[Singing]
- I'm going to get real damn serious
and I want y'all to pay attention to me.
I'm going to say this
section in English, because
I want to make sure
everyone understands me.
If there's something I
hear a lot, and quite often,
that pisses me off, it breaks my heart,
it does a million emotions at one time,
is that it's a shame this culture's dying.
It's a shame that the language is dying.
Let me be the one to say
languages don't die,
cultures don't die.
They're k*lled by choice.
Every single day, every one of
you, every one of us, has a choice.
That you're going to get up, and
you're going to preserve the way
that your daddy, and your grandma,
and your great grandparents,
and everybody that made you,
that made you.
The fact that if you're
not living your culture,
you are k*lling your culture.
And there is no in between.
There's no middle ground.
- I always fight for preservation,
and fight for keeping things
like they been and like they were.
That's kind of associated with
a real closed mind, you know?
But to me it's the opposite.
[Singing]
Because it's not about
preserving just mine.
It's like, to me, I don't care if you're of
Polish descent from
South Dakota, or Honduran
descent from California, or whatever.
Preserve it.
Because it's not just the washing
out of what we have going on,
it's the washing out of
the whole world right now.
And that's just the most
depressing thing on earth to me.
You know, like the idea that
there would be one kind of food,
or one kind of music.
[Singing]
- We're in my recording studio,
home of Valcour Records, my record label.
And we are on property that has
been in my family for eight generations.
We had this vision of
taking Louisiana music
into the 21st century.
And we wanted to see that our
Louisiana artists were being represented
and documented well.
Cajun music is the product of the
intersection of many different cultures
that found themselves
in Southwest Louisiana.
The earliest recorded
version of the Cajun accordion
would be from Amd Ardoin, who was a
young African American accordion player
who was apparently a virtuosic
accordion player and singer.
He made a lot of
recordings in the '20s and
the '30s with the fiddle
player, Dennis McGee,
who actually used to be a tenant
farmer on the property next door.
I grew up playing music in
my household with my parents.
We formed the Savoy Family Cajun Band,
which is my younger brother,
Wilson, and I with our parents.
But I also play with several
different people in the area, including
a young guy from Cypress Island,
Louisiana named Jourdan Thibodeaux.
And I play a lot with
my ex-wife, Kelli Jones,
who's in a group called Feufollet.
- I grew up in North Carolina
and my dad plays traditional music.
And so I was around old-time music
and songwriting from a really young age.
I started learning guitar and fiddle.
Then, through that, just
kind of got into Cajun music.
It's kind of set apart from some of
the other styles of folk music in the US
because of the French
language aspect of it.
- Cajun music is a little more
dangerous in some ways.
- Yeah, you're like, wait, but it's -.
- It's got a kick drum, and
electric bass, and it's like -.
- Yeah, but it's still like
traditonal music passed down.
- But it's got kind of
rock and roll and stuff.
- And it's in a whole nother language.
You go to a square dance, and
then you go to a Cajun dance,
and everybody's like dancing together.
[Singing]
- It's like the same music
my my parents listened to, but
cooler. - Yeah.
[Laughter]
- All right, so we're making a new record.
We got one coming down the pipes.
We've been working
really hard with Joel Savoy.
Lots of new songs on that new
record, and this is one of those.
It's called the "Squirrel Song."
[Singing]
- As a Cajun musician,
because the music is so
wrapped up in the culture
I feel like as a performer
I'm not just really performing
my stuff, you know?
I feel like I'm in service of the
music, or I'm in service of the people.
- That's me and Roddie Romero.
- Oh my goodness.
- And look, it's Doug Kershaw.
- This is the first day
she played the accordion.
But we didn't get a picture
of her playing the accordion.
- No, but you got a picture
of me in the fun jump.
- Yeah, I did. See, she was still a kid.
This is kind of how she learned, too.
We'd take her to these
different jam sessions
where all these old men would hang out.
Old accordion players.
She would just sit in with them and learn.
- Yeah.
- And her first accordion
contest she won $15.
You remember that?
- I don't. You remember way more than I do.
- Well, you were only eight years old.
- Oh, there was only two
people though. Oh god.
- You still won 15 bucks.
- Fifteen dollars, that was -.
Yeah, I came in second
because there was only two of us.
- Yep.
Most little girls were
taking ballet and wanting
to be cheerleaders and that kind of stuff,
and there was Kristie following a
bunch of old men playing the accordion.
So it was kind of weird.
- Some of these outfits are cracking me up.
- Yeah, you had to dress the part.
- Oh no.
- Well, I didn't have a ballerina to
dress, so I had a Cajun musician to dress.
- You know, I grew up with
music around all the time.
And the same way I learned English
is the same way I learned music,
It's the exact same thing.
I heard English all my
life, now I speak English.
I heard music growing
up, now I speak music.
[Yeah, yeah, yeah...]
[Applause] - Perfect.
- Thank you.
[Indistinct chatter]
- We're having a party.
Festivals Acadiens et Croles, which is -
People look forward to that all year long.
More so than Christmas or
even Mardi Gras, a lot of them.
It's like in Lafayette it's been
going on for like maybe 30 years.
And so people who love Cajun music come
down from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas.
And Austria, there's a
guy there from Austria.
You name it.
And so it's big time for me,
because as a Cajun musician
we keep very busy.
I'm playing five times this weekend,
which is a lot in one weekend for me.
With three different bands.
And so all of my three bands are playing.
And in one band I'm
playing fiddle, one band I'm
playing piano, and one
band I'm playing accordion.
- Cajun music today
is really a dance music.
And you create an outlet for that.
It's a symbiotic relationship
of us and the audience.
[Singing]
- If you hear a Cajun band and it
just bores you and doesn't move you,
that's not Cajun music.
- Before Cajun music was Cajun
music, and zydeco was zydeco,
everything was just French music.
- You have different people
playing different instruments.
And Cajun music was born out of
this melting pot that was forming here.
- Cajun music, that all these
people think is strictly a white creation,
all the tunes that were recorded by
Amd Ardoin, a Black accordion player,
pretty much all are what we
consider Cajun standards today.
All the songs he played,
every single one of them.
And later on, Iry LeJeune
took those exact same
songs and replayed
them, and he's a white guy.
And everyone thinks Iry
LeJuene was credited for that.
Thirty years before, that Amd
recorded them all, exact same songs.
Had different titles for them.
So actually the roots of what
we consider Cajun music,
as far as on accordion style Cajun music,
were recorded by Amd
Ardoin, a Black man in the 1920's.
