By JIM HANCE

Old Crow Medicine Show has been around for 25 years and has released about 20 albums and singles through those years. Its members are still pretty young compared to some of the other bands appearing at Suwannee Roots Revival. And they have something going for them even the other bands that have been performing together for twice that many years don’t have: broad commercial success. Being discovered by bluegrass legend Doc Watson in 2000 helped to propel them into recording their first album, Eutaw, in 2002, and then their highly successful album, O.C.M.S. in 2004. Ketch Secor wrote a song he called “Wagon Wheel” based on the sketch of a tune he discovered by Bob Dylan, and with Dylan’s consent the tune was published on O.C.M.S. with author credits of Secor/Dylan. The tune became a signature tune for Old Crow, and was later recorded by country artists Clay Underwood in 2009, Scott Shelby in 2012, and Darius Rucker in 2013. The band made frequent appearances on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, further building a reputation as a new top-tier band in the roots music category. Old Crow Medicine Show, with a following in roots, country, folk and rock genres, is the perfect headliner for the Suwannee Roots Revival festival.


Open mics at the Little Grill Diner

Ketch Secor and Chris “Critter” Fuqua met in the seventh grade in Harrisonburg, Virginia and began playing old time folk music together. They performed open mics at the Little Grill Diner. Secor had been going to Mt. Jackson, VA to the bluegrass Saturday night in the summer, and the Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia to participate in the Old-Time Music week there. Secor formed the Route 11 Boys with other budding musicians he met performing at Little Grill.


Hitting the road busking

Moving to upstate New York to attend college, Secor broke up his band in Virginia and mixed with other musicians in the area’s lively old time music scene. With Fuqua, Secor added Willie Watson, Ben Gould and Kevin Hayes to his regular playing buddies to form a group they called Trans:mission. With a cassette of ten songs they could sell on the road, they embarked on a tour busking across Canada to the west coast, circling back to settle into a farmhouse near Boone, North Carolina, where they were embraced by the Appalachian community. Their repertoire of old-time songs grew as they played with local musicians.


Discovered by Doc Watson

A sculpture of Doc Watson was installed outside a pharmacy at the corner of King and Depot streets in Boone, North Carolina in 2011, informing visitors that this is sacred territory for bluegrass music. That’s where the Old Crow Medicine Show was performing in 2000 when a woman led her blind father to hear the music. When introduced to the man as Doc Watson, the band began to play a well-known old-time tune they thought he might like, “Oh My Little Darling.” When they finished, Doc Watson said, “Boys, that was some of the most authentic old-time music I’ve heard in a long while. You almost got me crying.” Watson invited the band to participate in his annual MerleFest Music Festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

“That gig changed our lives, and we look to it as a pivotal turning point as Old Crow Medicine Show,” said Secor. He and Fuqua wrote a song about being on the corner in Boone and being discovered by Doc Watson. The tune honors Doc Watson and the high country blues sound.


Embraced by Nashville — and Marty Stuart

The chance encounter with Doc Watson led the same year to playing an outdoor Opryland Plaza show in Nashville. They made a move to Nashville, where they were embraced and mentored by Marty Stuart, who first heard the group perform at the Nashville-area Uncle Dave Macon Days Festival. They were added to Stuart’s Electric Barnyard Old-Fashioned Country Variety Show bus tour with acts like Merle Haggard and Connie Smith. Soon they were opening for Nashville artists that included Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs and Del McCoury. In 2001, Old Crow Medicine Show made its debut at the Ryman Auditorium to play a four-minute song that received a standing ovation and a call for an encore.

The band was performing at the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland when Marty Stuart unexpected appeared on stage. In front of the assembled Cleveland crowd, Stuart invited Old Crow Medicine Show to formally join the family and be inducted as ‘Member #201’ into the Grand Ole Opry, which occurred on September 17, 2013. (Keith Urban, and Darius Rucker — Rucker had just made “Wagon Wheel” a top 40 pop hit — had been inducted the previous year.)  

Headquartered in Nashville since 2001, Old Crow purchased and outfitted a building as their recording studio for new music projects and a live streaming variety show they produced called Hartland Hootenanny. “I approached the other Old Crows and said, ‘I really want to start a show that’s a cross between the Grand Ole Opry and Pee Wee’s Playhouse,’” said Secor. You can find the archived programs on the Old Crow Medicine Show YouTube home page, or check the page at crowmedicine.com/hartland-hootenanny where the episodes can be searched by featured guest.


Appalachian tunes with punk energy

Variously described as old-time, Americana, bluegrass, alternative country, and folk-country, the group started out infusing old Appalachian sounds with new punk energy. Country Music Television described their style of music as “tunes from jug bands and traveling shows, back porches and dance halls, southern Appalachian string music and Memphis blues.”

