Women in the Cajun music movement in America
12/19/2011
WST301
Noah Pfister
Rhea-Cote Robbins
My studies of Franco-American women this semester led me to discover many things which I previously had known little about. The subject which this pertained to the most was exploration of the Acadian people and their culture. While I was familiar with the French heritage in Louisiana, I was not aware that the Cajun and Creole ancestry were decedents of the Acadians; whom upon expulsion from their homeland in Canada found themselves living life beside the bayou. The research I did was designed to delve into music which this culture brought with them and how it has transformed over time. More specifically I sought to understand women’s role within this musical movement through the different stages of the genre’s development. The first step involved is establishing the origins of this style of music and identifying a woman’s role within that. Next it is important to signify who the women were that broke free from social constraints and moved from the private to the public domain in terms of musical performance. Lastly this project will evaluate how these historical women influenced the female artists in the Cajun genre today, in addition to how the music has progressed and transformed. Through this process I hope to illuminate a topic that has relatively little exposure. Through dissecting the history of their music I hope to unveil the unique richness of the Cajun culture and the powerful women who stood up and made themselves and their ancestors heard.
When the Acadian’s arrived in the United States they were generally shunned or more often subjected to discrimination. They were encouraged to abandon their identity along with the land they used to call home. Yet their culture has not only survived but flourished as its influence has spread and progressed. This did not simply happen by accident or by some strange twist of fate, no the reality is that the Cajun people refused to let go of their heritage. The tradition they carried with them was simply to sacred to be discarded. To preserve their roots and instill remembrance of their homeland in future generations the Acadians continued their cultural practices within their own communities and homes. The music and songs they made helped to ignite the memories from their past as well as create a picture for those born after the eviction mid eighteenth century. Research reveals that in these early times it was more often the women of the household who carried out the tradition of what are known as ‘home songs’ (Richardson). The themes that these women continually conveyed to their families in their music over two hundred years ago became the base for the Cajun genre. Though men would be the ones to take to the stage first it was their mothers and wives who had helped them keep the sound alive during the darkest days.
In South-West Louisiana the Cajun people used music as a primary method for conveying the ‘oral history’ of their ethnicity. Through simple melody and catchy lyrics Cajun women created a sort of folklore which encompassed the struggles their society had endured. The music began here in American not as a profession to be put on for audiences but around the kitchen table with one or maybe two instruments. The songs were sung by the working people of the community with their families and friends. Inez Catalon and Lula Landry are two of the women whose ‘home songs’ were recorded. They’re music demonstrates what the content of the music was and how it sounded. “Both born and raised in a rural area of Vermilion Parish in South Louisiana” (Lacouture) these two women were at the heart of where the Creole genre came to life. Songs handed down through generations were recorded to remember the influence women like Inez and Lula had on what the Cajun genre had become. The themes of family, tradition, love and drinking were engrained in the Creole culture and thus came forth in their music from the start. The ballads that became dancehall favorites bore their inspiration from these ‘home songs’ mothers recited to their families, “These singers largely made their music for themselves, but gladly shared it and recognized its power to alternately warm and chill our soul” (Ancelet, 12). This quotation speaks to the transition of what began as ‘home songs’ to the stage and its larger audiences. Unfortunately for many years women would not be a part of this development of the musical genre, though they were at the heart of.
Social constraints on women came in many external and internal forms preventing them from reaching power through position. Performance was preserved for Cajun men, while “women, on the other hand, have usually been emphatically discouraged, in both subtle and overt ways, from bringing their musical talents into a public arena” (Richardson). Risk of shaming themselves and their families, women kept their voices confined to the home where they were free of criticism. They continued this practice to keep the themes from their oral history alive as their music transcended to the public sphere. Some of these songs were recorded in later years as the Cajun genre caught fire, its tones burning inspiration into pop and country music in America. These recordings were not done to reach top 40 charts but rather to ensure remembrance of the women who kept the Cajun culture alive with their voices. While some of these influential women’s names are attributed to the genre, many of them never saw the spotlight though they played a critical part in sustaining preserving a precious culture. Carried down through generations the sound and messages have survived.
The two instruments which accompany the vocals in traditional Cajun music are the Diatonic Accordion and the fiddle. The people making the music early on often came from little money, so makeshift instruments and ‘stomping’ provided beat and melody for the songs; “Late at night the stomping could be heard across the flat fields as the feelings got intense” (Savoy, 304). Though the grouping of instruments differs from performer to performer these two have been the primary ones associated with the Cajun sound. With time there began a shift in which the importance of the lyrics from the ‘home songs’ began to be subsidiary to the unique Cajun sound whose popularity began to spread across the southern United States. What had once been the back drop for the mode of communicating within the Creole culture had now caught on taking center stage. The songs continued to be reinforced by themes of drinking and love though the songs were told now for different reasons. Entertainment of a greater scale became a new window of opportunity for a genre whose purpose had been constricted to the setting of the home. The growth in popularity brought with it expansion from the traditional context. The individual artists and bands brought their own unique sound to the music they had grown up with.