Amd Ardoin jointed
forces with Dennis McGee,
who was a white man, a little bit
older than Amd, who played fiddle.
Unfortunately, despite all
the amazing music they made,
the story goes, with
the racism in Louisiana
he was beaten to death
because some white woman had
offered him a cloth to wipe his face.
And that's all it took.
Some white guys saw
that and were so jealous
and enraged by that, they k*lled him.
But before that happened,
he recorded so much music.
[Singing]
- Cajun music
comes from all of the different
influences of people that
moved into Louisiana a few
hundred years ago, really.
- Cajun people are the descendents
of people who came here from Acadie,
which is now Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick up in Canada.
Before that, they were
French, a lot of Basque.
But they came down to
Louisiana after the Grand.
Drangement, the English
kicked all of our people out.
- The difference between
the French and English is when
the French would get there
they'd have native people.
And they were like, "Well, y'all know
how to survive. Y'all doing pretty good.
"How about we team up, and
you show us what we're doing."
Versus, let me, you know, k*ll
all y'all and take your property.
So they teamed up a lot with the
Mi'kmaq up there, and they intermarried.
By this point, you know, these French
people had been there for generations.
So they had a new identity.
They were now Acadians.
The same way an American wouldn't consider
themself wherever their
root ancestry is from,
they mostly say American.
- In 1755, the British,
like they always do,
were invading some country, right?
- The Acadians didn't want any part of
that. That's y'all's w*r, y'all fight it.
They said, okay, you're being
deported. So they kicked them all out.
- You had the option to
either bow to the crown.
Eh, that's not too bad a deal.
But then they had to renounce Catholicism.
And you wasn't going to get a
bunch of Catholics in, you know,
the 1750's to say I'm not Catholic no more.
A portion of them ran further west.
You know, and that's how New Brunswick
and all that is still very French.
And then the others, some stood and
fought like Beausoleil and all these guys.
You know, they put up a fight, and
sunk boats, and did all these things.
But they were farmers.
They took and separated
all the families, and
I mean, did a lot of
really atrocious stuff.
And they stuck everybody
on these prison ships or sl*ve
ships, and started sending
them down the East Coast.
Most places didn't want them,
because they were refugees, you know?
I mean, not much different than what
you see going on in America today.
So they got denied at all these ports.
We ended up down here more
toward the German coast, New Orleans,
and then gradually came west.
And then at this time,
the Spanish has Louisiana.
The people coming from
Canada would say, you know,
"moi, je suis l'Acadian."
You know, like I'm Acadian.
That ended up getting corrupted
over the years into Cajun.
You know, Acadian, Cadjien, Cajun.
The Spanish were really welcoming.
Because the Spanish were like, "Oh, y'all.
Catholic? Us too. We'll
give you some property."
You know what I mean? "Oh,
y'all know how to raise cattle?"
And they had wanted to expand west from
New Orleans, but nobody wanted to do it.
Because you had the Attakapas and
all these different tribes in these regions
that weren't real excited about all
these people coming, you know?
And for good reason.
But these guys, a lot were already Mtis.
You know, they were already
part Indian, part French, whatever.
And as they came west,
there was a lot of intermingling
with Spanish and African
and Native tribes here,
and like a lot of Senegambian influence.
After the Haitian Revolution, we had a lot
of Haitian people come to South Louisiana.
A lot of the Germans in the
German coast, and all this.
You know, that even today you'll meet a.
Romero or a Zaunbrecher
or any of these names,
And they're like, "Well,
that's a Cajun, you know?"
And it's like, well that's clearly very
Spanish and that's clearly very German.
Dennis McGee, you know? Because he
was like the grandfather of Cajun fiddle.
And they asked him
one time in an interview,
"How you come to speak
French and this and that?"
And he was like, "I'm French."
And they were like, "Well man, you're
a McGee, you know? Like that's -".
And he was like, "Never met a
McGee that don't talk French."
Because to him, I mean,
that was the case, you know?
And it's true. And it's like
that for a lot of people here.
I've got Native, I've got African.
I've got all of these things in me.
You know, but as the American
people started coming in,
because when we were growing up the like
old people would say, "That's Americans."
Like if you spoke
English and you were like
not one of us, that was
Americans, you know?
Those people came with
that very binary system.
You know, like they
would just look at somebody
and say, "Oh, he's a white
man, he's a Black man."
And then that created this wild division,
because it started getting
based on opportunity.
Because if you could pass for white, they'd
say, "Okay, well they white, whatever."
Which gradually developed into,
well the Cajuns are white people,
because you see, look, Acadie,
that's all white, you know?
Modern day, everybody
wants to tell you like, oh, Cajun's
the French white people, and
Creole's the colored people.
And that's...
That's really a crock of sh*t.
It's really tough, because I
feel like our generation has
put a lot more time into learning these
things and being more open-minded
and understanding about
what created what, and
where do we come from,
and why are we who we are.
- Have you done this before?
Cut ducks in here? - Yeah. Oh yeah.
- Joe and I shot these
in my backyard pretty
much, on the bayou right back of my house.
- Ducks are my favorite thing to
cook, probably because of the process.
You know, going out and sh**ting
them myself, and cleaning them.
You can make spaghetti
with duck breasts, you
can make a salad with
duck breasts, you can...
- Joe's made ramen. I went to
his house one time and had ramen.
- Yeah, just recently got
really obsessed with ramen.
- When you're sh**ting
this many ducks, Joe.
- I'm sh**ting just the right number.
- So we've got all our Acadiana
Grammy nominees coming over.
Give them some drinks,
and hope they want to
hang out and have a good
time and eat some ducks.
- The Grammys is not about what
about what kind of music you play,
it's about how well it's played,
produced, and recorded.
If you win a Grammy in traditional music or
in any of these pre-televised categories,
I feel like it really
does mean that it's the
best thing to come out
of that place that year.
Artists that win it from here,
they can put that on their resume,
and people look at that and they
say like, "Wow, Grammy-winning artist."
And so any time you go anywhere, you say
that and that makes everyone give it like,
"I've never heard of
this, but Grammy-winning
artist, wow, I might have
to go check that out."
- It kinda smells like pizza now.
- Like pizza? - Yeah, like a veggie pizza."
- It's not ...It's the peppers.
- It's not like that. - I know it's not.
I know it's not.
I'm well aware.
- All right, Instagram.
I'm going to make them look good.
- They look like bats right now.
- A little bat gravy. Chicken of the cave.
- Some good fruit bats.
[Singing]
- Growing up, we would
go to a lot of festivals
and had friends that
were into Cajun music,
but in particular, there was a
camp that had Southern Week.
