Subscribe today to support our mission and contributors. C ajun music is an accordion- and fiddle-based, largely francophone folk music originating in southwestern Louisiana. As distinct from zydeco music, Cajun music is most often performed by white musicians. Although the historical and cultural center of Cajun music continues to be southwestern Louisiana, interest in the music has spread in recent decades, and practitioners and fans of Cajun music can be found today throughout the world. Cajun music is marked by its exclusive use of the diatonic accordion zydeco musicians, in contrast, use either the triple-row, chromatic, or diatonic accordion. Resilient folk instruments that may have been brought to Louisiana by German settlers—though the earliest documentary evidence finds them in the hands of African American musicians—diatonic accordions are button accordions that feature a fairly limited melodic range. Most diatonic accordions played by Cajun musicians are tuned to either C or D major scales. Accordions are the loudest instrument in Cajun music and often begin and end any particular song. Along with the diatonic accordion, the fiddle is the instrument most central to Cajun music. A typical modern Cajun band, performing for a public dance, includes accordion, fiddle, guitar, bass, and drums.
His bandleader hated it!
1. Keith Frank - Still Zydeco For Me
Cajun music French : Musique cadienne , an emblematic music of Louisiana played by the Cajuns , is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole -based zydeco music, both of Acadiana origin, and both of which have influenced the other in many ways. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music , and have influenced pop culture through mass media , such as television commercials. Cajun music is relatively catchy with an infectious beat and a lot of forward drive, placing the accordion at the center. Besides the voices, only two melodic instruments are heard, the accordion and fiddle, but usually in the background can also be heard the high, clear tones of a metal triangle. The melodic range is just one octave, rising a fifth above the tonic and descending a fourth below. Because the Cajun accordion is a diatonic instrument do-re-mi or natural major scale it can only play tunes in a few keys.
He was inspired by Hank Sr.'s "Honky Tonk Blues."
Menard , may be the most popular and recognizable Cajun song ever. When it was released in , it sold over half a million copies and has been covered by dozens of bands internationally since the nowyear-old composed it. He was a fan of Hank Williams, Sr. Elias Badeaux was Mr. He recorded a waltz on one side of a 45RPM and needed a song on the flip side.
The Lousiana Purchase of brought nearly a million acres of new land to the United States of America, spreading as far afield as Montana. Working out to about three cents an acre, the purchase continues to pay outrageous dividends, not least in the form of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the state of Louisiana, which became the 18th state of the Union in Here are 18 songs that have helped define the rapturous music of the 18th state. Case in point: this inspired pairing of new-breed funk fanatics Galactic with Big Chief Bo Dollis, who has been helping keep the Mardi Gras Indian tradition alive with the Wild Magnolias since the Sixties. Before the song hit, she was baking bread at Loyola University for a living.