“We just knew we wanted to combine the technical side of the old sound with the energy of a Nirvana,” Fuqua stated. Starting from old-time music in the Appalachian hills, the group found themselves making a foray into electric instruments and infusing a bit of rock’n’roll with their 2008 release Tennessee Pusher.
Country music producer and musician Dave Rawlings offered, “I’ve always thought that a really important thing that the Old Crow Medicine Show brought to the table was new songs. Some reinterpreted old ones, some really nicely written and brand new — with the old flavor, but also with that vitality.”

Asked about their early influences for music, Ketch Secor said John Hartford performed for his first grade class in Missouri, compelling him to play the banjo after that. Secor listed his major influences: “Certainly, Bob Dylan... Bob Dylan... Bob Dylan. More than anything else. More than any book or song or story or play. The work and the recorded work of Bob Dylan. It’s the most profound influence on me. And then the other people that really influenced me tend to be the same people who influenced Bob Dylan.”

Critter Fuqua said he was infatuated with Guns N’ Roses and their 1987 release Appetite for Destruction in seventh grade. From then he knew he wanted to be a musician. Fuqua wrote “Take ‘Em Away” when he was 17, loosely based on Mance Lipscomb, a blues singer and sharecropper from Navasota County who he says “was a big influence on me.” Fuqua added that Bob Dylan was a huge influence on him as a songwriter.


A Bob Dylan homage in 2017

In 2016, Old Crow Medicine Show, all fiddles and banjos, decided to perform Dylan’s iconic Blonde on Blonde album in its entirety to mark its 50th anniversary. A live Old Crow Medicine Show album was released in 2017.

Rick Bayles for Americana-UK.com wrote a review of the album. “It’s worth taking a moment to remember just what an important record Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde is. It’s credited with being the first ever double album in rock music. It’s also reckoned to be at the very root of country rock — the first time rock musicians had gone to Nashville with the intention of working with session country players to produce a distinctive sound. It was a major influence on the Byrds, Gram Parsons, the Eagles, and many more. It is one of the great albums of the modern age and is still recognized as one of Dylan’s own personal best. You don’t mess with a legacy like that!”

But Ketch Secor and the band did just that, and highlighted a connection between Bob Dylan and Americana music that had been largely unobserved. Bayles described a key difference between Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde and the OCMS interpretation: “The original is a studio-crafted album involving some of the finest musicians of the time, while the new cover is an all-live affair played by a single, integrated unit who have been on the road together for many years. In both cases the musicianship is outstanding, but the feel is very different. By all accounts Dylan knew he was creating something special.”  

Bayles wrote that the songs by OCMS are performed a bit faster than the originals in order to grab the attention of their live audience. “They play these songs in exactly the same order as they appeared on the original album so they don’t have time to build a mood — they have to grab the audience by the neck and drag them along with them, and they do it with exuberance and verve. From the opening ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35’ they’re off and running and you’d better keep up!”

He also says OCMS found the country heart in Dylan’s songs and you start to see just how much country music is in some of Dylan’s earlier work. “This really is a great interpretation of a great album and you would do well to check it out. And then go back and re-visit the original as well. They really don’t make them like that anymore.”

The 2024 schedule for Suwannee Roots Revival is not posted yet, but most likely Old Crow Medicine Show will have the main Amphitheater Stage on Saturday night. You might want to be there.


Discography
Eutaw (2001)
Live (2003)
O.C.M.S. (2004)
Big Iron World (2006)
Tennessee Pusher (2008)
Carry Me Back (2012)
Remedy (2014)
50 Years of Blonde on Blonde (2017)
Volunteer (2018)
Live at the Ryman (2019)
Paint This Town (2022)
Jubilee (2023)

By Jim Hance

You can’t be too careful protecting yourself from con artists these days. Even if you live in a “safe” neighborhood, it’s a good idea to have a security system that includes monitoring. Even if you have a great lock on your bicycle, it’s a good idea to keep it indoors out of sight of passersby when you’re not riding it. Even if your computer and smart phone are protected from intruders with up-to-date virus and malware protection, it’s a good idea to know where the threats to your privacy and security will likely be coming from.

That’s why I picked up The Cyber Attack Survival Manual by Nick Selby and Heather Vescent. It’s a (relatively) fun read with lots of illustrations and stories throughout. And quite an adventure into the underworld of the darkweb where the unimaginable crimes are being concocted by bad guys. The tips on safe computing aside, some of the stories in the book are hair-raising. You won’t likely be going to those darkweb places on the web, but it’s good to know what happens there and how it can affect your security.