And they had old-time and Cajun music.
And for a week we would all be basically
like camping out, so I got in it that way.
But then we would go home I was be like,
"Dad, I really like
this like style of fiddle,
and like, I want to know more about that."
And he was like, "Oh, you
like that? Well, I have all
of these Dennis McGee
records and like Anne's book."
And I was just like, oh.
[Singing]
And I was like, wait, all these people that
I've met and love live in the same place?
Like, I want to be there.
And so I ended up coming and checking it
out, I think spring
break of my senior year.
Some people go to the
beach, I went to Lafayette.
Literally moved to Louisiana with like
$500 and no plans except going to college.
- The dance hall scene
in Louisiana in like 1950's
was huge.
They were everywhere.
Every little town had
their own little dance hall,
and on weekend nights, Friday night,
Saturday night, it'd
be packed to the gills.
La Poussiere is almost like a
time machine for these people,
And you feel like you're
actually in a time machine.
You're in this dance hall that's been there
forever, playing for these old people,
and they want to hear
traditional Cajun music.
You're giving them an outlet to basically
lose themselves and go back in time.
- We come all the way out here
from Arizona to listen to you play.
- Arizona? - I want you to know that.
- Damn. Just for me? - Just for you.
- And you're going home tonight? - No.
- Thank you though. Thanks for coming out.
What's up, dude? How are you?
- Good to see you, man. - Yeah, you too.
- I can't wait to do some more dancing.
- This guy's a great dancer.
- That's why I'm good,
you play that great music.
- Symbiotic, symbiotic.
Gonna be a good weekend.
Got five gigs between now and Sunday.
- That's how you got to
do it, man. Making money.
- That's how you do it, yeah. - Yeah.
- It's kind of like running a
marathon, you know? You've
just got to keep pushing
until you get to the end.
- You don't get tired, right? - No.
I drink a lot of coffee.
- And notice the floor's got
like a little bit of bounce in it.
I think it's like two by four
floor joists. It's made to bounce.
They call it La Poussiere,
which means the dust.
Because when it was first
built, there were no floor
joists. They put the
planks directly on the dirt.
So people were dancing, and all the
dust was coming up through the floor.
And it's funny, these old
people, they walk in, where
they can barely walk, and
they have a cane, you know?
And then they get on the dance floor,
and they just start grooving and shaking.
And you don't get in their
way, they all go in a circle.
If you go the opposite
direction or whatever,
they'll like push you off the dance floor.
So you've got to really like
respect the dancing rules, you know?
They might look old and
feeble, but they're strong.
[Singing]
- It's a four hour dance.
No break.
The "real bands" don't take breaks.
Like if you had to go to the
bathroom, you just go during the song.
Like if I'm playing the accordion, and I
have to go to the - I'll just walk outside,
and the guy will keep playing the fiddle,
and I walk back in and
grab the accordion and play,
and nobody notices.
The song never stops.
[Chanting]
[Chanting, Clapping]
- We should have done that tonight.
- Well, I told you.
- Hey, it's not too late.
- We're going to open
with that tomorrow night.
- It doesn't get any lighter.
You would think after,
you know, all the times.
I've lifted it, it would
get lighter and lighter,
but after a four-hour
gig, it's still pretty heavy.
- The scene that we know it, that they're
going to be talking about in the future,
it's not going to be here anymore.
I don't know what it's going to
take to save what we have here.
We're playing these dance
halls like La Poussiere,
we're playing these festivals for people.
People are coming out, but look at the age.
The age is 65 and older.
It's not going to be here much longer.
- So here's a club that's
not around anymore.
This would be - this was
the Roundup in Duson.
- Harry's club. Isn't that the one?
- That was a big dance hall too.
- Oh, that was a big deal, yeah.
- And there was a bunch of them around.
- Oh yeah.
- After I started playing, it wasn't
long after that that they started closing.
Did that hurt the Cajun
music scene? Definitely.
There were places to play. You
could play any night of the week.
Five nights. You could play seven nights,
seven times a week if you wanted to.
And now I feel like there's
just not as many venues.
- I think once we get to a certain point,
and there's not enough
people supporting it,
and all these Cajun bands
that are surviving right now,
because they get to travel to places like
California and Boston
and other areas, Europe,
it's not going to be there anymore,
there's not going to be any demand for it.
But the trick is you can't
make people support things.
You can't say, oh well you should do
it, it's your duty as a Louisiana citizen.
Not gonna happen.
[Clanking sounds]
- You want to hand me that jigger?
- Oh, it's right behind Joe I think.
- Joe, will you hand me that?
- This guy? - Yeah.
- [Singing] "Welcome to the Kelli
Jones show. There's lots of whiskey."
[Laughter]
All right.
This one's - this is for you.
Tell me - tell me how it is.
We always have gatherings of who knows who.
- It just so happens that the three
Grammy nominees in regional roots...
- Are all friends.
- From around here are all -.
- Who else - did somebody else want one?
- I didn't.
- I just think that it's
cool that everybody's
worked together a bunch
and everybody's friends.
- Out of all the records
that were submitted in the
regional roots category
from all across the nation,
the final five, three of
them were from the small
area known as Acadiana
in Southwest Louisiana.
I mean, I could be at
their houses in 30 minutes.
I think that speaks
pretty highly of what's
coming out of this
area on a national level.
- Regional roots is really like kind
of a well-formed category because
it is a roots music literally from
a small region of the country.
I mean, I know it seems
strange to maybe put it
with like Hawaiian music
and Native American music,
but that's kind of perfect because that's
exactly what they're dealing with as well.
- And at least it means
that we're competing with
someone other than
people from 30 miles away.
And not people that
you know too, you know?
We're competing on a national
level instead of on a state level.
- It's maybe the only
good part of the Grammys.
- But it's pretty fun being
out there, you have to admit.
- I mean, LA is a fun place, sure.
I was like real close to Rihanna.
- Hello. - Hey!
- What's up, buddy?
[Indistinct chatter]
- To this illustrious company
that I'm so proud to be part of.
And see y'all in Hollywood.
[Laughter]
- Cheers. - Cheers.
- That was, by the way ...Cheers, yo.
- That was, by the way, Dewey
Balfa's nickname for Steve Riley.
- Cheers.
- Hollywood, Hollywood. - Hollywood.
- That doesn't surprise me.
- Why are we not
leaving? Well, we've got to
wait for Hollywood, he's
putting on his make-up.
[Laughter]
- We come from a very rich culture
of great music that has inspired us all,
and it really feels beautiful
to be amongst friends, family,
all being nominated for
the highest award in music,
from just a couple zip codes away.
