Cajuns

Total population
2–5 million[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
United States
Louisiana 432,549 Texas 56,000
Languages
Cajun French Cajun English, American English, Standard French, Acadian French
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
French, Québécois, Métis, Acadians, Louisiana Creoles

Cajuns ( /ˈkeɪdʒən/; French: les Cadiens or les Acadiens, [le kadjɛ̃, lez‿akadjɛ̃]) are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles (French-speakers from Acadia in what are now the Canadian Maritimes). Today, the Cajuns make up a significant portion of south Louisiana's population, and have exerted an enormous impact on the state's culture.^[1]

While Lower Louisiana had been settled by French colonists since the late 18th century, the Cajuns trace their roots to the influx of Acadian settlers after the Great Expulsion from their homeland during the French and Indian War (1754 to 1763). The Acadia region to which modern Cajuns trace their origin consisted largely of what are now Nova Scotia and the other Maritime provinces, plus parts of eastern Quebec and northern Maine. Since their establishment in Louisiana the Cajuns have developed their own dialect, Cajun French, and developed a vibrant culture including folkways, music, and cuisine.

Acadia[link]

The origin of the designation Acadia is credited to the explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who on his 16th century map applied the ancient Greek name "Arcadia" to the entire Atlantic coast north of Virginia. "Arcadia" derives from the Arcadia district in Greece which since Classical antiquity had the extended meanings of "refuge" or "idyllic place". The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says: "In the 17th century Champlain fixed its present orthography, with the 'r' omitted, and (the Canadian historian) W.F.Ganong has shown its gradual progress northwards, in a succession of maps, to its resting place in the Atlantic Provinces."^[2]

Ethnic group of national origin[link]

The Cajuns retain a unique dialect of the French language and numerous other cultural traits that distinguish them as an ethnic group. Cajuns were officially recognized by the U.S. government as a national ethnic group in 1980 per a discrimination lawsuit filed in federal district court. Presided over by Judge Edwin Hunter, the case, known as Roach v. Dresser Industries Valve and Instrument Division (494 F.Supp. 215, D.C. La., 1980), hinged on the issue of the Cajuns' ethnicity. Significantly, Judge Hunter held in his ruling that:

History of Acadian ancestors[link]

Joseph Broussard ("Beausoleil"). Artist Herb Roe

The British Conquest of Acadia happened in 1710. Over the next forty-five years, the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. During this time period Acadians participated in various militia operations against the British and maintained vital supply lines to the French Fortress of Louisbourg and Fort Beausejour.^[3] During the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years War and known by that name in Canada and Europe), the British sought to neutralize the Acadian military threat and to interrupt their vital supply lines to Louisbourg by deporting Acadians from Acadia.^[4] During 1755-1763 Acadia consisted of parts of present-day Canada: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The deportation of the Acadians has become known as the Great Upheaval or Le Grand Dérangement.

The Acadians' migration from Canada was spurred by the Treaty of Paris (1763) which ended the war. The treaty terms provided 18 months for unrestrained emigration. Many Acadians moved to the region of the Atakapa in present-day Louisiana, often travelling via the French Colony of Saint-Domingue (present day Haiti).^[5] Joseph Broussard led the first group of 200 Acadians to arrive in Louisiana on February 27, 1765 aboard the Santo Domingo.^[6] On April 8, 1765, he was appointed militia captain and commander of the "Acadians of the Atakapas" region in St. Martinville.^[7] Some of the settlers wrote to their family scattered around the Atlantic to encourage them to join them at New Orleans. For example, Jean-Baptiste Semer, wrote to his father in France:

The Acadians were scattered throughout the eastern seaboard. Families were split and put on ships with different destinations.^[9] Many ended up west of the Mississippi River in what was then French-colonized Louisiana, including territory as far north as Dakota territory. France had ceded the colony to Spain in 1762, prior to their defeat by Britain and two years before the first Acadians began settling in Louisiana. The interim French officials provided land and supplies to the new settlers. The Spanish governor, Bernardo de Gálvez, later proved to be hospitable, permitting the Acadians to continue to speak their language, practice their native religion (Roman Catholicism – which was also the official religion of Spain), and otherwise pursue their livelihoods with minimal interference. Some families and individuals did travel north through the Louisiana territory to set up homes as far north as Wisconsin. Cajuns fought in the American Revolution. Although they fought for Spanish General Galvez, their contribution to the winning of the war has been recognized.^[10]

"Galvez leaves New Orleans with an army of Spanish regulars and the Louisiana militia made up of 600 Cajun volunteers and captures the British strongholds of Fort Bute at Bayou Manchac, across from the Acadian settlement at St. Gabriel. And on September 21, they attack and capture Baton Rouge."^{[citation needed]}

A review of participating soldiers shows many common Cajun names among those who fought in the battles of Baton Rouge and West Florida. The Galvez Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was formed in memory of those soldiers.^[11] The Acadians' joining the fight against the British was partially a reaction to the British having evicted them from Acadia.

The Spanish colonial government settled the earliest group of Acadian exiles west of New Orleans, in what is now south-central Louisiana—an area known at the time as Attakapas, and later the center of the Acadiana region. As Brasseaux wrote, "The oldest of the pioneer communities . . . Fausse Point, was established near present-day Loreauville by late June 1765."^[12] The Acadians shared the swamps, bayous and prairies with the Attakapa and Chitimacha Native American tribes.

After the end of the American Revolutionary War, about 1,500 more Acadians arrived in New Orleans. About 3,000 Acadians had been deported to France during the Great Upheaval. In 1785 about 1,500 were authorized to emigrate to Louisiana, often to be reunited with their families, or because they could not settle in France.^[13] Living in a relatively isolated region until the early 20th century, Cajuns today are largely assimilated into the mainstream society and culture. Some Cajuns live in communities outside of Louisiana. Also, some people identify themselves as Cajun culturally despite lacking Acadian ancestry.