The book came out in 2017, but it is still well worth your time. You will be reassured that some of the “hacks” recommended for staying safe are probably already in place through the numerous updates in computers, smart phones, wi-fi routers and browsers in recent years. But the weakest part of any security system is likely the user. A ‘case study’ showed that 70% of people on the street in 2016 were willing to share their work login with a stranger for a candy bar. (I’d like to think some of those people gave bogus logins to get a candy bar, but it’s amazing that they even participated in the offer.) Of course, that experiment was just to show how thoughtless and cavalier people can be regarding security. There are lots of slicker ploys to steal your identity, your money and your peace of mind that you can be on the lookout for after you read about them.

What piqued my interest in picking up this book isn’t addressed at all. I seem to be targeted as a consumer of security products by the very company I rely on for security. They want to upsell me on products and services that aren’t well described, perhaps because the online security business is ever-changing, and perhaps because they don’t want to tip the bad guys off about what their products do. Their weekly newsletter reports remind me that new perils are being unleashed daily that could make my life miserable. But as the book noted, if you’re not the customer you must be the product. And in the case of security products, both could be true. I would feel better if I knew what I am actually paying for and why — two things that are difficult to determine with this type of product. Your relationship with a security products company is based on trust, and coincidentally that’s how a successful con operation takes advantage of you.

The book outlines security basics, and steps you can take if your identity has been compromised. Not surprisingly, the word ‘password’ is mentioned a lot. It’s a pain in the rear to change your passwords, but expect to be doing that after your data has been breached. And it likely will be breached as large companies of all kinds that you have done business with report compromises to their customer databases. Your email, street address, phone number and birth date are probably floating around on the darkweb right now.

If you own a business, the authors have suggestions to keep you safe from criminals. Don’t scrimp on business computers and up-to-date software. Train your employees to use the best security practices. Install a good quality home business firewall. Some businesses might want a managed DNS service to keep your computer activity private from your internet provider. Keep office equipment away from windows where it could be spotted by thieves. Use a cloud-based file backup system so that thieves don’t get all of your backups if they steal your computers. Get insurance for data breaches. Purge files regularly. Stage a drill to practice your response to a data breach, and improve your response plan as you go. The author says that small boutique banks often provide the best security for your business accounts (but I’m pretty happy with one of the largest banks). If you dedicate one computer to doing your online banking, there is less chance of your banking credentials being hijacked.

The book has a section entitled “The Future of Money” that explains the emergence of cryptocurrency, and how it’s used, Also, trends in cashless transactions.

The section entitled “The Deep Dark Net” takes you on a tour of some of the activities on the web where your browser won’t take you. You will need a special browser on your computer to visit the darkweb, and the book recommends using a clean computer, disable all scripts on your computer, use a VPN, use only cryptocurrency if you buy anything, encrypt all interactions, and keep your data on a thumb drive so you can erase all traces from your regular machine. There are bad guys waiting for you on the darkweb, and government sting operations are common. 23% of the world’s goods and services is on the black market and accessible on the darkweb. “Anyone who wants to make or receive untraceable (and untaxed) payments for anything, including illegal goods and services — from guns and drugs to hacking and stolen data — can find what they are looking for on the digital black market.”

One story about the darkweb relates the story of Silk Road, a kind of ebay on the darkweb where you could buy anything, including murder for hire. FBI and DEA agents spent years trying to take down the man behind Silk Road known as Dread Pirate Roberts, and finally did apprehend the same (real name Ross William Ulbricht) in San Francisco in 2013. Ulbricht was convicted of money laundering, computer hacking, and procuring murder, and is serving a life sentence without parole. A DEA agent involved in the takedown was found to have stolen some of the cryptocurrency seized from Silk Road, so he also went to prison. The Silk Road story still continues to develop as Donald Trump has mentioned in a campaign speech pardoning Ulbricht if he is re-elected president.

Some of the “big takeaways” from the book are security measures you’re probably already using: create strong passwords, password protect your wi-fi, don’t click on suspicious links, and don’t give out private info over email or texts. Advanced measures include always using two-factor authentication, check your credit report regularly, and never use public wi-fi without a VPN or SSH tunnel. For the ultimate protection, the book says eschew electronic communication, file your taxes the old-fashioned way on paper, don’t use banking apps on your phone, and prepare for an infrastructure attack with off-the-grid self-sufficiency measures. Those aren’t all the things recommended, but you get the idea.

Recently my wife asked me to make a list of things she would need access to in the event anything happened to me. So I made a list of everything important and listed each by location. I didn’t put any sensitive information like account numbers or login information on it — just a location that she would readily identify. One location, for example, is my wallet. Having a list of credit cards and ID that I carry in my wallet would come in handy if I were to ever lose my wallet. Just having a list of things that we have is a great start in identifying what needs to be replaced if it goes missing, or what login information needs to be changed when the next information breach is reported. I printed this list for her to have, but there’s an online document of this list that can be updated from time to time, and reprinted. Maybe that’s a personal hack you can put to good use.