We couldn't make music at this caliber
without the roots that we take from.
So to our ancestors
who made great music, for
helping make us great,
and to all of you. Cheers.
- Amen. - Cheers.
[Glasses clinking]
- Oh, that was an amazing ding.
- And I think the fact that all
of the nominees are friends
is just an extension of
our music community here.
There's not a lot of competition
within our area, I would say,
especially in Cajun music.
A lot of the people that
play Cajun music are seen
together playing in different
configurations all the times.
It's just about being
part of the community,
and being part of people's projects.
And I think that's almost unheard
of in most places in the world,
just how tight-knit the
musical community is here.
[Singing]
- Out of all of the times that
I've had Grammy nominations,
that was the most exciting,
the most special one.
Just to be there sharing it with all of us.
You know, we all just were
happy to be representing
Louisiana, and just
to be part of this group.
[Singing]
- And of course the three groups
all went and none of us won.
I believe a Hawaiian artist won that year.
[Singing]
- We're doing music because that's
what we know and what we love.
We're not working towards winning a Grammy,
we're trying to do the very best we can.
Represent our culture, represent
ourselves, represent our music,
and perform it and
record it as well as we can.
And getting that validation is remarkable,
and it really makes you feel like, I may
not have sold 300 of this record this year,
but the 300 that were
sold really had an impact.
And that is enough to
keep on going right there.
[Chimes]
- What number's the Mardi Gras song?
- L1...hold on. L3.
- Good morning.
Happy Mardi Gras.
- I got together with a
bunch of friends in this area
and we started our own
traditional Courir de Mardi Gras.
A lot of the Cajun Mardi Gras, they
were exclusive based on gender or race,
or they just weren't really the kind of
traditional event that we wanted to share
with all of our friends coming from all
over the world that wanted to see this,
you know, kind of spiritual day.
- Who is that? - Jacob.
- What's up, dude? - How you doing?
- How's it going? - Happy Mardi Gras.
- Oh man.
Let's do it.
- Agh! Agh!
- What's up?
Morning. - Morning. How you doing, sir?
- I'm good. You all ready?
- Oh, yes sir. Yes sir.
- Okay. Y'all need anything from me?
- No, no. We're just going to try to keep
them vehicles off the side of the road.
- Sounds good.
- Just like we did last year.
You all need something, call
me. You've got my number.
I got you.
- I got yours.
- Appreciate it.
- I've just got to pull
this trailer out of here so
nobody has to be driving
back into there this morning.
[Engine starts]
[Radio playing]
- Got to make sure all the
co-capitaines are lined up.
The La Force as they
like to call themselves.
Make sure the girls are
ready to keep everybody in line.
I'm going to have to have
a little drink of something,
and just touch base with
all the different people.
The cooks, the people
doing the registration.
- Yeah!
- Capitaine.
- What's up, partner? - What's up, bro?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you. That's on right now
- I don't know.
- Wake up, Mardi Gras!
Get up!
- Cheers, y'all. - Cheers.
Morning.
- It's not even eight
o'clock yet, by the way.
- Are you ready?
- Say your blessings.
Miss Hilda.
- Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- Bless us Our Lord, and
these thy gifts - These thy gifts.
[Multiple voices] which
we are about to receive
through our bounty through
Christ, our Lord. Amen.
- The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
- All right.
Hilda did this. - Amen.
- God bless the cheese.
- C'est vraiment. - It's the Hilda show.
- Tu crois? - Oui, je crois.
- I was raised Catholic,
and I think for my kids, I think
that's part of their life growing up,
and they're obviously
happy, you know, with that.
Catholicism in this area,
it's definitely part of our community
and it's a big part of Cajun culture.
It's one of the main
reasons why we're all here.
We can go back to the
expulsion of the Acadians.
There is a strong sense
of people living their faith
here whether or not
people are practicing or not.
I mean, that's part of our consciousness,
of like being able to help each other.
That inclusivity.
Without the root of the
Catholic religion in this area,
there really wouldn't be any Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday.
- It's the last day you
can go party before you've
got to give up everything
fun for 40 days, right?
So if you go out drinking
and smoking and flirting
and making out, whatever
you're going to do,
get it out of your system
now before tomorrow.
That's what Mardi Gras originally was.
And they put on costumes and all
this so nobody knows who they are
so that it won't be talked about
badly in church tomorrow, right?
- It still fits.
I've worn this costume
for about four years now.
Miss Scooter made me this.
- People just flock from all over the place
and they want to experience this moment
where you spend time making a costume
and then you use that costume
to hide your identity all day long.
You're with all these people that are
sharing this similar experience incognito.
- Come on, old boy.
All right, let's do it.
- There is more to it. There's
a cultural significance to it, too.
It originally started out as we're going
to go from house to house to house
and ask people for
ingredients to make a gumbo.
And in exchange for that we'll dance and
party for 'em, and just
do that all day long.
Go back and have a huge family party.
- My head's the same size.
- They were forming
community throughout the year.
I mean, it wasn't just
something that they left and
they went home and they only
saw each other once a year.
They would see each other
the next day, and the next day,
and the next day, and the
next day, and the next day.
- It's a family feeling, you know?
You might be a child of one,
but that day you're a child of 500.
You know, you're in
this big family together.
- Joel!
- All good?
- Joel.
- Little princess.
- Hey, what's today?
- Mardi Gras!
- But wait, where's your mask?
- It's in here. - Uh-oh.
If you don't have a mask,
you're going to get tickled.
Oh, you do have a mask. - Ready? Ready?
- Okay, lucky you, because I
was about to start tickling you.
- Don't! - Wait, say where's your mask?
- Where's your mask?
- Let's think about what to
play in the graveyard too.
- What you like?
- I don't know, I like that -.
- We've done Valse Pop a lot.
- Yeah, but we could do it again.
- Whatever.
- And how about your Faquetaigue? - Yeah.
- The two of those?
- That's the theme song, bro.
The team song?
- Let's start with Valse Pop.
- Yeah.
Unless there's another one you like.
- Let's do just you and me, I think.
- Yeah, that's fine.
Edith, can you carry me please?
Come on. - You've gone soft.
- Can you put me in your backpack?
- No.
- Yeah, I'll just get in your backpack.
- Nuh-uh!
- We come from this area where people
use the word "tradition" all the time.
It's traditional music,
or it's traditional.
Cajun cooking, or traditional Cajun dance.
The word tradition is troublesome at best.
