The page is dedicated to spreading Cajun and Zydeco music and dance. The World Wide Web is an every expanding resource and it is often difficult to find the important information. I hope to point out the most interesting and useful resources, and I also try to arrange them in a logical way. When I started this page in 1995, there was not much out there on Cajun or Zydeco. Now there are thousands of pages and well as countless references in articles and such. The page does not and can not hope to catalogue every mention of Cajun or Zydeco on the web. Moreover, the web is very fluid with pages and their address changing frequently, a feature that renders an up to date catalogue near impossible.
I started this page in 1996 when I was in Graduate school and had first seen the World Wide Web. At this time, I had become enthralled with Cajun music after hearing Filé play at a local bar in Baltimore, MD. After that I took a trip to the New Orleans Jazz Fest and got a swamp bug on my back, so to speak. Now I mainly travel to Lafayette area to hear music. I also promote Cajun and Zydeco on the East Coast as well as teaching dance lessons.
If you have a paragraph to an essay about your experience with Cajun music, whether inside or outside Louisiana, please send it to Johnathon. We welcome information about events both new and old. This page is as much about preserving the recent history as it is about preserving the cultural heritage passed down to us by the Cajuns! Laissez les bons temps rouler!
What is Cajun and zydeco music?
These are addressed in another page - Information for Newcomers to Cajun and Zydeco.
A good source of instructional books and videos is What Bayou Trading Company (153 W. Landry, Opelousas, LA 70570, Phone: Toll Free 1-888- 942-2575, outside USA 1-337-942-2575). If you are looking for lyrics for Cajun songs, try Yé Yaille Chere! From the What Bayou Trading Company book page "This is the most comprehensive book on Cajun songs. Includes the most common lyrics and the melody in standard notation. Some controversy over some of the songs, but this is folk music after all and it is hard to pin down the definitive versions of many of the songs".
A good source of videos is What Bayou Trading Company or Floyd's Record Shop (PO Drawer 10 -434 East Main, Ville Platte, LA 70586, 800-738-8668) . If you are looking for information on the some of the videos available, I have some of that information listed here on a dance instruction page. I also have a list of great mailorder sources that lists other sources of videos.
My pages don't play music because I find it annoying, not because I don't know how to add it. I listen a lot music on my computer, and I don't like when page I am browsing overrides my choice and plays music that I 'm not interested in hearing. Also, I try to keep my pages free of frivolous stuff that increases download time. If you do want to hear Cajun and Zydeco, please see my online audio page. I highly recommend that you check out KBON - great music from Louisiana, 24 hours a day.
Wilson "Boozoo" Chavis ( 1930 - 2001 )
Review: The Music of Joe Simien
Review: Cajun & Zydeco Dance videos
Keenan Report on the Cajun Dance scene in Denver, CO
Cajun Music Experience in the Orlando Area
Keenan Report on the Cajun Dance scene in Houston, TX
Keenan Report on the Cajun Dance scene in Las Vegas, NV
Cajun Music, Cultural Revival: Theorizing Political Action in Popular Music
Southwestern Louisiana Travel Notes 2003
Southwestern Louisiana Travel Notes 2006
A radio postcard from the Louisiana Creole culture in Houston, TX