Other things I have recently adopted are migrating my regular email correspondence away from email addresses that are getting a lot of spam, using an encrypted email account for banking and such, and employing a VPN for most of my computing. A couple of email providers for encrypted accounts include Tuta.com and Proton.com. DuckDuckGo is now my preferred browser and search engine, so I am delighted they have a new VPN.

(Another VPN benefit: I can use the VPN to watch the local Rays baseball games that are usually blacked out from MLB-TV. Ca-ching! I just saved $20 a month. I no longer have to subscribe to that sports app that starts with a B.)  

Stay safe out there.

When I was a kid my grandfather passed his 45-r.p.m. record player to me along with some records to play on it. Among the records was a set of three RCA Victor red vinyl records of Brahms Hungarian Dances by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra recorded in 1950. I found this set advertised in ebay.com with the original packaging for the set. These 7" 45s were made the same way the 12" ‘long play’ records introduced in 1948 were made.

A new technology was introduced then that used PVC plastic instead of the heavy shellac compound used to make the 78 r.p.m. records, the common mass-produced audio recording format for most of the first half of the twentieth century. The grooves on the LP records were not as coarse as on the 78s so that more music could fit on each disc.

Most records have been black vinyl discs that were made with black carbon that had anti-static properties and generally played with less extraneous noise. But today many records are produced on colored or clear vinyl to make them more collectible. The vinyl record-making process has mostly minimized audio playback issues (but not all). Colorful vinyl records, fun to handle, have been considered to have a higher resale value just because they have been rare, but the colorful vinyl discs are rapidly becoming commonplace. Going back about four decades, the Beatles' White Album on white vinyl was prized primarily because it was unique among pop albums and rumor had it that the white vinyl provided improved sound quality compared to the original black vinyl records. The White Album on white vinyl sold for about twice as much in stores as the same album on black vinyl. 

I suspect the fashion of colorful vinyl records will get old and audiophiles will soon prefer the black ones again for the very reasons most records were produced in black vinyl in the past: audio quality, anti-static properties and a deeper appreciation for the color black.

The 12-year run of the Bradenton Blues Festival came to an end when a nonprofit was
no longer able to fund the event. But the former festival’s artistic director formed a new
promotion alliance in nearby Lakewood Ranch to produce a new blues festival on the same
weekend. The inaugural Lakewood Blues Festival will take place on December 7, 2024 from
9 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Waterside Park in Lakewood Ranch.

Entertainment company Independent Jones, whose president is Morgan Bettes Angell,
and Paul E. Benjamin will partner on the Lakewood Ranch Blues Festival. Benjamin was the
artistic director of the Bradenton Blues Festival that was produced by nonprofit organization
Realize Bradenton, whose founding director Johnette Isham died last year.

Blues artists for the inaugural Lakewood Ranch Blues Fest will include Danielle Nichole
Band (Kansas City), Vanessa Collier (Dallas), Monster Mike Welch (Boston), Kat Riggins
(Miami), Mitch Woods & His Rocket 88s (Brooklyn), Dylan Triplett (St. Louis), Melody Angel
(Chicago). Advance tickets are $75 each.

lakewoodranchbluesfestival.com

Saturday, April 6, 2024  •  7 p.m.
C.J. Chenier & Red Hot Louisiana Band and Marcia Ball
ArtsPark at Young Circle
1 North Young Circle, Hollywood, FL 33020

Bring a chair or blanket to enjoy this free concert from the giant lawn at the ArtsPark.
This double-bill includes C.J. Chenier & his Red Hot Louisiana Band, and Texas boogie woogie pianist Marcia Ball on Saturday, April 6 at 7 p.m.

C.J. Chenier is one of the most talented purveyors of zydeco blues today (yes, zydeco music has deep roots in the blues.) He’s also the son of the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier. C.J. used to play saxophone in his dad’s bands, but picked up the accordion along the way. He’s used that as his primary instrument after he took over the Red Hot Louisiana Band from his dad. C.J. is one of the best songwriters in the genre, and his songs are by no means all about hot sauce and crawfish. He’s a top-flight song writer, player and singer. In fact, C.J. possesses a deep, soulful voice that he uses to great effect in his music.

“Fifty years have passed in a flash,” says Texas-born, Louisiana-raised pianist, songwriter and vocalist Marcia Ball of her long and storied career. Ball, the 2018 Texas State Musician of the Year, has won worldwide fame and countless fans for her ability to ignite a full-scale roadhouse rhythm and blues party every time she takes the stage. Her rollicking Texas boogies, swampy New Orleans ballads and groove-laden Gulf Coast blues have made her a one-of-a-kind favorite with music lovers all over the world. With each new release, her reputation as a profoundly soulful singer, a boundlessly talented pianist and a courageous, inventive songwriter continues to grow. Her love of the road has led to years of soul-satisfying performances at festivals, concert halls and clubs. The New York Times says, “Marcia Ball plays two-fisted New Orleans barrelhouse piano and sings in a husky, knowing voice about all the trouble men and women can get into on the way to a good time.” The Houston Chronicle wrote simply, “She’s as perfect as an artist can be.”

