01:20 Bruce lives in New Orleans and has family connections to Avoyelles Parish; defines a Cajun as someone who comes from a rural French culture in Louisiana; most of his ancestors came directly from France to Louisiana; his parents left the country to move to New Orleans in the 1950s, and he has always lived in New Orleans, but his parents speak French at home every day; when your family has been from a place for a long time, that becomes part of your roots too; his friends Eric and Clay Chapman are Sady Courville’s grandsons, and were raised in Mississippi but refer to Eunice, LA as their home; Bruce considers himself to have two homes—one in the city and one in the country 03:50 A lot of people who settled in Avoyelles came directly from France after the Napoleonic wars as opposed to the Acadian exiles who settled other parts of Louisiana; he compares his parent’s migration to New Orleans to the creole migration into California—they moved for job opportunities outside of farming; they got married and came to New Orleans and found thousands of other Cajuns in the area; most of the people his family would visit with were French-speaking country people who moved to the city 05:45 The people he knew all kept speaking French when they would go to la veille (an evening party); his mother remembers that people in public would pretend they didn’t speak French; the Cajun music scene was started by Allen Fontenot who had a radio show WSHO in the 1960s on Cajun music, and has remained a personality; Bruce started playing at the Maple Leaf about sixteen years ago and remembers that it was the only place you could hear Cajun music; now you can find Cajun music in New Orleans every night of the week 08:30 Went to Festivals Acadiens, and the first year he went the theme celebrated the young people who were playing Cajun music; he was inspired by Terry Huval and Jambalaya’s accordion player Larry Picard; Bruce had played music since he was five years old, and started to play old-time country music, then started playing banjo after going to the Louisiana Hayride, and then after seeing Larry Picard decided that he wanted to play heritage music; he finished college about 1980, and was already playing at the Maple Leaf and has just kept going; can’t read music, just plays everything by ear 11:15 Wrote a song about the Acadian people after playing the Maritime Provinces where the Acadian people lived, and those bands are now playing the song quite a bit; the song talks about the exile of the Acadian people up to the modern movement of Cajun people to keep this heritage alive 13:25 Demonstration: “Acadie À La Louisiane” 17:10 Thinks that there isn’t as much of a political emphasis in Cajun culture because people here are more interested in dancing than listening to the music; in Canada, the listeners have been taught to read and write in French, so they are better able to listen to the words; the songs in Cajun tradition are often the same theme of heartbreak and women leaving their men; he wants to write songs that are different and have more creativity 20:15 People and friends in Canada have been very nice to Bruce and his musicians, and he remembers having parties with them; he played a sold-out stadium in Canada and they knew every word to his records and were shaking their fists 21:20 His accordion is a handmade diatonic accordion; describes how the accordion works; pushing in gets one sound, and pulling gets a different note, like a harmonica; has a bass side with 10 buttons you push or pull and an air button in the back to control the flow of air; the Cajun accordion has four sets of reeds that gives it a full, particular sound; he plays to get the fullest tone, and plays with a small band to see how much they can get out of the traditional instruments rather than adding amplification or untraditional instruments 27:00 Talks about the role of festivals in promoting Cajun music 29:08 Demonstration: zydeco sound
