quickly became. A few years later, the genre had gone a lot further down into the gutter: [excerpt: "Shotgun Boogie" by Tennessee Ernie Ford] So today, we're going to talk about a song that was -- as far as we can tell -- a collaboration between two greats of the country field: Hank Williams, who is pretty much the epitome of the 1950s country musician, a man who could perform in many country and western subgenres; and Moon Mullican, who was a far less versatile musician, one who pretty much only played hillbilly boogie, but who managed to be a massive influence on early rock and roll as a result. You've probably heard of Hank Williams, but you've probably *not* heard of Moon Mullican, yet Mullican was massively important to the development of both country and rock music. He was a hillbilly boogie piano player who could play faster than almost anyone around, and who could keep a pounding left hand going while playing lightning-fast trills with his right. If you listen to his piano playing, you can see in particular exactly where the other great Louisiana piano player Jerry Lee Lewis takes his style from. Mullican was, like many of the hillbilly boogie players, equally influenced both by country and blues music. You can hear the influence of people like Bob Wills very clearly in his music, but you can also hear people like Bessie Smith or, especially, Big Joe Turner, in his style. Most of his early influences were blues singers, although he didn't sound very blues: [excerpt: Moon Mullican "What's the Matter with the Mill?"] That's a cover of an old Memphis Minnie blues song, but it's absolutely country and western in Mullican's performance. We're again looking at one of those musicians who would take influences from everywhere, but transmute them into his own style. And this is something we need to talk about more when we talk about influence. There are, roughly, three things you can do when you hear something you like from outside your genre. One is to completely ignore it and continue ploughing your own field. Another is to switch over completely and copy it totally, either for one song (like the white people who would record knock-offs of black hits) or for the rest of your career -- we'll later be looking at the way that young white English men were so impressed by the blues that they set out to sound as much as possible like older black American men. But the third thing you can do -- the one that tends to lead to the most interesting music, and to the best art in any medium and genre, is to take what appeals to you about the other work, see what about it you can get to work with your own style, and incorporate it. Cover your inspiration's song, but do it in your own style and arrangement. Borrow that rhythm, but put your own melody line and lyrics over it. That's the way most truly interesting creative artists work, and it's what Mullican did. You hear any of his records, and you can hear a whole host of different influences in there, but he's not directly copying any of them. People like that are the most important vectors for different musical ideas and the creation of new genres, and the most important influence that Mullican brought into country music, and which through him became a major influence on rock and roll, was Cajun music. Cajun music is music made by the Cajun people in Louisiana. There's a whole lot of stuff around Cajun people that involves social class and racial stuff that, frankly, I'm not the best person to talk about -- I'm likely to say something that is very offensive while trying to be well-meaning, because I simply don't know enough to talk sensibly. But the main thing you need to know here is that Cajun people are -- or certainly were at this point -- looked down upon by other residents of Louisiana, and by other Americans, and they have their own culture -- they have their own cooking, largely involving things that many other cultures would discard as inedible, very heavily spiced; and they have their own language, Cajun French, rather than speaking English as so many other people in the US do. It's Cajun and Creole culture which makes New Orleans, and Louisiana more generally, such a unique place, and which makes its music so different from the rest of the US. That's not the only factor, of course, but it's a big one. We've talked a little bit already about New Orleans music, and Cajun music definitely plays a part in that style. But Cajun music has its own unique traditions, which we can only briefly touch upon here. If you're interested in hearing more about Cajun music as it applies to *country* music, as opposed to its influence on rock and roll, I'd recommend the episode of the great country music podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones on Doug & Rusty Kershaw. I'll link that in the show notes, and it's definitely worth checking out. But this is, of course, a podcast about rock and roll music, and so I'm going to talk about the influence that Cajun music had on rock and roll, and that mostly came through the style of zydeco, which is a genre that mostly grew up among Creole people – black people in Louisiana who speak the same Cajun French as the white Cajuns. The name "zydeco" itself, tells you quite a bit about Cajun and Creole culture generally. There are a few plausible explanations for the word's origins, but the one I prefer is that it's a mispronunciation of the phrase "les haricots" -- French for "the beans" -- as used in the Cajun French phrase "Les haricots ne sont pas salés" -- "the beans aren't salty", a phrase which idiomatically meant "things are difficult" or "I'm tired". “Zydeco ne sont pas salés" was the title of a song recorded by the great zydeco accordion player Clifton Chenier, among others: [excerpt "Zydeco ne sont pas sales": Clifton Chenier] Zydeco is very closely related to another genre -- fais dos dos music. This is music that's mostly played by white Cajun people, and it features the accordion and fiddle as the main instruments. Fais dos dos music has a strong Western Swing influence too, as you can hear for example in "Bosco Stomp" by Lawrence Walker: [excerpt "Bosco Stomp", Lawrence Walker] And Moon Mullican brought that fais dos dos music right into the mainstream of country music. You can hear it best on his hit "New Jole Blon" which went to number two on the country charts in 1951: [excerpt "New Jole Blon" by Moon Mullican] That's a really strange mixture of fais dos dos music and Western Swing. You've got that high "ahh" sound that Bob Wills would make, and traditional country instrumentation, without the prominent accordion, but you've also got a thoroughly Louisiana melody, and you've got lyrics in an odd mixture of Cajun French and English, with lots of mentions of typical Cajun foods. It's a really *odd* track, frankly, not least because of the way he'll sometimes just depart totally from any conventional idea of melody and start singing random notes, trying to get as much lyric as he can into a space. There were other Cajun musicians who played country music, of course, and vice versa, but if you listen to Mullican's records you get a real sense of someone who is equally at home with both kinds of music. Now let's talk some more about Hank Williams. I try to assume, when I make these podcasts, that the people listening to them have absolutely no idea about any of the music I'm talking about -- for everyone who knows far more details about the career of Benny Goodman or Bob Wills than I could ever fit into a half-hour podcast episode, there's someone who has literally never heard of those people, and I try to make these shows equally listenable to both. I'm going to try that with Hank Williams as well, but that means I'll possibly be sounding patronising to some of you. Hank Williams is, by far, the most famous person I've dealt with so far in this series, and so you might think that I could just skip over the basics. But rest assured, there is someone listening to this who has never heard of Hank Williams and will appreciate the background. So, Hank Williams was, as you may have guessed from that preamble, the most important single figure in country music, possibly ever and certainly after the death of Jimmie Rodgers. He had thirty-five hits in the country top ten, of which eleven went to number one in the country chart, and he wrote dozens upon dozens of country and gospel classics -- "I Saw the Light", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Lovesick Blues", "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Cold Cold Heart", "Hey Good Lookin'" and far more than I could name here. He was, in short, the most important songwriter alive during his very short career. And it *was* a very short career. His career as a recording artist started in 1946 -- though he'd been a live performer for quite a few years already by then -- and ended in 1952. In that six-year period, he basically redefined country and western music. Unlike Moon Mullican, who basically did his one thing very, very well, but didn't do anything else, Hank Williams varied his style enormously. Where Mullican would pull different genres into his own style and incorporate them, Williams would somehow make the definitive records in a whole slew of different subgenres, while still always sounding like himself. He started out, as so many musicians in the 1940s did, basically as a Jimmie Rodgers tribute act. Jimmie Rodgers the Singing Brakeman -- not to be confused with the similarly-named blues musician -- was one of those people who, if this series was going just a little further back in time, we would definitely be covering. His yodelling country blues was the most popular country music of his time, and massively influential on everyone. One of the things I've talked about a lot in this series is the way that black and white musicians would collaborate and bounce ideas between each other far more than most modern people believe. While I would never for one second want to downplay the massive amounts of racism in the early twentieth century (or even the levels at the moment, which are lesser but not as much less as many of us would like) there was not as much segregation by genre as modern listeners will assume. Jimmie Rodgers, as an obvious example, is considered the founder of country music, but listen to this: [excerpt: "Blue Yodel Number 9"] That's Jimmie Rodgers on vocals, singing in his normal style, backed by Louis Armstrong and Lilian Hardin Armstrong. That's the father of country music playing with two of the greatest black musicians of their time, singing a song which is far closer to the blues of W.C. Handy than to what most people now think of as country music. And this was the most influential country singer of the thirties. Every country and western performer in the late thirties and forties was working in the margins of what Jimmie Rodgers did, but by the time Hank Williams finally got a record contract, he was very much his own man. His first big hit, "Move it on Over" in 1947, is a fun example of hillbilly boogie. Indeed, if you listen to it, you might see the resemblance to a very famous rock and roll song we'll be looking at in a few weeks: [Excerpt: "Move it on Over" by Hank Williams] But that wasn't the only style that Williams could do -- he made gospel records, heartbreaking ballads, and uptempo dance music, and he was good at all of it. He wrote a catalogue of songs that still gets covered -- a lot -- to this day, and he was popular enough that his name has given his son and grandson successful careers in the country music world, though neither of them has one millionth his talent. And like Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams' appeal crossed racial boundaries. Johnny Otis used to tell a story about his tour bus stopping at a truck stop somewhere in the middle of the US, and getting out and seeing Williams there. Otis was a fan of Williams, and struck up a conversation, introducing him to Little Esther -- and it turned out that Hank was a Johnny Otis fan. They all chatted and got back on the bus, and it drove off. Little Esther's mother asked Esther who she'd been speaking to, and she said "Just some cowboy", but when Otis said it was Hank Williams, Esther's mother screamed "you turn this bus round right now!" -- she was a fan and she desperately wanted to meet him. Fats Domino, too, was a fan of Hank Williams, and so were many other rhythm and blues musicians. Williams was listening to rhythm and blues, and rhythm and blues musicians were listening to him. Don't let the cowboy hat fool you. EVERYONE was listening to Hank Williams, except for the pop audience -- and even they were listening to WIlliams' songs when, for example, Tony Bennett recorded them: [excerpt: Tony Bennett "Cold Cold Heart"] At the time we're talking about his career was on the way down. He was twenty-eight years old, but he was often in agony with back pain, and he was drinking too much and taking too many pills to numb the pain. He was getting divorced from his first wife, who was also his manager, and he was missing so many shows due to alcoholism that he was about to get fired from the Grand Ole Opry, the popular country radio show which was responsible more than anything else for making him a star. His life was, frankly, in a mess. But he was still the most popular singer in country and western music, and he was still making great records -- and one of the records he made, in June 1952, was a song he probably co-wrote with Moon Mullican, called "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" I say "probably", because no-one knows for sure, but it seems likely that Mullican co-wrote it, but wasn't given songwriting credit because he was contracted to a different publisher than Williams. Mullican recorded his own version of the song the same month, and Mullican's version had slightly different lyrics. Let's take a listen to Mullican's version -- the less successful of the two -- first. [excerpt "Jambalaya" by Moon Mullican] Now let's hear an extract from Hank Williams' version: [excerpt: "Jambalaya" by Hank Williams] As you can see, the two versions have a lot of basic similarities, but they both bear the unmistakeable stamp of their creators' sound on them. Mullican's has a far more hilbilly boogie or Cajun sound to it, while Williams has far more of a straight-ahead honkytonk country sound. But both tracks still have the same basic attraction to them -- this is a celebration of Cajun culture, and in particular a celebration of the way Cajun people celebrated -- their food, their music, and their dancing. "Jambalaya, crawfish pie and filet gumbo", "pick guitar, fill fruit jar, we're gonna be gay-o". And this is at a time when Cajun people were, as far as the wider audience was concerned, about the lowest of the low if they were thought of at all. There's a defiance to the song that may not be audible to modern listeners, but is definitely there. The guitar player on Williams' record, incidentally, is the great Chet Atkins. Like Hank, he was far more influential in country music than in rock and roll -- though he always denied that he was a country guitarist, saying rather that he was "a guitarist, period" -- but he was one of the great guitarists of all time, and also produced a handful of early rock and roll classics. But again, for now, just note that the session guitar player there is probably the most influential country guitarist ever. But what we can see from both versions of "Jambalaya" is that there was an appetite in country music for a kind of music that was rather broader than the styles that the major labels were interested in. If you just looked at the history of Nashville pop-country, you'd think that country music was as bland and whitebread as the crooners who were dominating popular music at the time, but country music was a stranger, and more eclectic, music than the media impression of it would have you think. It was a music that had as much to do with the blues as rhythm and blues did, and which had an audience that was far happier with experiment and new ideas than you might think. In the 1950s, this tendency in country music would lead to a number of subgenres of its own, many of which would be major influences on rock and roll. There was bluegrass, which started in the late forties and which we'll be talking about a lot later, and there was rockabilly, as well as country music sounds which never had much influence on rock and roll but which had much of the same energy, like the Bakersfield sound. But "Jambalaya" is a record which had the same kind of crossover appeal as "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" had in the opposite direction. Like the stew from which it takes its name, it takes elements from a variety of different areas and throws them together, creating something that had a much greater appeal than you might imagine. “Jambalaya" would go on to be a staple of early rock and roll music -- it was especially loved by musicians from Louisiana, like Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis, both of whom made great piano-driven records of the song. Williams is remembered now as a country musician, but that's largely because he died before the rock and roll craze -- had he lived, it's entirely possible we'd now be thinking of him as a rockabilly star. [excerpts: "Jambalaya" by Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis -- short excerpts back to back] Sadly, Hank Williams would not live to see the immense influence he was having on a generation of young musicians who would go on to revolutionise not only country music, but also rock and roll. Barely six months after recording "Jambalaya" he was dead. His back pain had led him to drink even more heavily, he'd developed even more of a dependency on pills, he'd developed a reputation for unreliability and missing shows -- he was a mess. And on New Year's Eve, 1952, while he was being driven from Tennessee to Ohio, for a show he had to play on New Year's Day, he fell asleep in the back of the car and never woke up. When his death was announced at the show he'd been driving to, the audience laughed at first – they thought it was just another excuse for him not turning up. His last single, released a month earlier, was titled "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive". He was twenty-nine years old.  

In this week's podcast edition of Community Quotes, we sit down with Allen Simon. Allen talks about his upbringing in a traditional Cajun French home, his challenges in school, his military experience abroad, treating and healing the infirmed with the gift of his spiritually and much more...

The "Duhon" in Andrew Duhon is pronounced doo hon in New Orleans and just a few miles west in Erath, Acadiana, where Andrew s family is from, it s pronounced doo yong. We ll come back to this Cajun French issue in a minute, but meanwhile Mr Duhon is just back from The Holy Land with tales of the Messiah returning, though whether it s Jesus the Christian Messiah or some other Messiah predicted by the Jews, is a little indistinct. Regardless of the savior confusion, Andrew tries out a beautiful new song that he just finished writing mere minutes earlier, about fear. As promised, back to Cajun French. Charlie Wooton grew up in Lafayette and didn t realize till he moved to Los Angeles as a bass player in his 20 s that he relied on Cajun French phrases sprinkled into conversation. One of those phrases was "Gardez Donc " That didn t mean much to LA musicians but to Cajun musicians means, "Look at that." You can learn a lot from hanging out with Charlie. If you re a bass player you can learn that he s in the same league as legends like Jaco Pastorius. It s an amazing treat to watch and listen to him play you can watch video of this show here https www.facebook.com neworleanspodcasts videos 316563699114891 and a double treat to hear him play with the extraordinary Arsene DeLay Cecelia Fernandes can trace her New Orleans roots back 8 generations to both black and white folks. If you want to trace your New Orleans family, according to Cecelia there s a better method than Ancestry.com. It s a guy called Gregory and you can go to the public library and ask for him. This Gregory guy might know a bit about ancestry but the one thing he doesn t know, probably, is how to get Americans off of opioids. Cecelia has strong thoughts on that subject, that include suing drug companies, and one time Judge Graham Bosworth has a few ideas too, born of his personal exoperience with soccer moms who have ended up in jail. Graham was only a judge for a short time after he was appointed to fill a seat that he lost the race for when the real judge who was constitutionally barred from running ran anyway, and won. Then he got kicked off of the bench and that s when Graham got pressed into service. Graham is planning on running again so make sure you follow him on the Twitter account he didn t know he had bosworth4Judge Photos at Wayfare by Jill Lafleur. Oh, and btw, you can get the Gardez Donc T shirt here.

