Beausoleil - Austin City Limits 1990

 Beausoleil - Austin City Limits 1990 - Part 1

 

 Beausoleil - Austin City Limits 1990 - Part 2

 

Michael Doucet is a fiddle master. Doucet formed BeauSoleil in 1975. Michael recently wrote in to discuss how he became interested in playing the fiddle, his favorite Jazz Fest memories and his passion for Cajun music and culture.

Did you cone from a musical family? Were your parents musical?


All of my dad’s sisters sang but from my aunt Lena I learned many
 Cajun French ballads… from my uncle Ti Will Knight, I learned how to 
play fiddle (his fiddle is in the LA State Museum in Baton Rouge) from
 my mom’s side I learned to read music and play jazz.

How did you become interested in playing fiddle?


My uncle (above) played and took the time to show me a few songs. I 
wanted a guitar but the fiddle was so strange and intriguing to me; 
the way you had to use your hands were so different; bow arm and
fingering…I loved the diverse sounds you could make and the way it
 felt holding it….there were too many kid relatives so I never had a
 fiddle of my own until I was 21.

How did BeauSoleil first come together?


Just some friends from around Scott, LA who were interested in the the
 vanishing old Acadian French style of our heritage.  Kenneth Richard,
 Bessyl Duhon and I were the core of BeauSolel.  I was asked to perform 
for two weeks in France in 1976 and was asked for a group name.
 Remembering my childhood family reunion visits at BeauSoleil (the
house of Armand Broussard, Joeseph (BeauSoleil’s son) left a lasting 
impression of the continuing lineage of my Acadian roots.  While we
were in Paris, we were given the opportunity to record our first
 album, “BeauSoleil… la Nuit” for EMI, Pathe Marconi.  We’ve been touring, recording and teaching group of musicians ever since then.

You have played many classic sets at Jazz Fest. What do you love about
Jazz Fest?


In the 1970s, I loved the openness of the festival…..how you could 
walk to different stages, get a good seat, listen for a while then
 move on to something else.  I’ve always enjoyed playing there with
 BeauSoleil for the past thrity-six years as well as the Savoy-Doucet
 Cajun band and others. I also like the Heritage and the musician 
camaraderie aspect… seeing/meeting the greats like Dennis McGee, 
James Booker, Thelonius Monk, the Meters, traditional New Orleans Jazz
bands, Gospel, Doug Kershaw etc.

What have been some of your favorite memories of Jazz Fest?

Too many of those really… I’d say playing both weekends with
 Coteau in 1976, performing with Freeman Fontenot & Bois Sec Ardoin in
1980, having Richard Thompson and Sonny Landreth joining us in 2001,
 sitting in with Tab Benoit, Dr John etc and the Wetlands All stars a 
few years ago, playing the RayBand stage and getting free sunglasses,
 running into and chatting with David Hildago, Allen Toussaint, John 
Fogarty, hearing Sun Ra, Dr. Michael White, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell,
 and the list goes on…

What inspires you lyrically?


Silly puns.

How do you go about creating music?


I pick up an instrument and try to play what I’m hearing/feeling and 
inspired to say.


What are your hobbies outside of music?


Meditating, walking and enjoying the ever changing wonder of life.

You are passionate about spreading Cajun music and culture to as many
people as possible. What do you love about Cajun music and culture?


I love the fact that I grew up speaking French and being of Acadian 
decent from both sides of my family.  I grew up in the countryside on
a farm and had many friends and relatives nearby making my childhood 
ideal.  When at LSU in 1969, I found Irene Whitfield’s 1939
 dissertation on Acadian and Creole music which led me to do more 
research, making a lasting friendship with Irene, and fueling my 
desire to discover more and more the roots, power and creativity of
our music.  I was lucky to be around to learn from the Master
musicians who were born in the 1890s and were among the first Acadian 
artists to record in the 1920’s and 30’s. The Acadian story is quite 
unique and amazing and being a part of such a unique group and part of
 the world allows me to both follow my ancestors yet seek artistic 
development in the moment.