When the popularity of Cajun music began to soar in the early twentieth century few women took to the stage and virtually none performed without male accompaniment. The dancehall was regarded to be an indecent place for women to be and thus they were discouraged from it. As time progressed this would change and more and more female artists would capitalize on the opportunity to display their skill in front of a wider audience. This transition happened through brave women demanding a chance to perform. “In the late 1920’s” (Savoy, 90) Cleoma Falcon emerged as one of the women whose ability as a musician well complemented her husband Joe Falcon. Falcon with his traditional Cajun accordion, alongside her accompanied by her guitar, made for a memorable act. She helped to pave the way for other female artists through captivating her audiences and disproving the false assumptions that a dancehall was no place for a woman. As they traveled for shows fellow Cajuns would come from miles away to see them and thus they got the attention of record companies. Together with her husband they recorded “the first Cajun record ever made” (Savoy, 91). Though she would die a tragic death only thirteen years later in 1941, her strides in the music industry exposed that women belonged in the public eye just as much as their male counter parts.
Cleoma made this leap into the public sphere early on but women-groups or bands with female leads did not emerge to prominence for some time after that. What came to be called Zydeco was a collaboration of Cajun and Creole sounds to make dance music for larger venues. Groups grew in size and number of instruments but women were still largely excluded. Men both black and white began to fill the airwaves of the radio with Cajun tunes while women were for the most part left out.
Along with the passage of time women would work their way off the sidelines. As the entire women’s movement progressed over the twentieth century, so too did the evolution of the music industry to encompass more female artists. Appreciation of the Cajun music genre has spread and influenced other genres like pop country and blues. This has compelled women to return to ancestral roots and create their own unique Cajun based sound. Though these women are not amongst famous female musicians like Beyonce and Britney Spears, their popularity has pushed them to the frontier of Cajun and Zydeco music circles. One group whose music truly connects to the traditional Cajun style is made up of four women under the French name Bonsoir Catin, its English meaning Goodnight Doll. This group exemplifies how history has changed over the past century in that an all female group was unheard of in the Cajun genre during the early days. The band also represents what has remained the same over all these years; the instruments, sound, and themes.
Bonsoir Catin’s four members each have their own individual story and musical specialty. Together they combined to realize “that they shared the same vision that Cajun music should be unafraid and unabashed, full of energy and raw emotion” (Bonsoir Catin). All four women contribute on vocals and then each plays an instrument. Kristi Guillroy playing the accordion, Christine Balfa on the guitar, Yvette Landry on bass, and lastly Anya Burgess playing the fiddle. Guillroy, Balfa, and Landry all have a family history in Cajun music, which shows how the genre continues to be carried on generationally. The ‘authentic’ Cajun style they capture demonstrates a devotion to revitalizing the traditional roots. They continue to sing about the same subjects of love, loss, and drinking that women like Inez Catalon referenced so often in their ‘home songs’. These four women have shown that females have finally stepped from behind the curtain to publicize their role in the Cajun genre in a prominent way.
Attached to this essay I will include a number of songs by Bonsoir Catin as well as other performances of Cajun music done by women. Through listening to these tunes I was able to grasp an understanding for the genre and its reoccurring themes. Unfortunately gaining electronic access to some of the older recordings was beyond my abilities. Yet I was able to recover certain more popular tracks and this helped me to envision those which I was only able to find lyrics. The twangy and simple melodies captivated my ears for hours as I heard Cajun tales of old. In conjunction with the more modern recordings I was able to discern how the Cajun music industry has evolved while continuing to stay true to its roots. I was also able to see how women’s role elapsed for a time between the days of the ‘home-songs’ and the modern era. I am truly grateful so many people have stepped forward in preserving the history of this music so that today access to information regarding the subject is more readily available. It was remarkably rewarding to explore this facet of Acadian society and how it was transformed in its journey here in the United States.
Links in slides below [links are not clickable in slides]:
Cleoma Falcon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akZc6vrZLW8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT4DLtXGvEE
Ann Savoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9V5Z5R97MA
Kristi Guillroy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh-vFyJxd3Y
Yvette Landry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXRpJP9Zj6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zUGd-VC3wk
(the song she references)
Bonsoir Catin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQjMIKt8CPg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBX7cyIqFng&feature=related
Bluegrassgirl
http://pub21.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=1722942123&frmid=16&msgid=903737&cmd=show
Bibliography
Allen, Ann. Cajun Music: a Reflection of a People, Vol.1, 3rd Ed. (pbk) Compiled by Ann Allen Savoy. [S.l.]: Bluebird, 1988. Print.
Ancelet, Barry Jean., and Elemore Morgan. The Makers of Cajun Music. Sillery: Presses De L'Université Du Québec, 1984. Print.
Ancelet, Barry Jean. "Women's Home Music." Folk Master. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. .
Crazy Cajun Music Publishing. © 2010-2011 Music Enterprises Inc Dba Crazy Cajun Music / Crazy Cajun Records. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
"Creole VS Cajun - There Is a Difference." LandryStuff. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
Guillory, Kristi, Christine Balfa, Yvette Landry, and Anya Burgass. "About Us." BonSoir Catin. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
Landry, Lula, Inez Catalon, and Marce Lacouture. "Louisiana Folklife: Keeping It Alive." Folklife in Louisiana Homepage. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
Richardson, Lisa E. "The Public and Private Domains of Cajun Women Musicians in Southwest Louisiana." Folklife in Louisiana Homepage. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
Savoy, Ann Allen. "Accordion History." MelocheNet. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
Westbrook, Laura. "Pretty, Little, and Fickle: Images of Women in Cajun Music." Folklife in Louisiana Homepage. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .