Hailing from Mamou, Louisiana, the “Cajun Music Capital of the World,” Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys introduced fiddle- and accordion-driven Cajun dance music to a receptive crowd in Shepard Park Wednesday evening, Aug. 5. The concert was part of the Lake George Arts Project’s Summer Concert Series, which brings nationally recognized musicians to Lake George every Wednesday night throughout the summer.
Steve Riley is a top name in Cajun music, receiving multiple awards from the Cajun French Music Association, including Accordionist of the Year in 1996. The band’s 2011 release, Grand Isle, was nominated for a Grammy award. Grand Isle, Louisiana is a beach community off the coast in the Gulf of Mexico. It continues to suffer the effects of the 2010 BP oil spill, and the album is a tribute to this “Cajun Riviera.”
Part of keeping the Cajun culture alive is continuing the use of the Creole French language, and it is in this language Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys sing. According to Riley, a quarter-million people still speak Creole French. Many years of isolation in the swamps of Southern Louisiana allowed the culture to thrive undiluted. “That is why,” Riley says, “we have one of the richest cultures in the world.”
The band offered up stories to accompany their tunes, providing some Southern Louisiana history and geography. “Pointe-aux-Chênes” sings of the Louisiana Gulf Coast fishing town of the same name. Its coastal location makes it one of the first towns to be struck by hurricanes, making its inhabitants a rugged group. It is tough place to live, and according to the song, an even tougher place to find love.
The accordion is an integral part of their music. Riley had two on the stage. His smaller, Cajun accordion, he says, came from Marc Savoy, and is the “Rolls Royce of accordions. The Accordion was originally brought to the French Louisiana region by Germans. When the instrument became unavailable during World War II, musician Sidney Brown created the Cajun accordion, making him the first American accordion builder. It differs from the hefty piano accordion played by C.J. Chenier, who brought his Zydeco music to Shepard Park earlier this summer. The Cajun model features rows of small buttons rather than a full keyboard.
The Lake George Arts Project concert series continues next Wednesday, Aug. 12, with the jazz of Cyrille Aimée. Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.at the Shepard Park Amphitheatre. Admission is free.