You’ve some a lot of research into the history of Cajun music and
studied with many of the great masters of Cajun music, such as Dennis
McGee. What do you feel is the most important advice you’ve learned
from these masters?


Simply, to be who you are…

Do you have a favorite quote or motto that you live by?


On vas les embéter! (We’re going to irritate them).

What do you feel is your place in music history?


I think I’ll wait until I’m dead to even approach that one… not quite
 dead yet! I was in the right place at the right time with the right intention to 
learn, document and share the origins of French Music in Louisiana

From: https://mcclainjohnson.com/michael-doucet-interview/

 

Teke-Teke - Gotoku Lemon

So many bands and artists are currently going for a blend of genres, very often those that seemingly don't go together. If such blends don't work out, you get a mish mash of disparate sounds that somehow don’t mesh. On the other hand, when such combinations work, you get a musical kaleidoscope that brings something new and fresh. Yet, for such a “musical trick”, if you will, to work, such a band or artist really have to know the genres they are combining down to a pat and truly want to involve themselves in the music they are creating.
TEKE::TEKE, Montreal's seven piece collective, are definitely a band (in true sense of that word) that have been trying to combine many genres together, often in a single song, since its inception (two albums and two singles ago), something that they bring to heady heights on Hagata, their latest. So, what have we got here? With their solid base in all forms of Japanese music - folk, quite felt in the opener “Garakuta,” to J-pop (“Onaji Heya”) and J-funky jazz (“Hoppe”). Throughout though, they garner their music with heavy doses of all forms of psych, garage, and surf, to brass rock and prog (“Me No Heya”).
Such a combination also requires some hefty, precise musicianship and Sei Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar, synth, percussion, additional vocals), Hidetaka Yoneyama (guitar, backing vocals), Mishka Stein (bass, synth, percussion, guitar, backing vocals), Ian Lettre (drums, percussion, synth, piano, backing vocals), Etienne Lebel (trombone, gaida, percussion, backing vocals), Yuki Isami (flute, shinobue, taisho koto, synth, backing vocals), Maya Kuroki (vocals, guitar) are at their best here. Kuroki's vocals lead the way, particularly prominent on the excellent title track/lead single. The sound TEKE::TEKE create on Hagata will take them everywhere.  From: http://post-trash.com/news/2023/6/8/teketeke-hagata-album-review

Nephila - Growing Down

Describe your sound – If you had to describe it, what’s your style, ethos or sound like? 


Intriguing, intricate… forest-rock?

How did you get together as a band?


That is a long and unfortunately not very cool or exciting story.

What are your career highlights so far?


Definitely the time we played at Hamnfesten. It’s a quite large Swedish festival, and even though we performed at the “small stage” it still felt huge. Our stage show is a perfect fit for that type of space, and it just felt right…also, we got some really great food and drinks and we’re NOT used to that type of luxury.

How has your sound evolved?


It’s more rock n’ roll now, it used to be even more psychedelic I would say.

What are your plans for 2021-22? Any live shows coming up?


Yeah, we actually do have a gig here in Sweden (Linköping, 4/8). Other than that, we’re mostly focusing on writing new music.

Do you have any band or individual preparations before you go on stage, to psych you up or get you in the zone? 


For me, makeup is quite a big thing. It’s not that I love makeup very much, most of the time it’s just an inconvenience to me. But when you’re about to step on stage it’s different because it helps with character. Nephila is a whole show you know? I couldn’t imagine pulling it off without that moment of sitting down and having a chat with Josephine while we transform into something else.

How do you energise the audience in a live show?


The work starts long before you actually start performing. You gotta (try to) make sure that your material has the nerve and the dynamic it takes to keep the audience on their toes I think. Not only the music; things such as lighting, props, setlist and talks play a part as well. A common misconception I think, is that a good musician has the talent to pull anything of at any time – creating magic without even thinking about it. But that’s not necessarily true. A lot of musicians are perfectionists and what might look natural and spontaneous on stage may actually be made possible by a lot of rehearsing, rethinking and practicing. The reward is that sweet sensation of being mentally kidnapped by a moment, along with the audience. Everything flows without distraction, and the excitement never fades.