I looked at various record divider solutions for organizing my vinyl record collection, and came up with this.
While there are numerous vendors selling a record divider solution on amazon.com, some with white lettering to apply to your black dividers, those products are typically .02” thick, not much stouter than manilla folder stock. With additional searching,  I found a vendor that sells .03”, .04” and .05” thicknesses, the latter recommended for record store displays. Check out bagsunlimited.com, which is also a source for other vinyl record products like premium record sleeves.
The 1" gold relief lettering I used is from the sticker aisle at Michael’s. I laser printed the names with a font similar to the lettering I applied, and used that for reference in applying the letters evenly spaced and centered on the tabs. Print out the names before shopping for lettering to get a count on letters you will need and the number of  packages of lettering required to complete the project. You will likely want to label your dividers on both sides of the tabs.

​I like Bruce Daigrepont’s singing voice a lot. When I played this recently acquired vinyl record from 35 years ago, I was blown away.  

Reviewer Ron Wynn wrote in 1989 Bruce Daigrepont’s second album for Rounder was even more traditionally Cajun than his award-winning first effort (Stir Up the Roux released in 1987). The title track and other works such as “Les Mains du Bon Dieu,” “Acadie a la Louisiane” and “Laissez Moi Tranquille” presented tales of Cajun life and times ranging from struggles to triumphs, and were sung with power, earnestness and verve. His accordion playing was equally assertive. Artists such as Bruce Daigrepont indicate that the future is bright for Cajun music. Indeed it has been. 

LINER NOTES 

Louisiana is unique in producing musical talents because we have seen in every generation musicians that stand far above the rest. Bruce Daigrepont is one of those musicians.

Stir Up the Roux, Bruce’s first album, was winner of the Cajun French Music Association’s 1988 Le Cajun Award for Album of the Year.

Born and raised in an area where Cajun is not the most popular style of music, he brought to the Crescent City a growing number of devoted fans. They have been listening and dancing to his music for years. Bruce’s Sunday fais do-do at Tipitina’s has become a tradition.

I first met Bruce Daigrepont in 1981 when he visited me at KRVS (Lafayette, LA), shortly after his 45 r.p.m. release of “Bayou Pon Pon” on the Bourre label. 

Bruce is a young, intelligent, talented musician and composer who impressed me with his knowledge of his French American (Cajun) heritage and history. There is evidence of this in his song “D’Acadie, a la Louisiane,” where he sings of the forced exile of the Acadians from Acadie (Nova Scotia), Canada.  Bruce Daigrepont’s talent excels in his composition of “Arc en Ciel” (Rainbow), where he sings of true love being as difficult to find as a four leaf clover. 

Story songs based on fact are not new to Cajun composers, but had been ignored for many years in Louisiana French music. Bruce tells us a true story (“Les Mains du Bon Dieu,” The Hands of the Good God),  about a woman he knew who loved his music. He learned that she was dying of cancer. He and his band visited her to play a few songs and cheer her up, but it was she who impressed them with her great courage and love of life. From this experience came the words, “She touched my heart with her courage. She was not afraid. She was so brave. Don’t weep for me, but come and sing. It’s contentment you can give me, and on that day she waltzed into paradise.”

On a lighter note, in “Coeur des Cajuns”  he sings that the joy of life is in the accordion, the beautiful songs, and the hearts of every Cajun.

The most impressive thing about Bruce is that he composes most of his music in our Cajun French language, and that, for me, is a good definition of Cajun. 

— Pete Bergeron, Director of French Programs, 
KRVS, Lafayette, Louisiana 

I have a new publication called "Dancing on the 1" at dancingonthe1.substack.com. This is an introduction to what I intend to post there.

You find a loose little rhythm
Then you lock in tight
Yes you roll on it over and over
'Til it sounds just exactly right
You can learn to sing lead if you need to be a star
But the only way to groove is on a bass guitar
I said it fills out the bottom, dirty and mean
It's down right greasy when the soundman's clean
You know the eyes in the room they all lookin' at the star
The butts are all shakin' to the bass guitar.

— Todd Snider, "Joe's Blues"


If you are a swing dancer, you know what Todd means. You could be dancing to a drum beat, but often it's a groove in the music carved out by the bass guitar. Or a saxophone, or a trumpet, or a keyboardist. You find your groove somewhere in the music, and if it's a jazz tune the drummer just might be taking an extended break. What happened to the drummer? You keep dancing on.