If you're a young musician
and you get into Cajun music,
if you want to play
the accordion, you want
to play like Lawrence Walker, Iry LeJeune.
Those are your heroes. Amd Ardoin.
We're fortunate that we have
recordings of these early Cajun musicians.
I think that's a normal part of playing
music. You grow up copying something,
and then you start to
bring in your own influences
and your own life story into your music.
- The Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore
is a repository of old field recordings.
When I worked there, I listened to
probably everything that was in there.
It definitely infuenced my music.
It's like a treasure chest to me.
- What we've always kind of tried to do
with our band is like showcasing music
that's a little bit different from the
normal mainstream Cajun music.
Because there's a lot of
different types of songs,
and a lot of them got
abandoned over the years.
- Kristi was actually the first
archivist that the Archives had.
So she handled a lot of the really
early digitizing and cataloguing work.
Bonsoir, Catin, they've done very
similar things that Feufollet has done.
- What we've done a lot whenever we've
recorded, you know, archival material,
is taken the melody
and the words, but then
sonically kind of put our own stamp on it.
- You know, Femme L'a
Dit, for example, that was
as sparse of an original
recording as you can get.
It was basically just the lyrics of
the tune and, you know, the melody.
[Singing]
[Singing]
- On the last two records
we made before this last
one, there was probably
two songs on each record,
you know, archival material.
And then none on Two Universes.
With Kelli joining the
band, she's very prolific.
She writes a lot of songs.
So we had a lot of material from her.
[Singing]
- Literally this has been out here for ten
minutes, and I already
have a spiderweb in it.
[Laughter]
I'm going to fill it up
like probably halfway.
There's a lot of stuff going in it,
so it's going to take a little bit...
A little bit of time.
The last time I cooked a gumbo this big
was like for a birthday party or something.
I can make a roux, but
I also have to play a gig,
and I got 80 people coming.
Some people think that it's like if
you can't make a roux, then you're not...
Then you're like cheating.
And then my response is like,
I can make a roux.
[Laughter]
I definitely know how to do it.
You know, it's like one of those mom hacks.
You just buy the jar of roux, you know?
[Laughter]
All right, let's see. Where are we going?
We're going to boil pretty soon.
I remember my grandmother making gumbo,
and she was an awesome cook.
She used to cook for everybody.
I cooked a gumbo, and my grandpa came over,
and he started eating
it, and he started crying.
And he goes, "My baby,
this is as good as mama's."
And I was like, "Oh!"
That was like the best
compliment I ever had.
Yeah, my grandpa and I actually, we
made a bus trip to Canada together once
for the World Congress of Acadians.
The cool thing is that
he was invited to do the
very same trip in 1934.
Grandpa wanted to go, but the other
boys in the band, they didn't want to.
They said that, "[Cajun French],"
which meant that they're just
going to make monkeys out of us.
Because at the time there was like this...
This thought that everybody
was just making fun of Cajuns.
You know, like they just want
to put us on a zoo kind of thing.
1918, there were two laws passed.
One was that education had to be
compulsory, so everyone
had to go to school.
And the second was
that it had to be in English.
And so in order to instill this
national pride, there was this push
that we were all going to
become Americans, you know?
What that did here, a little kid
would go to school and speak French,
and you would hear stories
they would get whipped for it.
They would get humiliated.
And so of course you're not
going to want to speak French.
And especially if the culture is
telling you it's not good to be different.
There was this mindset
that like it just wasn't
okay to embrace that part of your culture,
and I think it's because
the French, and Cajuns
were stupid, and you know, all that stuff.
Well, when I was fourteen in 1994,
I got invited to go to the
World Congress of Acadians.
And he came with me.
And it was like the trip of a
lifetime for him, because he like -.
I'm going to cry. He wanted
to go so bad, you know?
And we had a blast,
because we played music, and
people just went crazy over it, you know?
It was awesome.
- It's no different than when people
say like, "This is America, speak English."
When I see somebody that's, you
know, like a Boudreaux saying that,
there's few things that make me more
angry than that, you know what I mean?
Because it's like that's what
they told your grandma when
she was a little kid and
needed to go to the bathroom
and couldn't and was stuck
in school, you know? Like...
They literally did come
in and beat this into little
kids, like physically
beat this into little kids,
to where they've grown
up with these mentalities.
And they don't realize
this is what was instilled
in you to intentionally
divide you and change you.
There was definitely that whole generation
that saw it as bad to talk French.
But it's because they were
taught that as children, you know?
Just like Hispanics today,
they're growing up being told like,
if you don't speak this,
you're not good, or you're not
smart, or you're not right for
some kind of way, you know?
If you don't have your own language,
what are you doing to your identity?
And this is literally the
language of our families.
I think it's important if that's your
language, you speak it every day.
If it's not your language, but it was
your parents' and your grandparents',
I think it's important to learn
and try to speak it every day.
You're either living your culture,
or you're k*lling your culture.
To me, Mardi Gras,
this is a cultural holiday.
And if I'm going to celebrate it, I'm going
to celebrate it in my cultural language.
Comment a va, mardi gras?
[Shouting, Cheering]
coute, combien de
monde ici parle franais?
[Cheering] Pas trop de monde.
- They're all from the Pacific Northwest.
[Laughter]
- This has been going
on almost six centuries.
And y'all a part of all that now,
and we expect you to appreciate it,
and treat it like it's something
that's bigger than yourself.
We're here to have a good
time, we're here to cut up.
But don't f*ck it up.
[Laughter, Cheering]
- Il y a combien de monde ici qui sont
pars pour avoir du fun, Mardi Gras?
[Cheering]
- It's not a bunch of
floats, it's not a bunch of
wagons, it's not people in
regular clothes watching.
If you're coming, you're participating.
- We try to keep it as like traditional,
while welcoming out of town friends.
Other traditional Cajun country
Mardi Gras runs will be all men.
- The whole point of
starting this Mardi Gras
was to be all inclusive.
It's open to anybody that wants to come,
whatever your race,
whatever your sex, anything.
- And encouraging people that we
meet traveling to come and experience
not New Orleans Mardi Gras, but like this.
Cajun country Mardi
Gras and what it's about.
Capitaine: [singing] Donnez
quelque chose pour le mardi gras.
Groupe: [singing] Donnez
quelque chose pour le Mardi Gras.
- And then somebody's going to call
some more words and then you say.
Groupe: [singing] Donnez
quelque chose pour le Mardi Gras.
Capitaine: Donnez quelque chose
pour le Mardi Gras pour Faquetaigue.
Groupe: [singing] Donnez
quelque chose pour le Mardi Gras.