How does the writing process work as a band? Is it a joint venture? Or does one person tend to do most of the writing? Is it lyrics first or music first? 


Music first most of the time. Usually, someone comes up with a riff or presents a basic idea that we try to make use of. Anyone is welcome to get involved and people contribute in their own way. But after a while, we usually split up so that me and Josephine can focus on lyrics and harmonies while the guys focus on developing and perfecting the song. We actually write quite a lot of lyrics together since we think alike in many ways.

How do you make sure you all feel comfortable with a new track?


We don’t go forth with stuff that a person doesn’t feel like they’re able to pull off. Sometimes we find a way around it and also, a lot of times people challenge themselves because they want to.

What inspires you most in writing music and/or lyrics?


I can’t speak for all of us, but I think Josephine and I are inspired by everything that feels important to us. It’s a lot easier writing lyrics when it’s something you really care about, because you know what it is that you want to say.

There are a lot of you, how would you describe your relationships within the band?


Quite Swedish. That’s up to you to interpret any way you like. Also, we joke around a whole lot. We all seem to have a shared sense of humour.

What role did music play in your childhood/ growing up?


A big part, as it does for all kids. Music is such a natural part of being a human I think, and kids are like the most “human” humans that you’ll ever meet.

Who do you most admire on the scene at the moment, and why?


I’ll be honest with you I’m not very good at name dropping… BUT, I do know that a beloved band amongst several of us is Rival Sons.

What advice would you give to someone just starting their own band?


You’re never gonna find people who think and act exactly like you. Let go of your ego, the important thing is not where you end up – it’s creating something of substance along the way.

Which decade had the best music? Do you all agree or is it mixed?


I bet it’s mixed, but I like everything 70’s and 80’s.

How do you balance the band, recording, touring and practice, with things like work and family? 

It’s all about being realistic and prioritizing I think. Sometimes you sacrifice something to focus on the band, sometimes it’s the opposite – and that’s fine. There’s no need to try and be some kind of superhuman, most of the time it just makes you annoying. There is a saying, I don’t remember the origin but it’s quite funny to me: “If you work as hard as you possibly can, and never give up – there are no limits as to how much you can exhaust yourself!”

From: https://mmhradio.co.uk/interview-with-nephila/

Tomorrow - My White Bicycle

"My White Bicycle" is a song written by Keith West and Ken Burgess. It was Tomorrow's debut single. According to Tomorrow drummer John 'Twink' Alder, the song was inspired by the Dutch Provos, an anarchist group in Amsterdam which instituted a bicycle-sharing system: "They had white bicycles in Amsterdam and they used to leave them around the town. And if you were going somewhere and you needed to use a bike, you'd just take the bike and you'd go somewhere and just leave it. Whoever needed the bikes would take them and leave them when they were done." The group recorded "My White Bicycle" in Abbey Road studio 1, at the same time as The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in studio 2, and John Lennon entered the studio while Tomorrow were recording. Lennon wrote in the British international music magazine Melody Maker that he considered the song to be the "psychedelic anthem", and the song subsequently became an underground hit. For the whistle on the track, the band went out into the street in front of Abbey Road Studios and asked a policeman to come in and blow his whistle into the microphone, despite the fact that the band members were all smoking illegal drugs during the session.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_White_Bicycle

Iris DeMent - Let The Mystery Be

Singer/Songwriter Iris DeMent’s song, “Let The Mystery Be” was recorded on her 1992 album “Infamous Angel.” The song, eerily enough, almost perfectly portrays the plot of the 2014 HBO drama “The Leftovers.” The TV show “The Leftovers” is based on the sudden disappearance of 2% of the world’s population, on October 14th, 2011. The following 3 seasons are based around how the remainder of the world adapts to living after 140 million people unexplainably disappeared. Since nobody can seem to figure out the true answer as to why the disappearances took place, it’d probably better that they just let the mystery be. The irony is the reason the producers of “The Leftovers” decided to make “Let The Mystery Be” the shows theme song for the second season.  From: https://genius.com/Iris-dement-let-the-mystery-be-lyrics

