Coffee Talk With The Cajun Mamas: Steve Riley

Today, Steve Riley of the Mamou Playboys shares his journey from learning Cajun music at age three to becoming an internationally recognized accordion player and cultural ambassador for Cajun music and traditions.

https://cajunmamas.com/

YouTube:
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Sara
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Koa
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https://www.instagram.com/k_melancon/

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

All right, well, welcome to Coffee Talk with the Cajun Mamas Today. We have a special guest this morning.

Welcome Steve Riley, Cajun Legend

Speaker 2 0:06

My heart is a-flutterin' right now. I know, I know a-flutterin'. This is Mr Steve Riley. If y'all have never heard of him, he is a Cajun music extraordinaire.

Speaker 1 0:16

A legend I'm gonna say a legend right here, a legend Legendary. Steve Riley and the Mamu Playboys is his band and we're going to be talking to him today.

Speaker 2 0:26

Let's take a second and mention our grand sponsor for the month. It is Acadia Parish Cajun Harvest Country. You need to go ahead and go visit Acadia Tourism dot com and you can just plan your whole little visit to come and see everything we have around here. We got so much to eat y'all.

Speaker 1 0:42

The meat trail. I mean they have a place that you know. Go on the website. It's all laid out right there for you.

Speaker 2 0:48

You can go get some specialty meats at all these little locations and plan you. You know, get your little map and plan your trip. Um, they even have uh, what we just learned about is called the faith trail you can visit these historic churches that we have around here and historic cemeteries and even, like Charlene Richard's gravesite, like just go see. We have so much to see and do in Acadia Parish. You can plan a weekend or longer, you know, bring the family and there's so much to see.

Speaker 1 1:17

Really, really explore all we have to offer in our great parish.

Speaker 2 1:22

You can eat your way through, if that's your thing too. Oh I don't mind if I do. They got crawfish going on right now too.

Speaker 1 1:29

Bring me all the crawfish.

Acadia Parish Tourism Spotlight

Speaker 2 1:31

See where we got to get you some crawfish at All right. Acadiatourismcom. Thank you all so much for being the grand sponsor this month. Thank you all so much, all right.

Speaker 1 1:42

So, mr Steve Riley, have you ever been to the Frog Festival?

Speaker 4 1:45

Yes, I have.

Speaker 1 1:46

Have you played the Frog Festival?

Speaker 4 1:48

I have played the Frog Festival.

Speaker 1 1:50

All right, well, I guess. Okay, I have so many questions, I want to start with the beginning, because that's a very fine place to start. Why, where did you come up with Into music.

Speaker 2 2:02

How did you get into music?

Speaker 1 2:03

How did it all start?

Steve's Musical Origins

Speaker 4 2:04

well, I was born and raised in mamu and um you know, growing up there um fred's lounge happens every saturday morning and um my grandfather was involved in um the mardi gras run, um as an mc um and for the Cajun Festival, which happens every year. He was involved in that as well, and he would teach me how to sing Cajun songs and teach me how to speak French when I was really young.

Speaker 2 2:33

Yeah, I was going to ask how old were you when all this was going?

Speaker 4 2:36

down. Excuse me, I was about three years old.

Speaker 1 2:39

Oh wow, A perfect age to learn and just be a sponge, you know.

Speaker 4 2:43

Yeah, and I was going to think of it. My dad's family was from Eunice, and that side of the family includes the Savoies Mark Savoie, who builds accordions. And so I grew up hearing him play at my grandparents' home for house parties in Eunice.

Speaker 2 2:57

Oh my gosh, that was just a regular thing.

Speaker 4 2:59

Can you imagine, what a time?

Speaker 1 3:00

to be alive.

Speaker 4 3:02

Yeah, I really. You know when the pandemic happened. It's the first time I really had a chance to just stop and slow down and reflect on all the things on my, you know, and I think I was just raised at the right time and the right place you know to pick it up.

Speaker 2 3:17

Yeah.

