“After Clifton Chenier, he was simply the greatest: a magician onstage with the accordion.” —Journalist Larry Benicewicz 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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