Cajuns and Their Music

What makes Cajuns so special in America and the bayous southwest of New Orleans is their unique French culture that they brought with them when they were exiled from what is now New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island after the end of the French and Indian war in 1755. Even after 254 years that culture is still clearly evidenced in their cooking, music, their humor, and especially in their speech. They use quite a pure form of French that shows up in the lyrics to their songs: songs like: Ma Petite Fille Est Gone by CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisians, Tous Les Soir, and Au Contraire Mon Fille, by Eddie LeJeune, Please Don’t Mess With My Man, and Watermelon Time by other enthusiastic artists. There have also been worldwide hits such as Jambalaya, and Jolie Blonde, sometimes called the Cajun National Anthem.

In the beginning Cajun songs were accompanied mostly by fiddles, but after WWII it also became popular to play Zydeco on accordions. Zydeco includes toe tapping Two Steps. the Waltz, and some rather cheerful Blues. Although the sound is predominantly from fiddles and accordions, it quite often has a definite big-band sound of brass instruments. Whatever instruments they use, it always makes you feel like dancing.

The name Cajun came from Acadian, which is what they were called as French settlers in the Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the mid-eighteenth century England defeated the French in the French and Indian war, known in Europe as the Seven Year’s War. Shortly afterward in 1755 the forced deportation of Acadians to the French colony in Louisiana began. Families and lovers were often separated and lost contact with each other for the rest of their lives. That is the theme of Longfellow’s sad poem Evangeline. The deportation continued from1755 to 1763, with an additional 1600 people brought directly from France in 1785.

I first became hooked on Zydeco when I found the Gumbo channel on my Dish Network connection. It wears well because it is such happy music. Even their Blues doesn't sound really sad. In recent years Zydeco’s popularity has spread across the country from Rhode Island and Connecticut to California and points in between in the form of annual Zydeco festivals. There are several Zydeco festivals within 100 miles of me here in San Diego. I was told recently that there is even one in Julian, a favorite tourist trap about 50 miles east in the mountains. Perhaps they have replaced their Bluegrass Festival with Zydeco. Julian is an historic gold mining town famous for its apples, apple pie, a ghost in an old hotel, and now for its Zydeco festival. The drive to Julian is very scenic and that pie is always delicious. With the added attraction of Zydeco, I want to go!

I found the information I needed for this article in on-line sources like Wikipedia and others, and my own old Encyclopedia Britannica from the 1960s. I revised it a little by changing the order of paragraphs since I first posted it