Speaker 4 3:18

And I remember hearing Marc Savoie play accordion, sitting down about three years old, and I was completely captivated and you know, the power of that instrument just grabbed me and I've loved it ever since.

Speaker 1 3:32

It's such, it's so interesting. My daddy was big into Cajun music and stuff like that and he had a Mark Savoie and he would play. Look, and he'd play in his car. He'd drive us to school and he would be playing on the steering wheel, you know.

Speaker 3 3:49

And we grew up with him.

Speaker 1 3:50

Oh, his mind you know his mind, he couldn't stop. He would play and he didn't play a lot, but like my uncle did and they, I don't know, he was in bands and we just that's what we with. So, it's just so interesting to me and I kind of see that in a line with what you're saying, because it was such a big part of my childhood watching them grow up and do the same thing.

Speaker 4 4:15

Oh, that's so fun. So like, when did you start playing in a band?

Speaker 2 4:23

My grandfather died when I was seven, and with him my interest in the music and everything died.

Speaker 4 4:25

I was closer to him than I was to my parents.

Speaker 2 4:26

It just broke your heart to even think about it. It did.

Speaker 4 4:28

It did for many years until I found his record collection. When I was about 12 years old and I was going through and I found a record of the Balfour Brothers with Marc Savoie and I put my mother, I said I've got to play this music, this music, I love it and I want an accordion and all that stuff. So on my 13th birthday I got a cheap accordion and I had all these songs in my head that I learned to sing and I learned really quickly.

Speaker 4 5:00

I got those songs from my head down to the keyboard. I learned three songs. I bought the accordion at Mark's store and on the way back from his store to my home. It was about 15 minutes and I probably figured out three songs.

Speaker 2 5:14

That's a thing.

Speaker 4 5:14

So it was self-taught the playing, yeah back there there wasn't YouTube and Facebook and all that stuff, so the only way to learn was to listen and to go see the guys you love see them playing live and you had to have a photographic memory, because I would go watch Mark and I'd see what he was doing and I'd go home and try to emulate it.

Speaker 1 5:38

Wow, that is so interesting.

Speaker 4 5:41

So at 13, I got my first accordion. 14, I started playing in my first band. At 15, I met Dewey Balfa, started touring with him oh my gosh, and he was my hero. It was, like you know, playing with the Beatles.

Speaker 1 5:54

Yeah, I'm like my eyes are big. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 5:58

And so he. You know he was such a huge, not just musician, but such a great ambassador for our culture, the language, and to be raised.

Speaker 2 6:14

Playing with him was really a beautiful experience and let me just say I know these names don't mean a lot to some people watching, but y'all just need to know that these names he's saying are legends around here. Oh, absolutely, in the Cajun French music, in our culture, culture, these are big names, but y'all just need to know that these names he's saying are legends around?

Speaker 1 6:25

oh, absolutely, in the cajun french music in our culture culture these are big names. So we me and you we like okay, but listen, some people might not even realize. You know that this, this, that steve reilly and the mamu playboys, this is like that. That's big around here, yeah, especially, you know, for like the marty the marty girl song, for sure we're gonna have a talk about.

Speaker 2 6:46

We gotta talk about the mardi gras, for sure we, you want to take a second?

Building the Mamou Playboys

Speaker 2 6:51

yeah, let's take a second and let's talk about um, hold on a sec, gotta switch these pages out, okay. So, uh, gary mott hardware, let's talk about them. Yes, gary mott hardware, y'all. They are a hardware store right off of I-10 in Rain, also exit 87, on the Service Road. You may have heard this talked about before because our dear friend Hal, the Cajun lady accent. You can get all her products over there. She even actually works at Garry Mod Hardware. But this store specializes in cookware y'all.

Speaker 2 7:21

It's like a Cajun's bath and beyond absolutely take the bed bath stuff out, it's just the kitchen, the kitchen gadgets.

Speaker 1 7:29

It's the beyond. Yes, and that coffee pot, that little silver coffee pot that's behind koa, behind me over here, gary mod hardware the shiny one. That's where you can get that, and we always drop in links to that because people want to know where to get that old-fashioned drip coffee pot, and so there's that and so much more at GaryMott.