Capitaine: Trs bien, trs
bien. That's perfect. Merci, merci.
[Cheering]
- Get down! Get down!
- Don't look at me!
Don't look at me!
- Everybody face down.
Face down.
- Face down!
- Are you over 21?
Who else?
- I want you to get up
and I want you to run.
Allons commencer courir. Trs
bien, trs bien. Allons pratiquer danser.
[Cheering]
- Let's go, Mardi Gras! Let's roll out.
We're going to head out to the
trailer, Mardi Gras, let's go, let's move.
[Whistling]
Move, move, move!
[Whistling]
- I feel like when people see that
it's, well if they can do it, I can do it.
So the more people that try to talk
French, the more people that will try.
And the more people trying as a collective
whole, the more everybody benefits.
That's one thing really
good about the music,
is brains retain songs
in a very weird way.
You know, unintentionally.
So once you learn the lyrics to
music, you've got these full sentences.
So you've got sentence
structure, you've got grammar,
you've got all these things
that you're picking up.
If you want to learn, like the easiest
way to me, just learn a bunch of songs.
- Hey guys, how's it going?
So I thought today we
would learn this Balfa.
Brothers tune called "Mon n'onc' Charlot",
which is "My Uncle Charlot."
- I do really love the
like French aspect of it,
and how it has this kind of
almost mysterious quality of like
a lineage that not a lot of people
even in the U.S. know about.
[Singing]
Which somebody told me was a clubbed foot.
- Just so like she can't dance the waltz.
- Yeah, it doesn't matter
if it's a waltz or a mazurka,
because I know you have a clubbed foot.
[Laughter]
You know, that age old story.
Some of it's silly like lyric wise,
but like probably people
that don't speak French
don't even know that
they're as weird as they are.
"Petite Ou La Grosse," which is
like a song that a lot of people sing,
the little one, or the
big one, or the fat one.
It's the same price.
I don't know, it's just like really weird.
You don't hear that anywhere else.
I don't know, I think it's very
important. I think it's like the basis.
- When I write in French,
there's something about it that's so
different than when I write in English.
The language itself is
so important to the sound.
Like the old Amd Ardoin
songs and stuff like that,
It wasn't just like the
words he was saying.
Yeah, that was important,
but like the sounds of it.
You know, it resonates with people here.
You could go to Artmosphere or
whatever, and there's like 100 kids
dancing, and they don't have no idea
what you're saying on stage, you know?
But if- there's something
about the sound of the French.
It's deep.
It's not just, you know, we have to
preserve this because it's ours. It's...
I think it goes deeper than that.
It's like a...
It's almost like in our DNA, you know?
[Singing]
[Singing]
[Whooping, Cawing]
[Whooping, Cawing intensifies]
- You see these [Cajun French]?
[Cheering]
- Let's go!
[Singing, call and response]
[Cheering]
- Let's hear it for the capitaine!
[Cheering]
- It's almost a dreamlike
experience to be part of that.
When you finally get down to this little
house about 20 minutes after it starts,
you sing the traditional Mard Gras
song they taught you that morning.
They're stopping at each
house and inviting the neighbors
to a party and asking if they
can contribute something.
And they're acting up, and
they're having fun, they're dancing,
and they're trying to walk away from
that neighbor's house with something.
- Are the people kind enough
to let us come on their land?
[Cheering]
And I expect y'all to entertain them.
[Cheering]
I expect y'all to dance.
[Cheering]
I expect y'all to sing.
[Cheering]
And I expect y'all to give
me that g*dd*mn bird.
[Cheering]
Hold on, hold on, hold up!
Do you see a flag? You
have not got permission yet.
Villanes, Villaines!
They getting feisty up here.
Get back. - Get back, get back.
Get back. Get back.
- Get back, get back!
- Get back! Back, back!
[Cajun French]
[Cheering]
[Horns]
[Cheering]
- Sometimes a neighbor
will give you a sack
of potatoes, some
rice, it could be anything.
But the fun thing for the neighbor
to give the group is a live chicken.
So they'll throw a live
chicken up in the air,
and then all the Mardi Gras
will have to chase after it.
The idea is to come back here and have
a big party where everybody comes over,
and we cook all the chickens
and cook all the stuff that we had.
- Y'all want a chicken?
[Cheering]
- Beg then. Beg. Let me
see you beg, come on.
Go on and sing. Come on everybody.
[Singing]
[Cheering]
[Singing]
- Joel just did it right. He just knew
what Mardi Gras was actually about.
This community aspect where
you actually are going from house to
house to get ingredients, and
you're actually doing all these things,
you really feel that community spirit.
It's the same thing that we as musicians
feel a lot when we do things locally,
we're playing locally.
- I think today is
probably the first day of the
year that we could say is
actually gumbo weather.
I think that's a good sign.
We're making a new record,
and so we're just throwing a house concert.
Trying to find ways to like fund that.
But also in a way that people
feel connected to our project.
And everybody's kind of
pitching in, like my mom.
My mom showed up this morning, she said,
"I cooked six pots of rice this morning."
I said, "All right!"
Here we go.
Ah.
All right, I'm going
to stir that, and let it...
Let it cook down.
In the 1960's, like late '60s,
during the Civil Rights era,
there was a group of young Cajuns that were
of college age and late high school age
that jumped on that folk
revival scene, you know?
The Civil Rights movement, and
they applied it to our Cajun culture.
They're saying like,
hey, this is our culture, we
should embrace this and
not be ashamed of this.
- Whenever Cajuns first went up to
the Newport Folk Festival in the '60s,
Cajun music all of a
sudden was in the spotlight.
The media started flocking to Louisiana.
The people wanted to find the Cajuns.
They wanted to find out more about this
mysterious music that
they had never heard of,
that was Americans speaking in French,
operating in French, singing in French.
Quickly, everyone wanted to
just start being Cajun again,
and they realized that it was
an asset instead of a stigma.
- They started pushing for
French immersion programs.
- You had groups like CODOFIL come
through and start really making a push
to reinstill the French back into
all of these French kids, you know?
- Because I think people
had this idea of like it's gone
forever and that's it, there's
nothing we can do about it.
But it was like no, there
is a practical solution.
What you do is you put these kids in
school and they go to French all day.
And there you go, it's sort of a new...
A rebirth of the language.
[Singing]
[Cheering, applause]
- Kristi Guillory wrote that, y'all.
- What?
- You sing that, babe! - Love that!
- This next one's one
that I learned from the.
Archives of Cajun and
Creole Folklore at UL
during my time when I was working there.