Not true on the zydeco dance floor. The accordionist might start to introduce the tune. Some dancers recognize the melody and wander onto the dance floor. They stand on the dance floor and wait for the drummer. Twenty seconds later, the drum beat begins and the dancers are on it. The count of "1" starts each 8-count set of beats and the whole dance floor has found its tempo, and everyone in the dance hall rocks as one to the same tempo. Halfway through the song and you could swap dance partners with anyone on the dance floor and we would all still be dancing to the same tempo: the drum beat.

A friend of mine who leads a zydeco band swears that the music begins on "1" but the downbeat is a half count later. We're actually dancing to "and-1", he says. But as a dancer, I don't hear anything in the music but the drum beat. That's my 1 and that's where I land my weight change. Zydeco is a "street dance" without many rules, and dancing on the 1 might be the only one. Watch the dance floor. We're all moving in time with the drummer even though some dancers might look like their doing completely different dances. "If you're smiling, you’re doing it right," we say. But we're all on the 1…or someone is off beat.

So this is my little newsletter for Cajun and zydeco dancers everywhere, and "Dancing On The 1" is something most of us can agree on. The title is kind of poking fun at a dance we all love that isn't technical at all. I will share stories of Cajun and zydeco artists. Most of the stories I have found on the web or on the backs of album covers. I'm not claiming orginality, but trying to honor the people who make the music. It's my way of keeping the music genres alive through the stories I publish.

And I often stray off the topic and post a story of an artist we may have all heard of but maybe don't know much about. The story on Chris Hillman is a case in point. Surrounding himself with other artists that steal the spotlight like David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and Stephen Stills, Chris Hillman is credited with creating the genre of country rock music that might not have happened on its own. I didn't write this story: it's 100% wikipedia, with some photos from Hillman's website and a book review from Amazon. It's an interesting story that has nothing to do with dancing. But it's about music that has been with us for half a century, and I found it interesting.

I always post a list of upcoming dance festivals. Dance festivals throughout the United States and in Europe bring people together to celebrate Cajun and zydeco music. Because of dance and music festivals, people all over the world know and love Cajun and zydeco music. Cajun and zydeco music originate from the 22 parishes of Acadiana in Southwest Louisiana. That's a great place to visit and be absorbed in the area's rich culture. But dance festivals thousands of miles outside of Louisiana continue to bring people together and to keep the spirit of Louisiana alive in music and dance, and create special times for people who love to dance. Come and enjoy the music of Louisiana at a festival near you, or where you want to be.

