01:00 Introduces band: Peter Schwartz, Steve Riley, and David Greely from Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys 02:05 Decides to play the Lake Charles Two-Step; works well with their arrangement onstage of accordion and two fiddles 02:25 Demonstration: “Lake Charles Two-Step” 06:00 The right hand of the accordion is the melody; just like the German, Italian styles, Cajun has its own style that comes from the way the accordion is made; accompaniment is on the left hand; demonstrates how he plays the two-step; and the right side is where the rhythm and syncopation comes in, the “chanky-chank” 07:25 Steve Riley is 24 years old, and as long as he can remember, he has been around Cajun music and has loved it; would play the triangle along to the radio when he was five years old; accordion has always held power for him; in high school, he was in a rock band, and now his Cajun band incorporates other kinds of music into the sound; he was recently nominated for a Grammy award in the traditional folk category; Steve didn’t go because he had a lot going on back home, and hopes that he will be nominated for another so he is able to go one day 10:15 David Greeley was Dewey Balfa’s last student, and Peter Schwartz also studied with Dewey 11:20 One aspect of the Cajun personality is suffering, but it is never entirely sorrowful and that’s where the joyful sound and sad lyrics comes from 12:10 The band strives to keep the old songs alive, but songs they would write would have more to do with what’s going on with them today; Dewey Balfa once said that they play a lot of fifty-year old songs, but in order to have fifty-year old songs fifty years from now, people have to write new material 13:30 Demonstration: waltz 17:00 The band chooses to do songs that are old and have words that mean a lot; avoid songs like “Jambalaya” and “Toot Toot” that are commercial and that say little about what Cajun and culture; have imitated songs by Balfa Brothers, Nathan Abshire, Lawrence Walker 18:25 One of the most important parts of playing Cajun music is that they are sung in Cajun French; the commercial songs mentioned before are sung in English with fake Cajun words, and don’t help to preserve the language; the language is endangered and this is their way of curbing that; quotes that there are still half a million people in south Louisiana who speak Cajun French; many younger people do not grow up speaking Cajun French, and so the language is being lost 21:00 Even though they don’t speak it on a daily basis, they feel it is a beautiful language and the songs can only be sung in Cajun French; the rhythms of Cajun music are dictated by the rhythms of the French language; says that singing in French feels better than singing in English 22:10 They love other artists like Wayne Toups and Zachary Richard, and their music will appeal to a broader audience and serve as a way for people to discover and learn more about traditional Cajun music 22:50 When they are making records, they are not so concerned with sales as much as they are concerned with putting out a record that they are proud of; they aren’t signed with a normal record company so they don’t have the pressure to be commercially successful; traditional folk music doesn’t get treated the same way as popular styles of music 24:10 They play a lot of folk festivals, but also play clubs; they play for people who want to dance, even as far away as Europe people have taken dance lessons to learn how to Cajun dance 25:20 Demonstration 29:30 Explains how the accordion works; with all four buttons open you get the most volume because you have the most airflow; sometimes he’ll close some to get a blues-y sound; boogie-woogie songs are written with different patterns; most Cajun songs are written with all four open 31:30 Met saxophone player Tony Broussard at Mulate’s in Breaux Bridge and has him play on boogie-woogie songs; some people don’t like having the saxophone in a Cajun band, but a lot of people like it; wants people to know that they can still do traditional music even though they have put their own twist on their performances; influenced by many different kinds of music; gradual process of change for the band, but lately they have been listening to Clifton Chenier; the next album will feature a lot of traditional songs; Steve Riley writes with a guitar, not the accordion 36:00 Demonstration