Welcome to Confetti Park, a place where you can listen to kids music and hear stories, poems, jumprope jingles, and learn about the culture of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta. I’m Katy Hobgood Ray, your host.  In New Orleans we are celebrating our 300th birthday this year. New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Bienville, and the city and Louisiana are known for having unique mix of cultural influences: French, Spanish, African, German, Native America, and many other peoples … that is why we have such unique food and music. This is a music medley of songs featured on the show this week. Give Me A Squeeze Please - Buckwheat Zydeco Joke of the Day - 7-8-9 Swamp Stomp - Angela Mannino Whistle While You Work - Louis Armstrong Twinkle Twinkle - Ayana of the Renzi Center Sharing - a poem by Marcus Page Fingers Under the Door - Vivi Melody Hide and Seek - Jazzy Ash L.O.S.T. - Imagination Movers Je Veux Marier - Magnolia Sisters This episode of Confetti Park begins with a song by Buckwheat Zydeco, a famous zydeco musician. Zydeco is a kind of music that was created in Louisiana, by Cajun French, African and Native American people blending all their sounds. Buck is going to tell us all about a very important instrument of zydeco music….. the accordion. Then we hear from Angela Mannino with "Swamp Stomp"…. Angela is a New orleans Native who now lives in NY where she is a renowned soprano opera singer… we are lucky to have her singing several great Louisiana kids songs on this album. We also hear famous jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, performing a song from Disney’s Snow White…. You might remember seven dwarves singing this… "Whistle While You Work." Ayana, a student at the Shreveport based Renzi Center, and New Orleans poet Marcus Page share their poems, and then we hear a little run of hide and seek songs, beginning with NOLA native Vivi Melody. The Imagination Movers are perhaps Louisiana’s most famous kids music band. Jazzy Ash, who is terrific fun, lives in Los Angeles but spent her childhood summers on the West bank of New Orleans. She plays Dixieland style kids music. We end with the Magnolia Sisters, a Cajun band from Lafayette Louisiana. "Je Veux Marier," which translates to“I want to marry,” is a fun song to dance to at a Cajun wedding. Also in this episode of Confetti Park is the storytime feature Louis Lion, When It Gets Dark I May Start Cryin, by Cindy Foust of Monroe, Louisiana. Cindy has a whole Alpha-kidZ children's book series. Each letter of the alphabet gets a feature story and a feature creature who has an adventure… and learns a valuable lesson. You can listen to all the stories you hear on this radio show on our free Confetti Park podcast. The Confetti Park radio show and podcast is supported by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and Music Rising at Tulane University. Thanks for listening. Remember to look for the magic in every day!

This week, distinguished traditional Louisiana Cajun music connoisseurs The Savoy Family Cajun Band recorded live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. Also, interviews with renowned fiddler Joel Savoy. Mark Jones offers an archival recording of Ozark originals Ervin & Lily Freeze performing the song “Let Those Brown Eyes Smile at Me.” Author, folklorist, and songwriter Charley Sandage presents a portrait of Blanchard Springs National Park, featuring an interview with long time U.S. Forest Service visitor information specialist Tony Guinn. The Savoy Family Cajun Band consists of father Marc, mother Ann, and brothers Joel & Wilson Savoy. Marc Savoy was born and raised in the small Cajun prairie town of Eunice, Louisiana. Drawing inspiration from 'bals de maison' (house dances) in his father's outdoor kitchen, Savoy obtained his first accordion and began playing it at the age of 12. Playing the instrument led to repairing it and after disassembling enough accordions he began to build them. Playing the accordion has always been a natural part of his life from the dancehall to the home. The musicians with whom he has played Cajun music read like a who’s who of the finest in Cajun music, from the Balfa Brothers, DL Menard, Doc Guidry to early fiddle masters Dennis McGee and Wade Fruge. Ann Allen Savoy is a musician, photographer, record producer, and writer.  Her destiny was sealed when she began to listen to rare collections of Cajun 78’s. She met her future husband, acclaimed accordion builder/musician Marc Savoy, and after their marriage she began documenting the Cajun culture, taking photographs, interviewing important musicians, and transcribing the Cajun French songs. Her documentation ultimately became a book, Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People Volume 1, which won the prestigious Botkin book award from the American Folklore Society. An avid photographer since high school, her photos have been exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and at the Festival of American Music in Eugene, Oregon. Joel Savoy is one of the most requested fiddlers in SW Louisiana today. Joel grew up in Eunice, Louisiana, literally at the feet of Cajun heros like Dennis McGee, Dewey Balfa, Michael Doucet, and Wade Frugé. In 2006 Joel founded Valcour Records. He’s worked and played with Linda Ronstadt,T-Bone Burnett, Steve Buckingham, Allison Krauss, Linda Ronstadt, Steve Miller, Tim O’Brien, Darol Angor and many more. Joel also builds accordions with his father, makes electric guitars and hi-end tube amps and studio gear, and is an excellent recording engineer. Wilson Savoy, the youngest son of Marc and Ann, has made music since before he could walk. He began playing boogie-woogie and blues piano, inspired by Louisiana native Jerry Lee Lewis, at the age of 10. Wilson took up the accordion after graduating from high school. His major influences are his father, Amede Ardoin, and Iry Lejeune. Besides being a musician he is an avid filmmaker, and has produced films of many of the finest bands in SW Louisiana. (www.almenafilms.com) When he isn’t making and producing music videos and short biographies he is traveling with his three times Grammy nominated dynamic young band, the Pine Leaf Boys. - http://www.savoyfamilycajunband.com/index.html In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers an archival recording of Ozark originals Ervin & Lily Freeze performing the song “Let Those Brown Eyes Smile at Me,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives. Author, folklorist, and songwriter Charley Sandage presents an historical portrait of the people, events, and indomitable spirit of Ozark culture that resulted in the creation of the Ozark Folk Center State Park and its enduring legacy of music and craft. This episode brings us a portrait of Blanchard Springs National Park, featuring an interview with long time U.S. Forest Service visitor information specialist Tony Guinn.

