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Franco-American week is under way and will be concluded with a concert by BeauSoleil at the Maine Center for the Arts on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
BeauSoleil is widely considered America’s best Cajun band, influenced by Carribean rhythms, New Orleans jazz, Old World ballads, blues, bayou music and Cajun-French lyrics. Instruments such as the accordion, fiddle, mandolin and banjo combine with electric and acoustic guitars and percussion to create the unique sound that has brought the band over 20 years of albums and fame.
Among its accolades, BeauSoleil has received seven Grammy nominations, and one Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album for “L’Amour Ou La Folie” in 1997. Their most recent album, 2000′s “Cajunization,” was also nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Michael Doucet, founder, fiddler, songwriter and lead vocalist for the band, is a descendent of the Acadians and grew up speaking French with his family. Louisiana’s Cajuns descended from the Acadians who settled in Nova Scotia in 1604. Many fled to the bayous of Louisiana after the community was overturned by the English in 1755 during “Le Grand Derangement”.
“In our career, BeauSoleil has always reflected the diversity of Cajun music, not just the two steps, but ballads, blues, jazz, Tin Pan Alley-everything that made up our musical culture-from near forgotten individual musical craftsmen to such influences as brass bands, jazz, Texas swing, country, and swamp pop,” said Doucet in a recent interview with the Rosebud Agency.
BeauSoleil represents diverse history, culture and experience through their collaborative music. Perhaps this diversity and depth of spirit has made them the musical success that they are today.