Speaker 2 7:50

Kitchen gadgets, cookware burners, a line of seasonings and stuff over there. You need to go. It's worth the trip, 290 Service Road in Rain, louisiana, and you can check them out at GaryMottHardwarecom. And that's Mott M-A-T-T-E, yeah.

Speaker 1 8:07

Not Matt, not Matt. All right, I'm all over the place because I'm just so excited.

Speaker 2 8:12

Okay, so we was at 14 or 15, and you was in your first band tour with Dewey Balfour. Go ahead.

Speaker 4 8:17

Balfour yeah.

Speaker 2 8:19

Balfour.

Speaker 4 8:20

In Mamou Boulevard. Oh really, yeah, that's how we pronounce it, but he would pronounce it Balfa.

Speaker 2 8:26

Balfa.

Speaker 4 8:28

And at 18, I started my own band, Mamou Playboys. It's been this year, we'll be. We're still together. It's where are we at? It's 37 years. Amazing, that's 37 years ago. So y'all can do the math. You'll know how old I am.

Speaker 2 8:43

I so y'all can do the math. You'll know how old I am. I don't add good in my head. I don't either. We're just going to move.

Speaker 1 8:47

But that's incredible.

Speaker 2 8:52

And so you've just been playing this whole time. That's your main gig. Yes, I went to college.

Speaker 4 8:56

I had an academic scholarship to LSU, went there for a little while, didn't care for it. But I loved playing music and it took off and I decided to stay out of school for a little while and concentrate on the music, and um never went back and see where it goes.

Speaker 2 9:12

And here it is. Yeah, here it is, that's amazing 37 years later.

Speaker 1 9:16

That's incredible. So like how many shows like what you got going on right now?

Speaker 4 9:21

well, you know, I um, I'm getting older, I've been doing it a long time, so I'm not out there just pounding, you know playing every weekend. Yeah, I do different things. Now I teach lessons online, accordion lessons.

Speaker 1 9:36

Oh, that's nice.

Teaching Accordion & Preserving Culture

Speaker 4 9:37

Yeah, I do it four times a year. There's a sign up. I usually get between 30 and 50 students. Amazing I just send them videos online. I have some interesting students. One is the drummer from Saturday Night Live Takes my accordion lesson.

Speaker 1 9:53

Really, this is so cool. That's so cool. Yeah, who even knows it's a thing? He's a closet-caging accordion.

Speaker 4 10:00

Closet-caging accordion. Hell yeah, that's so funny. He's a closet cage in accordion. Closet cage in accordion.

Speaker 2 10:03

That's so funny what can you offer?

Speaker 4 10:06

There's a guy in California who works with George Lucas who did Star? Wars.

Speaker 1 10:09

Yeah.

Speaker 4 10:10

He takes my lessons. That's so cool. Folks in Europe all around the United States, Louisiana. You know it works good. You can reach a lot of people online as you know, yes.

Speaker 1 10:21

Yeah, we know firsthand people are fascinated with our culture too yeah we have something to offer that not every culture you can't get from every culture, it's just not there, and I really feel like we have something special, you know yeah and um.

Speaker 4 10:36

That being said, I love watching you guys. Y'all are very entertaining. My daughter has a band. All my kids play music.

Speaker 2 10:43

My daughter has a band. It's in y'all blood.

Speaker 4 10:46

And so we were at rehearsal. I said, hey, y'all know the Cajun Mamas. And they were like I think I know who you're talking about Show me, and I showed them. And I said what y' you think? I said no, I think they are entertaining and they are just imitating what they know, what they were raised with what we were raised with.

Speaker 2 11:07

Yeah, that's exactly. And we want this culture to stay like, not to. We want this to just keep going, and that's part of your music lessons too, like that's one way that you're going to help this music keep going.