See you on the dance floor. — Jim Hance, August 2023

BY JIM HANCE
I ran across a rather obscure Latin-flavored accordion tune called “The Fish Song” by zydeco artist Fernest Arceneaux, and began playing it at dances. I not only liked this song, but I could see by the packed dance floor that others did as well. It was a nice change of pace from the driving zydeco beat in most of my other music. As a fairly brisk cha cha at 132 bpm, the tune is of course also a swing or a slow zydeco. 
As it turns out, there is a lot to know about the artist, Fernest Arceneaux (1940-2008). A torchbearer for the classic zydeco traditions, Arceneaux had the talent on the accordion to succeed his mentor, Clifton Chenier, as “King of Zydeco.” He was a talented triple-row accordion player who scored a hit when his instrumental, “Zydeco Boogaloo,” became a club standard, and Fernest was pronounced the New Prince of Zydeco.
Influenced by the blues
Like Clifton, Fernest was “old school,” profoundly influenced by blues and R&B. Fernest’s father was a hard working sharecropper who was also a talented musician, and all 11 kids in the family took up a musical instrument. By the age of 6 Fernest was trying out instruments such as the Cajun one-note accordion and guitar, and soon established music as his first priority in life.
“My home was really popular back in the 50s,” said Arceneaux, “because my sister, Mildred, made the finest home-brewed beer in those parts. Clifton [Chenier], Dopsie [Alton Rubin], and [Hiram] Sampy would come over all the time and sample her beverages and then serenade the neighbors.”
Ernest made his professional debut at an area club when he was 12, but chose to play the R&B and rock’n roll of the time as a guitarist, and formed a band which included two drummers. Somewhere along the line, this notorious booming backbeat of his earned him the moniker “Fernest and the Thunders” which became his band’s name. It was Clifton Chenier who suggested to Fernest that he take up the accordion again. Fernest played the accordion uniquely well, and had the remarkable ability to make his instrument sound like a small orchestra. His music featured a laid-back Louisiana swamp pop sound. But his vocals, though soulful, lacked power because of an asthmatic condition. Ernest relied on bandmates Gene Morris and Bobby Price for most of the vocals.
His first recording break
In the 70s, Arceneaux was signed to Blues Unlimited label that represented some of the best zydeco artists of the time: Marcel Dugas, Sam Brothers, Buckwheat Zydeco, Rockin’ Dopsie, and the very young Terrance Simien. It was with this label that Arceneaux recorded “Zydeco Boogaloo” that would remain his signature song for the rest of his career. Fernest’s repertoire was described as a “happy range of black music popular in South Louisiana, including songs by Clifton Chenier, Cookie and the Cupcakes, Guitar Gable, Guitar Slim, Earl King, Fats Domino, Jessie Hill, Ray Charles and BB King,” according to John Broven in South to Louisiana.
Ernest had some talented players in his band, but the most illustrious of the lot was Clarence “Jockey” Etienne, a celebrated blues percussionist. After giving Jockey an audition and hearing his resounding beat, Fernest smiled, “I didn’t need to have two drummers anymore.”
The world stage
While he was a native Louisianan, Fernest never became a household name in zydeco circles there. Most of his gigs were in East Texas where he became better known. In 1977, Clifton Chenier was offered a handsome fee to travel to Europe for an extended series of concerts, but circumstances forced him to either cancel or postpone his junket. When asked for a recommendation for a replacement, Clifton immediately volunteered the name of Fernest Arceneaux. “I remember it well. Lil’ Buck Sinegal, Clifton’s guitarist, came over to my place after his gig at the Blue Angel Club and broke the good news to me,” said Fernest. Up to this point Fernest had relied on his band mates for most of the vocals. “Well, I had to learn to sing all by myself after I went overseas because these people had day jobs and couldn’t travel.”
Fernest found his success in crisscrossing the continent, including an appearance at the prestigious 1980 North Sea Jazz Festival in The Netherlands which also featured Fats Domino, Rockin Dopsie, Carmen McRae, Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie. Jockey reminisced about the brutal touring itinerary that took the Thunders to all major European capitals. “We’d often be gone for three months at a stretch. One time we had 36 one-nighters in a row. By the time we got to the hotel, it was time to go to the gig; that is, if we had a hotel.” 
European recordings
Some of his European concert tours resulted in recordings, such as Live + Well, which according to Fernest, began with an avid fan following the band from gig to gig, apparently just taping the performances for his own listening enjoyment. “This guy was like a pest, until finally we agreed that it should become a project, just to get him off our backs,” Fernest related. The ardent admirer in question was Siegfried Christmann, who actually did a creditable job on the recording that was subsequently re-released in 2000, and tracks appeared on a blues anthology featuring John Lee Hooker and Willie Mabon as well.
Arceneaux’s Zydeco Blues Party — ‘The finest zydeco album ever recorded’
Around 1990 Arceneaux was in a traffic accident and suffered a debilitating hip injury. About the same time he lost his bandmates when they regrouped as the Creole Zydeco Farmers. But in November 1993 he made the album regarded by many critics at the time to be the finest zydeco album recorded to that point, Zydeco Blues Party, on the newly formed Mardi Gras Records. The album included some great blues tunes like “I’m on My Way Back Home” as well as some solid zydeco tunes like “My Negress (Pine Grove Blues)”, “Don’t Mess With My Toot Toot”, “Zydeco Boogaloo,” and the song mentioned at the top of this story, “The Fish Song.”
Larry Benicewicz of the Baltimore Blues Society described the album. “Produced by Jerry Embree and expertly recorded at Ultrasonic Studio by famed engineer David Farrell, Zydeco Blues Party was simply a masterpiece of both exceptional clarity (rare in any zydeco venture) and creative energy on Fernest’s part. And of no less significance was the fact that Hildebrand saw to it that [Fernest] was surrounded with seasoned veteran sidemen.”
Accompanying Fernest on the recording were guitarist Paul “Lil’ Buck” Sinegal and tenor sax player John Hart, stellar components of the late Clifton Chenier’s Red Hot Louisiana Band, Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. on rubboard, Joseph Edwards on drums, and Alonzo Johnson on bass, the latter three from the late Rockin’ Dopsie’s band.
The success of the recording led to tours of major festivals across the United States. The promoter for the Artscape Festival in Baltimore noted, “Fernest was the best of all the zydeco acts” he had booked over the years.
‘No One Could Touch Him’
In his obituary for the passing of Fernest Arceneaux in 2008, Benicewicz wrote: “Perhaps if he were more ambitious, he probably could have made a name for himself. But the easy going and unassuming Fernest Arceneaux was content to merely have a few rounds (sometimes more) and play the music he loved. Positively no one enjoyed entertaining more, and it always showed. His enthusiasm was infectious. And he rightfully inherited his title. For after Clifton Chenier, he was simply the greatest: a magician onstage with the accordion. And like ‘The King,’ when he was hot, when he was on his game, no one could touch him. And you can quote me on that. And his passing closes the book on zydeco’s first generation.” 