And if you don't know anything
about the archives at UL,
it's all music that's not
commercially released.
You know, when we think of
a lot of Cajun music, we think
of like stuff that's been put
out on records and CDs, but
there was a whole other world of music
that people would sing and play at home.
Being in there changed my life.
It made me think about Cajun
music in a whole other way.
It opened up a whole other level of
melodies that were possible, you know?
Because the melodies were
so beautiful, and the lyrics.
You know, it makes me want to cry, but...
So this is one of these songs that I
heard, and it was a lady in New Iberia,
her name was Lunida Comeaux,
and she had this really high little voice.
I mean, it was almost
like mice were singing this.
[Laughter]
But this song was so incredible, and
the lyrics were so cool because they...
It's about the martyrdom of St. Catherine.
She's sitting in her kitchen
and she kneels down to pray,
and her father who's a pagan
comes in and he sees her,
and he goes to grab the sword from
under the table to chop her head off.
And he chops her head off, and when he does
the angels come down
and they sing "Hallelujah."
- Oh Jesus.
- So what did I do?
I turned this into a dance song.
[Laughter]
- The reason that I
founded the record label,
and the reason that I am so passionate to
support people like
Jourdan and Kelli and Kristi,
and people that are writing
songs and Cajun music,
is because I want to see more
people take what's inside of them
and the music that they've
heard their whole lives,
and say, "I love this stuff and
now I want to write a song."
And the music starts to
change and the music grows.
[Singing]
I've had some older
people come to me and say,
"Well, that don't sound like
the traditional music, you know?"
Or people that's not from here say, "Well,
that doesn't sound like Cajun music."
- Once somebody told me
a story about Dewey Balfa
wanting to bring his steel guitar
player to a festival in Rhode Island,
and they were like, "No,
we want the traditional stuff."
They're telling Dewey Balfa
what is authentic Cajun music,
and he's like, "I play with
this guy every weekend.
He's my guy, he's in my band."
They're like, "Well, we
just want the real stuff."
- We play all these dance
halls and people love it.
- Yeah, like in Louisiana. They're
like, "We want the real stuff."
This is the real stuff.
Like, me playing through
a Fender Twin with
the reverb cranked up is how we do it now.
- When you play something
and it's like not a Cajun two-step,
and they're like, "I really miss when you
guys did that traditional stuff, you know?"
And you're like, "Okay,
well we also did a lot of that."
So like one breath of that in our
set should be okay for the world.
We listen to other music as well.
If we want to incorporate
that, it should be fine.
It's our artistic statement and not theirs.
If they want to start a band,
they can do whatever they want.
[Singing]
- But people do get
kind of bent out of shape
when we play music that's
not traditional Cajun standard.
But some of the most interesting
things that people end up really liking
are the things that aren't that.
- They don't know what they want.
[Laughing]
And I don't know what they want.
But I know what I want to
do, so that's really all I can do.
[Singing]
- What makes Cajun music Cajun music?
It don't matter what I play,
when it's going to come out, that's
Cajun music because it's me that did it.
I mean, I'll always
have a place in my heart.
I love playing traditional
songs and old stuff,
but to me the preservation of it is
just continuing to do what they did.
They lived.
Like they created songs, they made music.
You can hear the times,
you can hear the eras, and the
things they were living
through through their music.
- It's changing, and it's going to
grow, and it's going to be different.
It's not going to make everybody happy.
It's never going to look exactly
like it did a hundred years ago,
but it's going to keep the same core values
and I think that's what's important,
and I feel very confident in the
future of Cajun music because of that.
- Awesome.
- That was fun.
Here, I'll give you a hand.
- Okay, but I can carry this.
- I don't mind.
No, I got this. It's all that mom stuff.
- How many accordions you got, two?
Look, that black one
over there must be his.
[Singing] "We goin' do that butt thang."
[Singing] "Kinda like that nookie thang."
Hey, what's up y'all?
That is yours, isn't it?
- No, this is mine.
- Wait, you don't have two accordions?
- No, no, that's Walter Mouton's.
- Oh, that's embarrassing. I just stole
Walter Mouton's accordion by accident.
Wow, that would have been a scandal.
- There are other young people
who want to learn this stuff.
And thank god there's an
outlet for those people to
learn music, and play music, and mingle,
and get to know more other
musicians like themselves.
- Hey, I saw you walk up,
you and Jason, I was like
who's that hippie next to him, you know?
I'm only playing five times this weekend.
- Yeah, what time y'all play tonight?
- Well, here at 6:15, and then
tonight at Blue Moon around eleven.
Main stage, yeah.
- 6:15. - Y'all should come.
Actually, you know what you should
do is help me think of something funny,
because every year I play
I want to do a funny stunt.
Like you know the legend about
Wayne Toups and shackles?
I walk up in shackles like in -.
But then I break them
off. I break them off.
[Cheering, applause]
Tonight, we're making
a wish come true, y'all.
Mr. Ervin Frey, here we go.
- Am I really doing this?
I am? I'm really doing this?
- Music's always been a good
way to influence people to move,
and it's the same thing at Mardi Gras.
[Cheering, shouting]
- They're already climbing the pole.
- Chicken pole, chicken pole!
- The chicken pole, we make
a stop in the middle of the run,
we got to take a break and
eat a little lunch, you know?
Because that's an all day affair, and
we probably started drinking at six a.m.
Come lunch time, you need a
little something on your stomach.
- Who wants a boudin?
- Hey, I got a new song I wrote.
I got a new song, want to play it?
It's called "Cajun Music."
I want y'all to sing along.
- Oh, come on! Let's
go, let's go, let's go!
- It's like a fist fight as a team building
exercise, you know what I mean?
Like it's so weird.
But it's true. I mean,
everybody is working together,
but at the same time you're kind of not.
Because you always got the
ones that want to be the one to do it.
So those people are just,
I mean, clawing their way to the top.
Other people are like,
they just want to see it get
done, so they're trying to help.
It really is kind of
representative of life.
Society's kind of that way.
Some just want to boost others, and
others want to be the one on top, you know?
[Singing]
- Climb the pole.
I've got to get through.
- Come on. - Get up there.
- No, here, let me do Ryan. Let me do Ryan.
- It's the idea of chasing a chicken,
this is just a harder
way to get to the chicken.
And every year it's like this huge,
writhing mass of people down at the base.
I do it every year.
It's fun to just like...
It's this big like bonding,
community thing.
Like you've got to get up there, and
people are stepping on each other,
people are getting kicked in the
face, people are getting trampled.
- I can't f*ck' do it.