Speaker 1 11:22

Yeah, you got to teach it. Even whenever we're trying to learn, some people's like oh, y'all going to forget it right after, Y'all not going to use it, and it's like but if I'm not trying, then I'm doing nothing. What I'm supposed to do. You know how can I help carry it on if I'm not trying at all? So I mean, we're learning, we're doing our best and we're enjoying the process.

Speaker 4 11:44

I love y'all. It's so entertaining. It makes me smile every time I watch you. I'll tell you what. So, yeah, all my kids play. And you know, if you want your kids to learn how to speak French or whatever people say, how do you get all your kids to play music? I say well, if play music.

Speaker 2 12:02

I said, well, if they don't play, they don't eat. Oh, you see, they're going to have to learn to ask us for some food or something in French, or they're not getting it. That's true.

Speaker 1 12:08

But you know, I sit outside with my little children and I homeschool my kids. So I'm like, okay, this is that we opened up French as something we learned. So we just started this year. And I'm like, okay, listen, we're going to exchange. Every day I ask them the same question. And then we learned the colors the other day and I'm like I just started rattling off some things out of the book and I'm like, what do you think that means? And they start picking words.

Speaker 1 12:36

And they're like, well, you must be saying this, this and this. And I was like, yeah, that's great. It was just like it clicked in their head. Just from what I was teaching them that day, I mean, they're picking up pretty easy.

Speaker 3 12:50

Kids especially like their brain.

Speaker 2 12:51

they can.

Speaker 1 12:51

Now's the time we're trying to foster the culture and bring it back to and help in that in whatever way we can.

Speaker 4 12:58

I tell you this culture is still one of the strongest, richest cultures in the world. You know, I've been lucky. I've gotten to travel a lot. And you know our language, our food, our way of life. It's really. It's still intact.

Speaker 3 13:14

It's still strong.

Speaker 4 13:15

You know, a lot of people say the French is going away, and in a lot of respects that's true, you know. But there is a younger generation coming behind me who are advocating and who are speaking the language Creole and Cajun. So it's a beautiful thing to see.

Speaker 1 13:30

What about your kids? My?

Speaker 4 13:32

kids speak, they play.

Speaker 1 13:35

How many kids you got Three, three kids. My daughter has a band.

Speaker 4 13:40

My son, who's only 15, has his own band and he plays in the Mongo Playboys.

Speaker 3 13:44

Okay.

Speaker 4 13:45

And my youngest, he's 12. And he just he's 12.

Speaker 3 13:51

He plays when he wants to play.

Speaker 1 13:53

Yeah, but I mean he has that, you know he can pick it up whenever he wants Steve.

Speaker 2 13:58

Riley's his dad.

Speaker 1 13:58

Exactly, you're going to play something, boy, you're going to learn today Right, all right. Let's take a moment to talk about our petite sponsor, bu Salon. Okay, now I go here, so I know you go ahead, tell us your experience when you go to BU, I know about this place. So I've been going here for man since 2020. And so I've been going here for man since 2020. And she opened up this salon In 2020. In 2020. And that was dicey.

Speaker 3 14:25

God bless her Dicey, but listen.

Speaker 1 14:27

When we got to go back to the salon, we was ready to go. Okay, that was the place to be, because we couldn't go nowhere. Everything was grown out. My hair was so grown out. I think I did a video when I went and got my hair done, so grown out. I think I think I did a video when I went and got my hair done and I said, uh, I forgot it was like some kind of a country song, okay. And I was like, I don't know, I'll have to think about it.

Speaker 3 14:50

Maybe it'll come back to me.

Speaker 1 14:52

Sorry about it all right uh, so they have an amazing you know staff, the, the service. They include cuts colors, blonding, they do blowouts and treatments, bridal and special occasion updos, waxing and spray tans and they even do hair extensions, like the tie-in kind, the good, the nice ones, okay, so if you need, they are in Karen Crow. All right, I say Karen Crow, but it's a Lafayette address on glorious switch. Yeah, so you can book online at busalonlacom or you can find them on social media. They have a big social media presence. They always doing reels.

Speaker 2 15:25

They're young and beautiful and, yeah, they always doing the reels.