Fernest Arceneaux Album Recordings:
• Two Trains Running (Blues Unlimited*)
• Fernest and The Thunders (Blues Unlimited*, 1979) (see page 6)
• Live+Well (Ornament, 1979)
• Zydeco Stomp (JSP, 1981)
• From the Heart of the Bayous (JSP, 1983)
• Zydeco Thunder (Greybeard Records, 1985) (see pages 8-9)
• Gumbo Special (Chrisly, 1987)
• Rockin’ Pneumonia (Ornament, 1991)
• Zydeco Blues Party (Mardi Gras, 1994)
• Old School Zydeco (Mardi Gras, 2000)


*More info on Blues Unlimited label: https://www.discogs.com/label/176272-Blues-Unlimited 
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​My name is Jim Hance, and I’ll be posting stories to a new Substack, Dancing on the 1. The stories will be about Cajun and zydeco musicians, and dance events, because knowing more about music and the artists who make it will sustain interest in it. Both Cajun and zydeco, for most dancers, are non-technical dances without strict rules except for one caveat: If you're smilin', you're doin' it right. The title of this blog, “Dancing on the 1,” is intended to poke fun at the informality of the dance and to invite you to do your own thing, which of course you will do without invitation. There is ONE hard-and-fast rule that applies to every dance I've ever encountered: whatever dance you do, STAY ON THE BEAT! 

Cajun and zydeco music are both products of one area of Southwest Louisiana that has come to be called Acadiana. While under the French occupation of the New World, immigrants came to the area either by force (as slaves) or to claim some independence from oppression. The common language that influenced a separate culture in Acadiana apart from other colonized parts of the New World was French. French-speaking immigrants from Nova Scotia were expelled from Canada when the British seized control, and found they were welcome to settle in Louisiana and became known there as Cajuns. French-speaking blacks formed their own social communities and culture in Acadiana and they commonly identify as Creole. The musical heritages of each continued to evolve independent of the rest of the continent as Cajun and Creole music was insulated by the French spoken there. While over the past century both Cajun and Creole music and cultures have become more influenced by the prevailing American culture of the United States, specific signatures of the Cajun and Creole music remain intact in contemporary Cajun and zydeco music. Cajun music has a fast tempo with an accent on the up beat. Zydeco, with a distinct blues influence, is typically a bit little slower with a heavy emphasis on the down beat, encouraging you to "dance down into the floor.” Whether the beat is up or down, the music will make you want to move!

My love for Cajun music started when my wife and I were invited by a friend to a Bon Temps Social Club dance in San Diego in 1994. Their monthly dances featured live music by bands from Louisiana. We were introduced to a whole new activity and acquired a passion for social dancing that started with Cajun dancing, and soon included zydeco, country dancing, Lindy swing, west coast swing, nightclub two-step, waltz, cha cha, salsa, and hustle dancing, to name a few. Over time we expanded our dancing acquaintances from a handful to thousands, many of whom we are still in contact with three decades later. My wife, Jane, became a west coast swing dance instructor, and I became a deejay for Cajun and zydeco dances, and a promoter for Cajun and zydeco dance events. 

It didn't take long before we strayed from the basics of the dances to making up our own dance stylings. Jane came up with her own dance styling to zydeco music she called "zyde-swing," incorporating Lindy and west coast swing connection and moves in her zydeco. And I have to confess that much of my zydeco dancing is informed by hustle: soft connection, continuous circular motion on the dance floor, and a flow that works particularly well with zydeco infused with funk or disco. 

This isn't wierd. This is what dancers do. West coast swing at most clubs and studios is danced to the pop music trend of the moment. West coast swing dancers have added hustle, tango, salsa, zouk, Carolina shag, and hip-hop styling to their swing dancing as pop music cycles through music trends. Most west coast swing dancers are okay with any styling you choose to add as long as you stay on beat and, preferably, maintain the anchor step and swing connection somewhere in the amalgamation. 

This is happening in the Cajun and zydeco dance scenes as well. Some Cajun and zydeco styling looks a bit like Pony that was once one of the dances in national country dance competitions — a lot of styling from jitterbug and east coast swing. Other styling seems to be derived from salsa and hustle, with lots of circular motion on the dance floor, deep drops into the knees and hand tosses added in, Others highlight the zydeco slide with lots of heel swivel action. Others include "swing outs" and underarm turns. If you want to see the diverse variations of Cajun and zydeco being danced in Acadiana, check out the postings of "Fran" to our Florida Cajun and Zydeco Dancers group on Facebook. 

Now you have permission to play with your zydeco dance and make it your own. We wouldn't want it any other way.