BeauSoleil
is a musical group specializing in Cajun music. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, the group members are brothers Michael Doucet (fiddle, vocals) and David Doucet (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Breaux (accordion), Billy Ware (percussion), Tommy Alesi (percussion), and Mitchell Reed (bass, fiddle).
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BEAUSOLEIL AVEC MICHAEL DOUCET TICKETS
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Band history
Founded in 1975, BeauSoleil (often billed as "BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet") released its first album in 1977 and became one of the most well-known bands performing traditional and original music rooted in the folk tunes of the creole and Cajun people of
Louisiana. BeauSoleil tours extensively in the U.S. and internationally. While its repertoire includes hundreds of traditional
Cajun and
zydeco songs, BeauSoleil has also pushed past constraints of purely traditional instrumentation, rhythm, and lyrics of Louisiana folk music, incorporating elements of rock-and-roll, jazz, blues,
calypso, and other genres in original compositions and reworkings of traditional tunes. Lyrics on BeauSoleil recordings are sung in English or
Cajun French (and sometimes both in one song). Many BeauSoleil critics
[who?] argue that the band has "watered down" Cajun music, and/or added unnecessary elements that present an incorrect picture of what Cajun music really sounds like.
According to the band's web site, BeauSoleil's musicians "take the rich Cajun traditions of Louisiana and artfully blend elements of zydeco, New Orleans jazz,
Tex-Mex,
country,
blues and more into a satisfying musical recipe."
The band's name is a tribute to
Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil, the leader of the
Acadian resistance to British deportation efforts beginning in 1755. Beausoleil was eventually captured, but following his imprisonment managed to lead 193 exiles to Louisiana before he died in 1765.
BeauSoleil has appeared on soundtracks to films
The Big Easy
,
Passion Fish
and
Belizaire the Cajun
. The group plays at jazz and folk festivals and has appeared on numerous television shows, including
CNN's
Showbiz Today
,
Austin City Limits
,
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
, and
Emeril Live
. BeauSoleil appears regularly on
Garrison Keillor's
Prairie Home Companion
radio show. Keillor has hailed the group as the "best Cajun band in the world". BeauSoleil has also performed in concert with
Mary Chapin Carpenter and opened for the
Grateful Dead.
BeauSoleil was born at the right moment for a new band to develop along with a rebirth of interest in Cajun culture in Louisiana, and the group undoubtedly helped the expanding interest in (and, some would say, exploitation of) Cajun music and cultural symbols in the United States, France, and in many other countries.
In Louisiana in the 1950s and 1960s when Michael Doucet was growing up, the musical heritage of
Acadie
(French for "Acadia") had aged, withered, and certainly was not considered cool, even for people of
Acadian descent. A turning point came when Doucet was awarded a Folk Arts Apprenticeship by the
National Endowment for the Arts. "I had planned to go to graduate school in New Mexico to study the Romantic poets," he recalls on the
Vanguard Records web site. "Instead I traded
William Blake for
Dewey Balfa." Doucet sought out every surviving Cajun musician, including Balfa,
Dennis McGee,
Sady Courville, Luderin Darbone, Varise Connor,
Canray Fontenot,
Freeman Fontenot and others. He studied their techniques and songs and encouraged some to resume public performances.
Recognition
BeauSoleil is one of a few groups performing traditional Louisiana music to win a
Grammy Award.
L'Amour Ou La Folie (Love Or Folly)
, recorded in 1996 and released on
Rhino Records, earned the 1997 Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. In a review on
Amazon.com, Richard Gehr wrote, "By now the sextet transcends the dancehall, possessing the ability to transform nearly any traditional Cajun, Creole, or French tune into high art while preserving a clear sonic bloodline back to its roots."
In 2005, BeauSoleil’s
Gitane Cajun
, released on Vanguard Records, earned the group its tenth Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Folk Album. A reflection of its versatility is that BeauSoleil has also earned a Grammy nomination in the Contemporary Folk category, for the 1999 album
Cajunization
,with songs that effortlessly span Cajun, Calypso, French ballad, blues and other musical styles.
In 2005, BeauSoleil won the Big Easy Entertainment Award for Best Cajun Band, the tenth time the band was honored in the 18-year history of the awards presented by the New Orleans music and entertainment publication
Gambit Weekly.
In 2005, BeauSoleil founder Michael Doucet was one of 12 artists awarded a
National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2009, BeauSoleil again won a Grammy. "Live At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
BeauSoleil & Michael Doucet" won in the Best Zydeco Or Cajun Music Album (Vocal or Instrumental) category, which was added as a separate category in the Folk genre for the 2008 awards.
Discography
- 1977 The Spirit of Cajun Music
(Swallow)
- 1984 Michael Doucet with BeauSoleil
(Arhoolie)
- 1984 Parlez-Nous a Boire
(Arhoolie)
- 1986 Allons a Lafayette
(Arhoolie) with Canray Fontenot
- 1986 Belizaire the Cajun [Original Soundtrack]
(Arhoolie)
- 1987 Bayou Boogie
(Rounder)
- 1988 Hot Chili Mama
(Arhoolie)
- 1989 Bayou Cadillac
(Rounder)
- 1989 Zydeco Gris Gris
(Swallow)
- 1989 Live from the Left Coast
(Rounder)
- 1991 Cajun Conja
(Rhino)
- 1991 Déjá Vu
(Swallow)
- 1993 La Danse de La Vie
(Forward)
- 1994 Cajun & Creole Music
(Music of the World)
- 1994 L' Echo
(Rhino/Forward)
- 1997 L' Amour Ou la Folie
(Rhino)
- 1997 Arc de Triomphe Two-Step
(Hemisphere)
- 2001 Looking Back Tomorrow: Beausoleil Live!
(Rhino)
- 2004 Gitane Cajun
(Vanguard)
- 2006 Live in Louisiana
(Way Down in Louisiana)
- 2008 Live At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival BeauSoleil & Michael Doucet
(MunckMix)
- 2009 Alligator Purse
(Yep Roc)
Compilations
- 1997 The Best of BeauSoleil
(Arhoolie)
- 1999 Cajunization
(Rhino)
- 2001 Best of Crawfish Years 1985 - 1991
(Rounder)
- 2003 Their Swallow Years
(Ace)
- 2003 ''Encore, Encore
| The Best of BeauSoleil 1991 - 2001'' (Rhino)
References