Speaker 1 15:29

And it's yes, it's an Aveda salon, so it smells so good in there. Yeah, all right. So y'all make sure, if you're looking for a new place to go get your hair did BU Salon, all right, where are we going next? I want to talk about the Mardi Gras song, but I feel like that's going to be the peak of this conversation in my eyes, because that is our heart. So where's your favorite place to play?

Speaker 2 15:57

Oh, okay, good, yes, good question.

Speaker 4 15:59

Well, I just went to Norway.

Speaker 1 16:02

Okay.

Speaker 4 16:03

Whoa, I just went to Norway.

Speaker 1 16:04

Okay, whoa, and.

The Legendary Mardi Gras Song

Speaker 4 16:04

I'd never been there before and it blew me away. It's so beautiful. I was contacted by some musicians there who play folk music. They're familiar with Cajun music. They came down here to the Mardi Gras.

Speaker 1 16:18

Okay.

Speaker 4 16:18

The Fikir Tayik Mardi Gras outside of Eunice. Okay, are here to the Mardi Gras Okay, the Fikitaik Mardi Gras outside of Eunice.

Speaker 2 16:21

Okay, are you familiar with that? No, I've never heard of it. I've never heard of that one. I've never heard of that one.

Speaker 4 16:24

It's a small country run that Joel Savoie started Okay Out by his family farm and they came to that 10 years ago. So they're familiar with the music and I didn't know these guys. I never played a lick of music with them. I flew over there, had a couple of rehearsals with them and we went on tour and we toured the country's beautiful Everything I saw outside of, you know, while we're driving, stunning views.

Speaker 2 16:52

Didn't look real Mountains, fjords.

Speaker 4 16:55

And you know. So that's at the top of my list now, I guess. So yeah, the whole experience. Yes.

Speaker 2 17:02

Hard to beat that.

Speaker 4 17:04

Wow.

Speaker 1 17:04

I was not expecting for you to say Norway was my favorite place.

Speaker 3 17:08

I thought you know, you know.

Speaker 1 17:10

I'm thinking like little country bars, you know.

Speaker 3 17:13

Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:13

Like where's your favorite place to play in Acadiana, okay well, when you like Norway.

Speaker 2 17:17

We got to be more specific. We forgot this man is a world traveler.

Speaker 1 17:21

Our little old Church, point, we don't go nowhere.

Speaker 2 17:23

Cajuns. You know Cajuns in Church Point.

Speaker 4 17:26

I like Cajuns in Church, point. I like it a lot, a lot Cajuns in Church Point.

Speaker 1 17:30

Great when you go places like around here. Where's your favorite place to play?

Speaker 4 17:36

Do you have one you don't want to say If you don't want to say yeah, no, I don't mind saying Let me think Around here, the Hideaway on Lee in Lafayette.

Speaker 2 17:48

Okay, we're learning some new spots. That's like downtown, downtown Okay.

Speaker 4 17:52

Downtown Lafayette.

Speaker 1 17:53

Wow, I didn't know about that place.

Speaker 4 17:55

Y'all don't go to.

Speaker 3 17:56

Lafayette.

Speaker 2 18:00

Uh-uh, luke, I'm just getting now to the age like my kids are, to the age where I can kind of go and do more. But she's got little little ones now too. So it's like you know, babysitters are hard to come by, so we don't get out too much, steve.

Speaker 4 18:12

You got little ones, she does.

Speaker 1 18:15

Little ones. I have a nine-month-old and a two-year-old, and a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old.

Speaker 2 18:19

She took a little gap in the middle. Yeah, I have a little gap.

Speaker 4 18:21

It's a lot of work, I know.

Speaker 1 18:23

It's a lot of work but when we can get out, you know what we like to go. Do we like to go antiquing and thrifting?

Speaker 3 18:29

We like to go drag the road and all day.

Speaker 4 18:32

Yeah, that's what we like to do All this stuff.

Speaker 1 18:35

yes, that's what we like to do.