Alexis Marceaux, frontwoman of New Orleans band Sweet Crude (and voice to our theme song) sits down with Liz for our first episode of 2018. We talk about Alexis' stint on The Voice, the birth of Sweet Crude and mixing Cajun French music with hip hop. "We had this lightbulb pop on– We have to make a band where we preserve this amazing culture and music, but let's do it in our own way." Click here to listen to Sweet Crude Parlez-Nous à Boire (Cajun French version) Parlez-Nous à Boire (Sweet Crude version) http://sweetcrudeband.com/  https://www.lionheartprints.com/   

Welcome back faithful listeners! It's good to be back online. We took a brief hiatus re-tool the show a bit, and we are extremely excited to bring to you Season 2 of A Round with Steve and Cole! On this week's episode, we get a chance to chat with Skylar Stroup and Stephen MacDonald, two members of one of our favorite New Orleans bands: Sweet Crude. Composed exclusively of longtime Twelve Mile Limit regulars, Sweet Crude has found success bringing upbeat, culturally conscious music to the masses. Sweet Crude is dedicatied to the preservation of Cajun French through their lyrics, which are in both English and French. Skylar and Stephen are not only rockstars, but childhood friends from Mandeville who now work at the same company, iSeatz. Their employers are survivors of the bursting tech bubble of the late 90's and now a pillar in New Orleans tech industry, or "Silicon Bayou". This episode was recorded at a time when both Stephen and Skylar could not be on the road with their band due to work and personal responsibilities. Balancing passion and responsibility is something that I think all of us strive for, and it's great to get perspective on how to manage this from two highly talented individuals. Anywho, it's great to be back. Enjoy the conversation and the music and let us know what you think? Cheers! Steve 

The legendary Scottish poet Robbie Burns wrote, in old Scots Brogue, "The best laid schemes o mice n men, gang aft a gley." The Scots brogue was the British equivalent of Cajun French. In English we ve translated it as, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Burns frequently wrote about innocent country creatures. Especially the way their lives can be impacted by the forces of our world without them even being aware of our existence. By extension, Burns was talking about us. How we, like the innocent creatures of the countryside, go about our lives with the best of intentions but somehow and we don t necessarily know why things just don t turn out how we planned. When that happens in business we ve invented an upbeat word for it. Pivot. For example, if you re selling widgets to companies that dig oil wells and the oil business collapses, you might want to pivot and figure out a way to sell those widgets to companies that dig swimming pools. That kind of pivot is pretty straight forward. Aileen s guests on today s show are dealing with pivoting businesses in ways in which there are no simple answers. No well worn paths to tread. And very little wisdom to follow. Tyler Woerner started his company in 2007. He called it Pixelbrush. It was a website company that designed, built and maintained websites. By 2016, Tyler had learned that he had actually started, and was trying to run, three companies. It turns out that website design, website building, and website maintenance are three very different businesses. And when you get successful, they require three very different types of people to run them. So Tyler pivoted. Now Pixelbrush is three different companies. Daysite. Eight Hats. And a new alignment with an existing company, Bizzuka. Christiaan Mader is a talented Lafayette based writer and journalist. You ve probably read Christiaan s work in IND Magazine and in A Biz. 2017 had already been a big year for Christiaan. He won the Louisiana Press Association s Freedom of Information Award the highest prize that the association confers and he was named Managing Editor of a new magazine called The Current. Then, later in 2017, the company that owned IND magazine, Abiz, and The Current went out of business. Leaving Christiaan more or less pivoting in the wind. Being a print journalist in the 21st Century is not for the faint of heart. Photos at Cafe Vermilionville by Gwen Aucoin. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Confetti Park Storytime! In this episode, author Carrie Delatte narrates her children’s book Coming Up Cajun, which is based on the true tales of two little boys growing up in the heart of Cajun Country. Full of nature, this sweet tale told in rhyming verse captures some of the wholesome outdoor activities, daily chores, and good times of Carrie’s own children. “From the green of the land, to the blues of the bayous, they made the best of their time in the splendour of a Southern youth,” says Carrie. The story is educational for how it captures all the activities that are part of daily life for kids growing up in the country, such as gathering eggs, trapping, fishing, hunting, loading bales of hay, tending livestock, paddling in their pirogues.... In addition, Coming Up Cajun is chock full of Cajun French vocabulary, and Carrie includes a handy glossary for readers’ benefit. Born and raised in quaint Gheens, Louisiana, Carrie Delatte is the proud mother of four young children. She was brought up on a small farm off of Central Bayou Lafourche, and she enjoys southern living and the beauty of nature. Carrie was diagnosed at the age of seven with the neurological disorder known as Tourette’s Syndrome. Carrie has vowed to donate 10% of proceeds from each title she releases to the Tourette’s Association of America (formerly called the National Tourette’s Syndrome Association) to further assist in the search for a cure, research and educational purposes. Her one outlet from the daily life of a “ticcer” is her writing. Thank you so much, Carrie, for sharing your stories with Confetti Park!  

Louisiana author Carrie Delatte shares from vocabulary words from her children's book Coming Up Cajun.

Black Sheep Boy (Rare Bird Books) Meet a wild-hearted boy from the bayou land of Louisiana. Misfit, outcast, loner. Call him anything but a victim. Sissy, fairy, Jenny Woman. Son of a mixed-race Holy Ghost mother and a Cajun French phantom father. In a series of tender and tough stories, he encounters gender outlaws, drag queen renegades, and a rogues gallery of sex-starved priests, perverted teachers, and murderous bar owners. To escape his haunted history, the wild-hearted boy must shed his old skin and make a new self. As he does, his story rises from dark and murk, from moss and mud, to reach a new light and a new brand of fairy tale. Cajun legends, queer fantasies, and universal myths converge into a powerful work of counter-realism. Black Sheep Boy is a song of passion and a novel of defiance. Praise for Black Sheep Boy “Beautifully impressionistic, and also raw, open and vulnerable. Pousson’s bayou is such a frightening and vibrant place, generous and punishing, and the narrator’s perspective pulls us in, and brings the reader close.”—Aimee Bender, author of The Color Master and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake "Electrical, convulsive, hallucinatory, elemental... A book to give you fevers, chills, and visions."—Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day Praise for No Place, Louisiana finalist for the John Gardner Book Award in Fiction “Setting out to capture the modern South, the first-time novelist confidently eschews the style of a Faulkner or the charm of a McCullers to evoke the prejudices and limitations of Cajun culture in its unique, enriching and destructive complexity.”—Publishers Weekly “No Place, Louisiana is the Southern answer to The Ice Storm; from its sultry pages there emerges a chilling portrait of a family in the midst of a very deep freeze.”—The Los Angeles Times “Powerful and empathetic...A beautiful ode to the lonely and unloved.”—New Orleans Times-Picayune  “Pousson has written a strong, confident novel... many veteran authors have yet to write a novel of this depth.”—BookReporter.com “A remarkably sure-footed and rich first novel, admirable not only for the clarity of its voice and the fluidity of its style but for the coherence of its vision; its dramatic family saga, gradually unfolding in a deftly integrated Cajun universe, reveals the narrator to be a complex and acrobatic survivor. Pousson brings remarkable insight and literary power to the landscape of the American novel.” —Lis Harris, author of Rules of Engagement Praise for Sugar finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Awards for Poetry “With Sugar, Martin Pousson returns to the territory that activated his novel, No Place, Louisiana, recharging that fertile ground with a shift from prose to poetry. The result is a series of compressed observations, by turns satiric and heartbreaking, languorous, outraged, and tender.” —Dave King, author of The Ha-Ha “Here is the poet Louisiana has always wanted. Gulf Coast heat turns into huge trees and lush flora, which then turn into sex and dramatic dialogue. Desire so metamorphic inevitably slides toward hallucination. To convey experience at the edge, Martin Pousson has invented a new poetics that takes from the earlier art only its intense imagery and verbal economy. The few dozen pages of Sugar bring a tragic and sensuous bayou mindscape unforgettably to life.” —Alfred Corn, author of Stake and Contradictions “...his sugar ain’t sweet, it’s scorched.” —Jake Shears, Scissor Sisters Martin Pousson was born and raised in the bayou land of Louisiana. His short stories won a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and have appeared in The Antioch Review, Epoch, Five Points, StoryQuarterly, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. He also was a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award, the Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. He now lives in Los Angeles.

With a Cajun French name like Sophie Lafayette, you might be surprised that not only is Sophie not French, or Cajun, she lives in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. What is even more intriguing is that Sophie is an avid New Orleans lover and regular Happy Hour listener, but has never been to New Orleans. On this show we talk to Sophie in Dar es Salaam and with the power vested in us by a collective 9 cocktails appoint her New Orleans ambassador to East Africa. Normally, the invesitiure of an international ambassador with her duties would be the high point of a show, but on this Happy Hour it shares the limelight with the life and death story of singer, comedian, intellectual, P H Fred. Mere hours before the show, an MRI turned up a See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What Is Special About Jessica It seems to me Yoga choose Jessica rather than the other way around. She had a great job in Paris in IT, she travelled all the time, and she was making money. But a workshop with David Swenson and meeting Pattabhi Jois in London between 2000 and 2002 changed everything. She could not believe how people would show up early in the morning to "sweat together", and practice this dynamic form of hatha yoga. And she liked it. So she started practicing and traveling to Mysore and meeting people and ... She  joined Yoga Thailand in its early stages as a teacher and by invitation! and met Tiwari who is one of the most serious and advanced practitioners of pranayama in the world today. That, meeting Tiwari, is something I envy her for (in a good way of course) because she got to study under direct supervision from him... they still talk on the phone. What We talked About Jessica's life in the corporate world, working for IT and traveling most of the time How she started getting into yoga slowly Her workshop with David Swenson clarifies things for her Her visit to London to take Pattabhi Jois's tour classes India An Invitation to Teach and "take over for a few months" Yoga Thailand!!! I mean. Wow. Her yoga sabbatical, and did she fear running out of money? What is it like to learn directly from Pranayama World Authority Tiwari? Opening her own studio in 2008 in New Orleans Getting married and having a baby The delivery story - It was painful but not as crazy as some videos women get to watch... How the studio is doing today What took Jessica a long time to understand. Books Jessica Recommends on The Podcast Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution (Your Ayurvedic Constitution Revised Enlarged Second Edition) Paperback - by Dr. Robert Svoboda Prakriti It means "nature" in Sanskrit. Dr. Svoboda, says Jessica, is a great writer, very entertaining, very clear and practical.  He is a teacher and a yogi. Ayurveda The Science Of Self Healing by Vasan Lad.  Jessica says this one is for those of us interested in learning more about the pulse, and a good introduction. Ayurvedic Nutrition - By Atreya Smith, one of Jessica's teacher. This book is  clear on diet and the benefits of it. ANOTHER BOOK WE MENTION IN THE PODCAST: The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People by Dan Buettner (Here is the interview James did with Buettner on living to 100) About Jessica Her Studio in New Orleans Her book: Yoga Thailand's Healthy Lifestyle Cooking  I've tried recipes from this book for the past five years, in between visits to Ko Samui, and they are delicious and packed with nutrition. A Meal Plan to eat healthy she is offering for free Twitter Facebook Instragram Youtube Samahita Retreat - or Yoga Thailand Transcript Claudia A. Altucher:   Hello and welcome to the Yoga Podcast. Today I have for my guest Jessica Blanchard. She is the founder of Balance Yoga and Wellness in New Orleans. She is a trained yogi for years, authorized by Pattabhi Jois in the Ashtanga yoga tradition. She has also studied at Yoga Thailand under Paul and Jutima Dallaghan, and also Master Tiwari, one of the most authoritative authorities in Pranayama in the world. And Jessica has an interest in Ayurveda. She is a member of NAMA, the national organization which governs and protects Ayurveda here in the United States, and she studied at the European Institute of Vedic Studies and Ayurveda as well. She's a co-author of Yoga Thailand's Healthy Lifestyle cookbook, which is in Amazon, and Jessica had the life I think I wish I had when I was in the corporate world. Jessica, welcome to the Yoga Podcast. Jessica Blanchard:      [Laughter] Thank you, Claudia. Claudia A. Altucher:   It's great to have you. So I want to ask you – I'm insanely curious. You started practicing around '99, 2000 – is that so? Jessica Blanchard:      That's right, yeah. Claudia A. Altucher:   And you had a job. Jessica Blanchard:      Oh, yeah, yeah. I worked at Accenture, which is a big consulting firm, multinational. And at that time I was based in Europe Claudia A. Altucher:   Where in Europe? Jessica Blanchard:      Well, in southern France. Officially my base was called Sophia Antipolis, which is close to Nice, so – but I was traveling a lot because most of the clients were in other places. It was kind of a pan-European office, so I would travel to, say, Dublin, Ireland – that's actually where I was when I first started Ashtanga yoga, and… Claudia A. Altucher:   Uh-huh. So do you speak French? Jessica Blanchard:      Yes, I do. Claudia A. Altucher:   So were you born in France, or – Jessica Blanchard:      No, no, I was born in Louisiana, and there's a strong connection between South Louisiana and France 'cause it was originally settled by the French. So I always had a fascination with France. My grandmother spoke French; she spoke Cajun French. Claudia A. Altucher:   Oh. Jessica Blanchard:      Yeah, but I learned it in school, maybe starting when I was 13, and I did spend some time over in France when I was in university, in eastern France, in Noce, which is a small place not too many people go to, but it was great because I learned to speak really well 'cause there weren't too many foreigners. I made very good friends there. Claudia A. Altucher:   That's great. But let me ask you – so did you live in Paris with your job because you were living there, or did they hire you, or how did that happen? Jessica Blanchard:      That happened – they hired me in New York, and – Claudia A. Altucher:   I see, and you spoke French. And your job was IT, right – IT related? Jessica Blanchard:      Yes, it was. It was very different, and I really didn't know what I was getting into when I started. I was a sociology and French major, in a small school outside of Philadelphia, an all-women's college. And I managed to do well in the interviews – I don't know how – 'cause I didn't – Claudia A. Altucher:   That's great. Jessica Blanchard:      Yeah, and I – Claudia A. Altucher:   But you know, the thing is, I also had a job in IT, so I remember reading your bio – it must've been 2006 or so – and going, “Oh, my God, she is like what I want to do.” It's amazing. I mean, I think you were in Dublin one day and you take a workshop with – well, tell us. Who did you take a workshop with? Jessica Blanchard:      Well, this was actually – first it was just a yoga teacher. I am having trouble remembering her name, 'cause she doesn't teach Ashtanga anymore. But my first Ashtanga classes were with her – her name was Paula; that's right – and then soon after that I took a workshop with David Swenson. He was probably one of the first – the first ever yoga workshop I took, and that was in early 2000, I think January of 2000. I still remember it was very cold and dark – Claudia A. Altucher:   Yeah. Jessica Blanchard:      ______ Dublin, and it was ______ gym. But there were all these people. I was surprised because it didn't seem like many people did yoga. There were no yoga studios. All of the classes were in very cold church halls or gyms. We would push the equipment out of the way. The first time I met Paul was at this very funny gym; there was carpet on the floor and he was traveling and teaching there. But – Claudia A. Altucher:   And David Swenson is like a huge – is like – within the Ashtanga yoga world, probably everyone has seen his book because he teaches both the primary and the intermediate series in that book with modifications. So for those of us who can't get into the pretzel, he has sort of like side images so that you feel like, okay, yeah, I can do this, and it's very reassuring. Jessica Blanchard:      Yes, and he's a very – yeah, he makes yoga very accessible, so it's been – yeah – nice. Claudia A. Altucher:   And something happened to you there, like you caught the Ashtanga bug. You liked it Jessica Blanchard:      I loved it. I really did. I can't exactly say why. I think it's a constellation of factors about it: the moving, the breath, the fact that it does require – because it's physical, you concentrate. It requires concentration. And there was less talk and fluffiness and I think – Claudia A. Altucher:   Yes. [Laughter] Jessica Blanchard:      And it's interesting 'cause in Europe I feel like yoga was less fluffy than it is in the US since – you know, now I moved back in 2007, but Ashtanga – to me it seems like it's a little more popular in Europe than it is here in the US. 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You might think naming a restaurant after a ditch is maybe sending the wrong message about the standard or even type of food you d expect to get there. But when the ditch is "Trenasse" the Cajun French word for a cut through in the bayou and the location is the tony Intercontinental Hotel on St Charles Avenue in New Orleans, it all starts to make sense. Chef Jean Pierre Guidry has a prestigious name in American kitchens, having worked this way through both the CIA and the culinary college of real world restaurants in France and the US, including a long stint alongside Chef Daniel Boulud in New York. When Chef JP heard Lafayette native, Commander s Palace among others alumn, and Florida s famed Stinky s Fish Camp owner Chef Jim Richard was opening a New Orleans restaurant that was Cajun inspired, based on the principle "simple things done right," JP was in, shrimp boots n all. Patrick James is as excited and passionate about Trenasse as Jean Pierre, which is probably just as well seeing he s the restaurant s General Manager. Patrick comes from an extensive New Orleans restaurant background that includes Palace Cafe and Red Fish Grill. When you hear these guys describe something as simple as gumbo or their re imagined poboy it s like you re hearing about these foods for the first time. This episode of Midnight Menu 1 was recorded at the NOLA Brewing Tap Room.

[This episode first aired February 27, 2010.]What's in a pet's name? Martha and Grant swap stories about how they came up with names for their dogs. Also this week: Have you ever been called a "stump-jumper"? How about a snicklefritz? And what's the last word in the dictionary? Depending on which dictionary you consult, it might be "zythum," "zyzzyva," "zyxomma," or "zyxt."Sometimes the process of naming a pet takes a while. The hosts talk about how their dogs' names evolved.A native Japanese speaker is mystified by the expression "happy as a clam." In Japanese, she says, if you had a good night's sleep you might say you "slept like a clam" or "slept like mud." So why do English speakers think clams are content? What's the very last word in the dictionary? Depending on which dictionary you're using, you may see "zythum," "zyzzyva," "zyxomma," or "zyxt."This week's word puzzle from Quiz Guy Greg Pliska involves taking a word, adding an "i" to the beginning, as if creating an Apple product, to get an entirely new word. For instance: "This is how Steve Jobs begins a card game."A caller from Princeton, Texas, remembers that after a satisfying meal, her late father used to push back from the table and say, "I am sufficiently suffonsified. Anything more would be purely obnoxious to my taste. No thank you." What heck did he mean by that?A Vermonter says he's sometimes called a "stump-jumper." Should he be flattered or insulted?Martha shares a couple of "Tom Swifties," those funny sentences that make great punny use of adverbs, like "'My bicycle wheel is damaged,' Tom said outspokenly."Why do we say that someone who's happy is in "hog heaven"?Martha tells the story behind the term "Tom Swifty." Grant shares some more funny examples from the "A Way with Words" discussion forum http://www.waywordradio.org/discussion/episodes-1/a-whole-nother-full-episode/."Gradoo" is a word for something undesirable, the kind of thing you'd rather scrape off your shoe. A man who grew up in Louisiana wonders about the term, which he heard from both English and Cajun French speakers. Someone who says, "I'll be there directly," may not necessarily get there right away. How did the meaning of "directly" change in some parts of the country to mean "by and by"?"You little 'snickelfritz'!" An Indiana man says his mother used to call him that when she meant "You little rascal!" Although the term's meaning has changed over time, its original meaning was a bit naughty.--A Way with Words is supported by its listeners. Drop a few bucks in the guitar case: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone:United States an Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Site: http://waywordradio.org/Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donate/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradioCopyright 2010, Wayword Inc.

[This episode first aired December 12, 2009.]This week, it's headlines that make you do a doubletake, like "Child's Stool Great for Use in Garden." Martha and Grant discuss a few of these bloopers, also known as "crash blossoms." Also, if you "unthaw" something, are you freezing it or unfreezing it? Do hotcakes really sell that fast? What's the likelihood of getting people to use a new gender-neutral pronoun? And Grant shares the story behind the term "knucklehead."Some call them "crash blossoms", those funny turns of phrase that copy editors may or may not intend, like "Milk Drinkers Turn To Powder." More about crash blossoms in this article in "Good" by Mark Peters http://www.good.is/post/confusion-caused-by-crash-blossoms/.Where'd we get the expression they're "selling like hotcakes"?A Pensacola man says he's invented a gender-neutral pronoun, and wants to know how to popularize it. He's not the first to try, as shown by linguist Dennis Baron's chronology of failed attempts to create and popularize epicene pronouns.http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htmIf a recipe calls for "unthawed" corn, is that corn supposed to be frozen or unfrozen?Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a quiz called "Scronsonants." The object is to guess two-word phrases containing a pair of words starting with the same three consonants. Here's one: "I get a particular joy from the pain of others, but I had to learn how to do it. So I attended ___________."A Texas listener says her infant daughter is soothed by white noise. She's curious as to why it's called white noise instead of gray noise."You "knucklehead"!" Where'd we get an epithet like that? Grant tells the story about the wartime cartoon that helped popularize the term. Check out the adventures of R.F. Knucklehead in "LIFE" magazine.http://tinyurl.com/yd4zoouMore about cartoons used for war-time education:http://tinyurl.com/yed49ohGrant shares more "crash blossoms."A Southern California woman says she was caught up short when she enthused, "It's the bomb," and a 12-year-old had no idea what she was saying. Does our slang need to change as we grow older? Why do we say "the bomb"?In an earlier episode, the hosts talked about the slang term "bobo", meaning "stupid" or "inferior." Many listeners wrote in to discuss about their own use of bobo and its variants, and to point out that bobos also refers to a kind of cheap canvas shoes. Grant reports on some of their emails.http://www.waywordradio.org/zig-zag-and-shilly-shally/How should you pronounce the word "jewelry"? That prompts a conversation about the transposition of letters and sounds called metathesis--not only in jewelry, but many others including realtor, foliage, larynx, and introduce.Here's a handy word: "fomite." It means "an inanimate object that can transmit an infectious agent" like a doorknob handle or a comb infested with head lice. It also has a picturesque Latin origin. Martha explains, and shares a related word: "Dracula sneeze."If you have a word lover on your gift list, Martha and Grant have book recommendations for you. For adults, Martha recommends linguist Geoffrey Nunberg's collection of essays, "The Years of Living Dangerously" http://www.amazon.com/Years-Talking-Dangerously-Geoff-Nunberg/dp/1586487450/.For kids, Grant's been enjoying David Shannon's work, which includes, "Good Boy Fergus", "No, David," "David Smells," and "David gets in Trouble" http://www.amazon.com/No-David-Shannon/dp/0590930028http://www.amazon.com/David-Smells-Diaper-Book/dp/0439691389/http://www.amazon.com/Good-Boy-Fergus-David-Shannon/dp/0439490278/http://www.amazon.com/David-Gets-Trouble-Shannon/dp/0439050227/A woman from Dallas wants to know about a verbal habit she grew up with in her Cajun French speaking Louisiana family. It's use of repetition for emphasis, as in, “it's hot, but it's not hot hot.” Grant explains how reduplications, or a repetition of a word or part of a word, appear in many languages, including Cajun French. For more, check out Albert Valdman's "French and Creole in Louisiana" http://www.amazon.com/French-Creole-Louisiana-Language-Linguistics/dp/0306454645Mary Ellen Scullen's paper "New Insights Into French Reduplication http://books.google.com/books?id=9TL2wG3TeGkC--A Way with Words is funded by its listeners: http://waywordradio.org/donateGet your language question answered on the air! Call or write with your questions at any time:Email: words@waywordradio.orgPhone: United States and Canada toll-free (877) WAY-WORD/(877) 929-9673London +44 20 7193 2113Mexico City +52 55 8421 9771Donate: http://waywordradio.org/donateSite: http://waywordradio.org/Podcast: http://waywordradio.org/podcast/Forums: http://waywordradio.org/discussion/Newsletter: http://waywordradio.org/newsletter/Twitter: http://twitter.com/wayword/Skype: skype://waywordradio Copyright 2010, Wayword LLC.