Born in Arkansas and raised in Los Angeles, Iris DeMent has a voice with a vibrato-infused twang that purrs and bucks, and her songcraft has always remained full of heart and earthly spirituality. This song, which opened her outstanding 1993 debut, Infamous Angel, is an object lesson, weighing ideas about heaven, purgatory, and the afterlife, then sensibly throwing up her hands: “No one knows for certain and so it’s all the same to me/I think I’ll just let the mystery be.” It launched a marvelously unconventional career that’s veered from gospel standards to protest songs to an LP inspired by Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (The Trackless Woods). “Let the Mystery Be” would become a standard of its own; one recent cover was delivered by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy on his Starship Casual Substack. From:  https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/the-200-greatest-country-songs-of-all-time-60414/luke-combs-beer-never-broke-my-heart-60427/

Fairport Convention - Polly On The Shore

Fairport Convention - Nine: This is actually one of Fairport's more "progressive" albums. The lineup included a really good singer, Trevor Lucas, whose mellow baritone is most suitable. The lineup also included American guitar whiz Jerry Donahue (later of the Hellecasters, not Hellacopters), who lays down some mind-blowing licks. Three tracks are proggy highlights: "Polly on the Shore", which contains a wicked wah wah violin solo, "Bring 'Em Down", a long original which has a very atmospheric extended middle section, and "To Althea From Prison" which is based on a historical letter and is a nice ballad which would not be out of place on any 70s prog album. The rest of the album contains the usual jiggy instrumentals, traditional songs, and an upbeat 50s-style rocker in "Possibly Parsons Green". Only "Big William" seems like a holdover from the horribly jaunty "Rosie" album. It's one of of the band's least folky albums, but one of their more stylistically experimental and definitely one of the best in a rather spotty, if always entertaining discography.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=10094

Cocteau Twins - Lorelei

The former members of Cocteau Twins have been on their own longer than the prolific sixteen years they were together as a band. They went from being scrappy teenage runaways from small-town Scotland to heavy rotation on the BBC’s coveted John Peel Show in mere months. Within a few years they were among the most beloved post-punk indie bands in the UK, with a growing international following and a music press that couldn’t quite find the words, and really never did. The twist was they could barely pin it down themselves, much to the frustration of just about every journalist who tried to interview them. They never claimed to be waiting for a muse to inspire them, and disavowed any idea of a grand design, concept, or intention behind their music. Questions of relevance seemed lost on them, too. Relevance, as far as Cocteau Twins’ music goes, is truly in the ear of the beholder: It’s what the listener makes of it, whatever the time or place. In most ways, their music remains unmoored from such things — as if they’d lived sealed off from the rest of the world, sending out the occasional musical missive. They existed in a category by themselves — one they created.
Others have tried to reproduce or capture their sound, with limited success. The few artists who have succeeded sound mostly unlike them, but have managed to convey an essence: inspiration without imitation (think Beach House, Goldfrapp, Sigur Rós, or even M83). Cocteau Twins were a foundational influence for whole categories of music, notably dream-pop and shoegaze — forms that have themselves found new 21st-century audiences. Given their association with 4AD’s early crop of bands like The Birthday Party and Bauhaus (and the comparisons to Siouxsie & the Banshees), they also became and continue to be a staple of goth, though they mostly eschewed goth’s trappings.
Years later, in a world exploding with musical creativity, output, and listening sources, the Cocteaus’ music brings its own kind of relevance — again, if that means anything anymore — as they are rediscovered by people, mostly of a younger generation, yearning for something seminal or transcendent. (The song “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops” played an important role in the novel and young adult film, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” as recently as 2012; in 2020 Heaven or Las Vegas was ranked among the most important albums of all time by more than one media outlet.) It is a testament to the timelessness of their sound and production quality that many new fans don’t even know that the story actually started in 1979, or that the trio formerly known as Cocteau Twins long ago moved on to new endeavours. Even now, younger fans enquire regularly about “the next album” or “upcoming live shows.”  From: https://cocteautwins.com/introduction.html