Speaker 4 18:36

But even more than venues, festivals. The festivals, oh festivals there's so many great festivals and my favorite's got to be Festival de Carien at Creole.

Speaker 1 18:47

I told you yeah.

Speaker 2 18:48

I said we got to go this year. It is yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 18:52

We got to go this year.

Speaker 2 18:54

I agree Because.

Speaker 1 18:55

I hadn't been since I was a kid, and we definitely have to go. I just we got to make that work, um, and I want to bring my kids too, because they need to be a part of that.

Speaker 4 19:05

yeah, it's the biggest celebration of our music all in one place.

Speaker 2 19:10

Yes, that festival our music and our culture is there any one gig in in your mind that sticks out like as memorable for something like kind of wild or crazy that happened? I'm sure you have stories of.

Speaker 4 19:24

I do. One time we got to play for the 4th of July on the mall, not the Acadiana Mall but, the mall in DC. Come on, oh wow, and so that was amazing.

Speaker 2 19:38

Oh, I guess. So when we went her and I got, to go and that's the first time I had ever been you too.

Speaker 3 19:46

Huh, no, I had been.

Speaker 2 19:46

You had been to the mall before, Okay well, I had never been and like it was, the clouds like were reflecting on the pond and I just felt like I was having an out-of-body experience or something. It was so beautiful and you wouldn't in DC politics and all that.

Speaker 4 20:06

but take all that aside and it's just the history of that place. Yeah and, and this was in the early this- is probably the mid-90s that we did that and it was. There's thousands and thousands of people, and you know, celebrate the birth of the country yeah, yeah and um that's so cool, amazing experience.

Speaker 1 20:22

I am so enjoying this talk with you because, like I said, we just live here, but you've been so many places and shared your music with so many different people.

Speaker 2 20:32

We're living through you right now.

Speaker 1 20:34

Yes, I love. It All right, let's go back to our Gary Mott. Yes, gary Mott. Hardware off of I-10, exit 87 in Reign Cookware all the cookware.

Speaker 2 20:45

Now listen up. If you are looking for a MagnaLite pot, but you're like man MagnaLite, they don't make that no more.

Speaker 1 20:51

They don't make that no more and you can only find it at the antique stores and stuff.

Speaker 2 20:55

They don't make MagnaLite anymore, macware.

Speaker 1 20:58

McWare.

Speaker 2 21:07

Is it Mac or mick? I say mickware, mac, mickware, mack, mickware. Gary mott has a full line of mickware pots, which is the uh magna light alternative. Yes, if you need that or you need a good cast iron pot or skillet the net. They have enamel cast iron to the coated ones, you know anything you need for your kitchen.

Speaker 2 21:21

I I know your kitchen and your cooking stuff. Go to Gary Mott Hardware off of I-10 exit 87 in Rain. It's on the service road, okay. And if you want a little preview of some of and this ain't even all the stuff they have, but I went online to GaryMottHardwarecom and they do have a good bit of like online that you can look at See what they have. But just go in the store because it's like a cajun's uh kitchen dream.

Speaker 1 21:47

Yeah, oh yeah, anything you can think of to cook with it's in there and go find them.

Speaker 2 21:52

Follow them on social media too. Uh, they're on all the platforms gary mod, g-a-r-y-m-a-t-t-e, hardwarecom, absolutely all.

Speaker 1 22:02

Well.

Speaker 2 22:03

I mean Okay, mardi Gras time, let's go, let's go. So, mr Steve Riley, your version of La Danse de Mardi Gras top notch, like that is our anthem around here. When that song comes on, you can literally see my husband my husband loves Mardi Gras and he don't love much he does. He loves me. He, my husband, loves Mardi Gras and he don't love much he does, he loves me.

Speaker 1 22:27

He loves you and Mardi Gras and his kids.

Speaker 3 22:30

It takes a lot.

Speaker 1 22:31

To get him excited, let's say that the light doesn't go off until it is very near Mardi Gras, like in his eyes. Don't light up.

