David Greely
Sud du sud
The founding fiddler of the Mamou Playboys and friends from South Louisiana present uncommon Cajun music with old and rare tunes, original companion pieces, and striking new melodies that meld Cajun roots with novel instrumentation and rich harmonies.
Sud du sud= South of the South
There has always been more to Louisiana French music than meets the dance hall. Like the music of any culture, it takes many forms and serves a variety of functions. Currently its most popular form promotes dancing and social interaction, with fiddles and accordions supported by a driving rhythm section of drums and electric bass, amplified to a booming thump in order to dominate a roomful of dancing feet and animated conversation. As the late Cajun comedian, Ralph Begnaud put it, "When Cajuns drink beer, they go deaf!"
It's great music, but that's not all there is, as the older members of our community and the younger musicians who go to them for inspiration know well. Cajun and Creole music were also played at home for the sheer pleasure of listening. There are a cappella ballads with beautiful poetic narrative themes, elegant and intricate waltzes, wisecracking reels, and a range of emotions and dynamics from high passion to dry humor to tenderness, qualities that seem too intimate and subtle for a large dancing crowd.
Those tunes, those contexts and those feelings should not be forgotten. They are the rest of the iceberg, the profound basis of Cajun and Creole music. Small groups and low volume are what you'll find on this recording, without accordions this time, with emphasis on melody and harmony. Its rhythm is in its heartbeat and it doesn't need to be pounded out through a public address system.
For this project I have chosen friends from the musical community of Lafayette LA and its environs, people with whom I have played at parties, where the dance floor was the kitchen, and where the best musicians, young and old, stayed up late, waiting for the rarified hour when the sweetest tunes, the purest emotions and the most unique combinations of instruments come out. You have to know where the party is to find this music. Welcome to our kitchen. Put away your earplugs for a while.
David Greely
Folk: Traditional Folk