This year, the Grammys gave the first award for Best Cajun or Zydeco Album, the result of years of campaigning led by zydeco accordionist Terence Simien and his wife Cynthia. Simien’s Live! Worldwide was nominated, along with the Pine Leaf Boys’ Blues De Musicien, the Racines’ self-titled album, the Lost Bayou Ramblers’ Live A La Blue Moon, Roddie Romero & the Hub City All-Stars’ The La Louisianne Sessions, Geno Delafose’s Le Cowboy Creole, and Lisa Haley’s King Cake. Purists bristled at the Los Angeles-based Haley’s nomination. They felt her music was closer to Americana than Cajun, and she didn’t endear herself when she claimed that she legitimized the category by demonstrating the genre’s reach beyond Louisiana.
The night before the Grammys, the Lost Bayou Ramblers opened a Louisiana showcase with “Bosco Stomp”, demonstrating the unique cyclonic motion Cajun music can generate as the fiddle, accordion and bass chased and pulled each other through rhythmic/melodic patterns. The Ramblers are clearly immersed in the tradition, not just in song selection but in performance. Most songs are sung in French, and Louis Michot’s yowling vocal is as country as it gets. But they also have rock ‘n’ roll’s urgency: “Blue Moon Special” wasn’t simply danceable, it was a command to dance.
Simien was the biggest name on the bill, but from the start of the uplifting “Dance Everyday”, his set revealed an awkward irony: The Simiens were the last people to get purist about Cajun and zydeco. The song had a calypso steel drum part played on a keyboard, and with blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd sitting in, Simien closed with a medley of New Orleans Mardi Gras music. He did work in the zydeco chestnut “Uncle Bud” with Louisiana lieutenant governor Mitch Landrieu onstage to play rubboard, but the set recalled the Neville Brothers more than Clifton Chenier. Haley was reportedly in the house, and she had to feel vindicated.
Romero’s set was more obviously rooted in Louisiana than Simien’s, but it, too, lacked a doctrinaire adherence to genre principles. The band is akin to a south Louisiana jukebox, playing zydeco as well as swamp pop, and, on this night, classic New Orleans R&B. Pianist Eric Adcock took an impressive swing at Professor Longhair’s “Tipitina”.
The night raised a crucial question: Is the Cajun/Zydeco Grammy — which Simien won the following day — honoring an overlooked genre, or is it simply the biggest umbrella anyone could find to ensure at least one Louisiana Grammy each year? For the foreseeable future, it’s likely both.