Speaker 2 22:40

Like a child like Christmas, until he does on Mardi Gras and that song comes on and he's like zero to 100. He loves it, yes.

Speaker 4 22:48

Well, the energy at that time of the year is just different. It's amazing, it's always been there. It's magical.

Speaker 2 22:54

It is magical, it is. He understands it's validation right here and it's the buildup.

Speaker 1 22:59

It's that at the beginning.

Speaker 3 23:00

It's like you know like when it gets gone.

Speaker 1 23:04

Oh listen, every year my husband goes in my kid's room on Sunday, Mardi Gras, because that's Church Point, and he puts that song on his phone and since they were little they would start moving in their bed like this. And then they wake up and now it aggravates them, Like because they're older. The older kids, but the babies, the babies are getting down, you know, but it's just, it's something special.

Speaker 2 23:27

I mean, it's played at weddings around here. It was definitely played at my wedding, oh, absolutely. I went to a wedding not long ago and it was played, and we all put the beer on our head and we were trying to dance. It's just a whole vibe. I'm sure you didn't expect that to go crazy, did you that?

Speaker 3 23:44

song.

Speaker 2 23:45

I mean, it's not originally your song, but it's y'all's version of it.

Speaker 4 23:49

No, but you know that song and that melody. It's like something in our DNA that it wakes up.

Speaker 2 23:55

Yes.

Speaker 4 23:59

It's one of the oldest songs in our culture, you know, and so I grew up hearing the Balfour Brothers version and our version is very similar to that. And you know, when I was young I would hear that version being pumped out of the cars and the PAs following the Mardi Gras and after we recorded our version, to go back to Mamu and hear our version being pumped out of PAs and cars.

Speaker 3 24:19

Surreal. I was like wow.

Speaker 4 24:20

Yeah, that yeah.

Speaker 1 24:23

That's viral, viral that's validation yeah, absolutely from.

Speaker 4 24:27

That's the you know god from the people who own, like you know I'm accepting my people like yeah, yeah, they really love me.

Speaker 1 24:36

Yeah, that's hard.

Speaker 4 24:37

Yeah, it could be a tough crowd sometime, yeah they are tough crowd because I mean cajun Cajuns, look, they work hard and on the weekends they want to play hard. And they feel like they own this music. This music is there and you, as a musician, are there to give them what they want.

Speaker 2 24:54

And if you don't play their song. I feel like you have experienced this vibe. When you play a bit, you can tell it in their face whenever you're not playing what they want.

Speaker 1 25:03

Do you play it every time you play?

Speaker 4 25:05

I don't play it during Lent. Okay, I try to you know, keep it.

Speaker 2 25:10

Abstain from the real joy.

Speaker 4 25:12

That's my penance.

Speaker 1 25:13

Yeah, Because let me tell you what if I went to a Steve Riley show and I didn't?

Speaker 2 25:18

hear that. Make a note Do not go to Steve Dern Land, not Dern Land.

Speaker 4 25:22

That's why I don't play much oh man, not Dern Land, because I can't play that song. So I don't play much Dern Land Well good You're doing right by your people. You're doing right.

Speaker 1 25:31

Because once I went to a Counting Crows thing and they didn't play Mr Jones, I about died. I went and stood at the, I stood at the, I stood. Like they were going to come back out and they did not come back out and play it and I was like I still love you, but I'm finding it very hard to love you right now, so you just can't do that to people.

Speaker 3 25:51

Anyway, let me move on from the Counting Crows because clearly I feel some type of way about that.

Speaker 1 25:58

Yes, but that that's, that, just is.

Speaker 4 26:05

Do you have a favorite song that you like to play?

Speaker 2 26:09

I like a lot of them.

Speaker 4 26:10

It's hard to pick besides the Mardi Gras song there's so many. I just love this music inside and out. I love so many tunes. We've been together a long time, my band, we've recorded a lot of records. We've written a lot of songs. We've done things to the music that has kind of changed it over the years, you know.

Speaker 2 26:34

Uniquely, y'all style. Yes.