[Cheering, shouting]
- I'm going to fight you now!
[Cheering]
[Singing]
- It really is a tremendous
community though,
because it's very supportive of each other.
None of us have this goal
to be like some big shot.
Like, you're not going to be. You play
French music, you know what I mean?
What we do is what we
do, and that's the end of it.
- When I was playing in these night clubs,
it's not like there was a bunch of
20-something-year-olds hanging out.
So there wasn't like another
group of people to take over.
I mean, there wasn't
even thirty-somethings.
It was like old folks
and then me.
Even in 1990, the average
age was probably 60, 70.
Eighty.
- But the good thing is people like
Kristi and this younger generation,
you know, it's taken a while but
they've got a pretty good little following.
- Yeah.
- Of younger kids now,
because I have a little
cousin that's 24, and they're
out every night of the
week if they can dancing.
And I think that's kind of why
we supported her so much,
because I think we saw it die.
It's true.
I think that's why the old people
appreciated her so
much too because it was...
- Well, it gave them hope.
- Yeah, that's it.
- It definitely gave them hope. - Yeah.
- I hope that there's more young
people that continue to play music.
I hope that there's more people
who can grow up appreciating it.
I think that sometimes
you have to teach people
to see the beauty in something.
Festivals Acadiens is special, because
it takes what was just sort of what
people took for granted, Cajun music,
chanky chank,
it took that and put it on a stage,
showcased it, made it special.
[Singing]
[Cheering, applause]
Merci.
Cajun sausage on a bun or a stick,
that's what that guy's got over there.
I wouldn't mind a good old cup of iced
coffee right now. That'd be good, huh?
Nice. Oh, this is it? All
right, y'all fast. All right.
Thank you.
- Yeah!
[Cheering, shouting]
- Football game today.
If there's a football game scheduled,
don't book a gig because
you're going to lose.
I don't care who the band is, you
know? That's just the way it is here.
One thing I've learned, I've been
doing this for twelve years now,
playing this festival,
you got to pace yourself.
Always get your eight hours.
And don't drink too much.
For every one beer,
one water and one coffee.
[Singing]
- Thank you so much.
It's so amazing to see everybody
come up and play all these songs,
that when I actually first moved here, this
was one of my favorite bands to go see.
So such an amazing group of people to
be friends with and see the evolution of.
[Cheering, applause]
- What's going on, my
brother? Good to see you, man.
- Good to see you,
sir. Yes sir, absolutely.
Cajun music's going to live on forever.
- I agree.
- It's amazing how the
young generation has grown
to grab this and take
it all into another level.
Which, our levels are going
to just keep on moving going.
- Keep them going.
And yet keeping the roots there, you know?
- Keeping the roots. Never lose the roots.
- A tree grows, it keeps going
up and up and up and up and up,
but the roots are always there.
- That is right, that is right.
That is absolutely right.
Savoy, always good to see you.
- I'll see y'all later.
- People identify with
Cajun or zydeco music
because they feel this
earthiness, realness to it.
You know, the music's so real,
the people that are playing it are real,
and the story behind it is so interesting.
And it's still here, and it's so unique.
You know that you're carrying on this
tradition that people before you had done,
the Balfas and Amd Ardoin, Iry LeJeune,
they laid the foundation.
And some day some people would hopefully
look back at us and be like, oh,
those guys were the next stepping stone
into what they're doing now.
They kept it traditional, but they also
tweaked it enough to
keep up with modern times.
So to know that you're not only
keeping a tradition going, but also
adding something that is of
worthwhile interest to other people,
it's a good feeling.
[Low horn blaring]
- Today's all about fun and cutting up,
but we're going to take a minute
and we're going to pay homage
to a very important person
in the history of our music
and the history of our culture.
This is a cemetery, these are real people,
so don't do nothing you wouldn't
want nobody doing on top of your grave.
If you want to take off your
mask, take off your hat, feel free.
Let's do this thing.
- Mardi Gras is a good day to
stop and reflect and think about
where you are in life, where
you've been, and where you're going.
When I look at this graveyard,
and you look at our ancestors,
they all died. They left it all behind.
Their trucks, their house,
their land, their money.
But there are some things that they left
behind that we still
have with us here today.
They left behind some
very important traditions,
they left behind ways that
we looked out for each other,
year after year.
So when you think about your own self,
know that one day you're going to be gone,
and you might think about what
you are going to leave behind.
Because there will be people there to
receive the things that you leave behind.
- Yeah. - Amen.
[Cheering, applause]
- Dennis McGee left this behind for us.
We're going to play it for y'all right now.
Valse Pop.
- You're in a graveyard, and
you're thinking about your own life.
You know, you might have had a rough
year and you're realizing that this is
finally a moment for you to stop and
reflect on everything that's going on.
It's a pretty powerful moment.
[Singing]
- It's almost like that runner's
high that people talk about.
You went through all
this pretty hard stuff,
you know, getting
whipped, and being in the
sun all day long, and
trudging through mud,
and then you get back and
you can't wait to do it again.
Everyone's in it together, and you're
pushing each other to make it to the end.
We can do it, we can make it, we
can survive, we can get to the end.
And you get to the end,
and everyone passes out.
It's just they're so
tired, but they survived it.
[Singing]
- I think it's significant,
it's almost like a metaphor of working
almost until death just
to keep this thing going.
Keep it going, whatever it is. Whether
it's the Mardi Gras or the music, whatever.
It's almost a metaphor for
that, like we're going to work
almost to death to make this thing work.
But in the end it's all
going to be worth it,
when you can just finally
relax and be like, we did it.
[Cheering, applause]
- All right, Mardi Gras. Allons.
[Shouting]
[Whistling] - Allons.
- If there's one thing I
could ask you to ever see,
it's that this ain't a history
book, this ain't a museum,
this is a living, breathing culture.
And if ever, if ever there's
something that I'm remembered,
it's that you understood from me
the fact that if you're
not living your culture,
you are k*lling your culture,
and there is no in between.
There's no middle ground.
And I pray, I honestly
pray with my whole heart
more often than I care to admit
that you will join me in living it.
- It ain't like you got to do everything.
You know, like, oh well he don't do
this one thing so he ain't the real deal.
That don't matter.
But if you got your one thing, do it.
And save it.
[Singing]
- Let's make some noise!
- I feel like that spirit's
kind of coming back,
like the desire to actually
experience and live this life
instead of being a bystander or going,
sitting and watch
somebody else do something.
Because this is something that,
it's not a spectator sport, you know?
Like, you live it.
[Singing]
[Singing]
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Roots of Fire (2023)
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