Speaker 4 26:36

So, look, I just feel super grateful to be able to do what I love to do Y'all can do to do, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 26:46

We all the time we like. We can't believe this is our life right now Just getting to do what we love to do and being accepted by so many people, and they want more of it. And we just like okay, they identify with it. They relate to it.

Speaker 1 27:01

They you know and I don't know, we just got something special with our culture. It's a blessing, it is special.

Speaker 4 27:07

I feel like, yeah, I feel like music is the. To play music is the best therapy in the world and to get to do it and make money doing it and travel. Right travel, I mean and do it with my kids now. Yeah, life is good.

Speaker 1 27:21

Mm-hmm. Yeah, life is good, I love it.

Speaker 2 27:23

Did you bring your accordion?

Speaker 4 27:25

I did bring my accordion.

Speaker 2 27:26

Would you play a little for?

Speaker 1 27:28

us? Yeah, give us a little something.

Speaker 4 27:31

Okay, I'm going to have to push this table back.

Speaker 2 27:33

Okay, let's push it a little bit, this thing's heavier. Oh yeah, I see that.

Live Accordion Performance

Speaker 4 27:38

It's so heavy, they got legs in the middle of it. I'll tell you what legs in the middle of it. Right there it used to slide out. That's good, that's good, okay, all right and you can request another morning.

Speaker 1 27:58

I will just listen to whatever you, whatever you have in your mind. It's so nice and compact. In there I was. I was expecting a big case, you know like those big boxes.

Speaker 4 28:03

well, I Well, I have some big boxes, some big boxes.

Speaker 1 28:06

Yeah, for travel reasons. Right, Just coming over here to Church Point.

Speaker 4 28:10

Is Church Point St Landry Parish.

Speaker 1 28:12

Acadia, acadia.

Speaker 4 28:16

Alright, Well, I just um, maybe I'll try this song. I just learned from Amélie Ardouin.

Speaker 1 28:22

Okay.

Speaker 4 28:23

It's called De two-step de Elton.

Speaker 2 28:26

De Elton All right ¶¶. All right, Love it. I wanted to get up so bad. I wanted to dance so bad. But I'm like man, these cameras, they don't move and follow us, so we wouldn't be able to see. Look, we'd be all in the sun. That was great.

Speaker 1 29:34

Oh, I love that and that thing's loud too.

Speaker 2 29:37

I didn't really expect the projection that comes out of that little thing oh yeah.

Speaker 4 29:41

Nice yeah you know the accordion. That's one of the reasons it's popular. You know, back in the old days before electricity, the music was at house parties.

Speaker 2 29:53

Yes.

Speaker 4 29:53

And they put the musicians on the table, maybe an accordionist and a fiddler, and so they were above the noise. Uh-huh and the accordion was a lot louder than the fiddle and that were above the noise Uh-huh. And the accordion was a lot louder than the fiddle and that's why it became the instrument in the forefront.

Speaker 1 30:07

Makes sense, makes a lot of noise.

Speaker 2 30:09

I bet you them old people was tanning down, what, what Can you picture the little ones like going to sleep on the floor while the mom and daddies was getting it. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Well, that was such a pleasure. My face hurts from smiling so much right now.

Speaker 4 30:26

Thank you so much. Thanks y'all. My pleasure, thank you. It's good to meet y'all, good to be here, wonderful to meet you.

Keeping Cajun Culture Alive

Speaker 2 30:30

Keep doing what you're doing, because I mean these generations under us. I mean you're inspiring so many. I love seeing a young person and like playing the accordion, and like just knowing that that's going to end the fiddle too. All that we're never going to run out, just knowing that yeah.

Speaker 4 30:46

No, there are more, we won't run out. I find there's a lot of young kids interested and who are learning to play.

Speaker 2 30:51

And that makes me happy. That's good. So thank you for coming on and sharing that with us.

Speaker 1 30:55

Thanks for having me and thank you for carrying it on and thank you for listening to Coffee Talk with the Cajun Mamas. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you all next week. Next time, bye.