Ethnic mixing and alternate origins[link]

Not all Cajuns descend solely from Acadian exiles who settled in south Louisiana in the 18th century, as many have intermarried with other groups. Their members now include people with ancestry of British, Spanish, German, Italian, Native American, Métis and French Creole settlers. Historian Carl A. Brasseaux asserted that it was this process of intermarriage that created the Cajuns in the first place.^[1]

Non-Acadian French Creoles in rural areas were absorbed into Cajun communities. Some Cajun parishes, such as Evangeline and Avoyelles, possess relatively few inhabitants of Acadian origin. Their populations descend in many cases from settlers who migrated to the region from Quebec, Mobile, or directly from France. Theirs is regarded as the purest dialect of French spoken within Acadiana. Regardless, it is generally acknowledged that Acadian influences have prevailed in most sections of south Louisiana.

Many Cajuns also have ancestors who were not French. Many of the original settlers in French Acadia were English, for example the Melansons (originally Mallinson). Irish, German, Greek, Spanish Canary Islanders, and Italian colonists began to settle in Louisiana before and after the Louisiana Purchase, particularly on the German Coast along the Mississippi River north of New Orleans. People of Latin American origin, a number of early Filipino settlers (notably in Saint Malo, Louisiana), known as "Manilamen," from the annual cross-Pacific Galleon or Manila Galleon trade with neighboring Acapulco, Mexico, descendants of African American slaves, and some Cuban Americans have also settled along the Gulf Coast and, in some cases, intermarried into Cajun families. Anglo-American settlers in the region often were assimilated into Cajun communities, especially those who arrived before the English language became predominant in southern Louisiana.

One obvious result of this cultural mixture is the variety of surnames that are common among the Cajun population. Surnames of the original Acadian settlers (which are documented) have been augmented by French and non-French family names that have become part of Cajun communities. The spelling of many family names has changed over time. (See, for example, Eaux).^{[citation needed]}

Modern preservation and renewed connections[link]

During the early part of the 20th century, attempts were made to suppress Cajun culture by measures such as forbidding the use of the Cajun French language in schools. After the Compulsory Education Act forced Cajun children to attend formal schools, American teachers threatened, punished, and sometimes beat their Cajun students in an attempt to force them to use English (a language many of them had not been exposed to before). During World War II, Cajuns often served as French interpreters for American forces in France; this helped to overcome prejudice.^[14]

In 1968 the organization of Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) was founded to preserve the French language in Louisiana. Besides advocating for their legal rights, Cajuns also recovered for themselves a sense of ethnic pride and appreciation for their ancestry. Since the mid-1950s, relations between the Cajuns of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Acadians in the Maritimes and New England have been renewed, forming an Acadian identity common to Louisiana, New England, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

State Senator Dudley LeBlanc ("Coozan Dud", a Cajun slang nickname for "Cousin Dudley") took a group of Cajuns to Nova Scotia in 1955 for the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the expulsion. The Congrès Mondial Acadien, a large gathering of Acadians and Cajuns held every five years since 1994, is another example of continued unity.

Sociologists Jacques Henry and Carl L. Bankston III have maintained that the preservation of Cajun ethnic identity is a result of the social class of Cajuns. During the 18th and 19th century, "Cajuns" came to be identified as the French-speaking rural people of Southwestern Louisiana. Over the course of the 20th century, the descendants of these rural people became the working class of their region. This change in the social and economic circumstances of families in Southwestern Louisiana created nostalgia for an idealized version of the past. Henry and Bankston point out that "Cajun", which was formerly considered an insulting term, became a term of pride among Louisianans by the beginning of the 21st-century.^[15]

Culture[link]

The 22 parishes of Acadiana. The Cajun heartland of Louisiana is highlighted in darker red.

Geography[link]

Geography had a strong correlation to Cajun lifestyles. Most Cajuns resided in Acadiana, where their descendants are still predominant. Cajun populations today are found also in the area southwest of New Orleans and scattered in areas adjacent to the French Louisiana region, such as to the north in Alexandria, Louisiana. Over the years, many Cajuns and Creoles also migrated to the Beaumont and Port Arthur area of Southeast Texas, in especially large numbers as they followed oil-related jobs in the 1970s and 1980s, when oil companies moved jobs from Louisiana to Texas. However, the city of Lafayette is referred to as "The Heart of Acadiana" because of its location, and it is a major center of Cajun-Creole culture.

Music[link]

Cajun music is evolved from its roots in the music of the French-speaking Catholics of Canada. In earlier years the fiddle was the predominant instrument, but gradually the accordion has come to share the limelight. Cajun music gained national attention in 2007, when the Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album category was created.^[16]

Cuisine[link]

Cajun boudin rolled into a ball and deep fried

Outside Louisiana, and even within, some food writers wish to distinguish between Cajun and Louisiana Creole cuisine, maintaining that Creole dishes tend to be more sophisticated and continental while Cajun food is rural, more seasoned, sometimes spicy, and tends to be heartier. This distinction is based mostly on encounters with the cuisines as encountered in eateries in New Orleans. Outside the city, Cajuns and Creoles often intermingle socially and culturally, and chances are that the cooking of Cajuns and Creoles living in Lawtell for example, have more in common with each other than the Creole dishes of a Lawtell resident and one from Isle Brevelle. Both cuisines tend to focus on local ingredients like locally available wild game (e.g., duck, rabbit), vegetables (e.g., okra, mirlitons), and grain (e.g., rice), which is where they remain distinctive, since many of these ingredients have never truly entered American mainstream cuisine and thus were available to displace local traditions.

Since many Cajuns and Creoles were farmers and not especially wealthy, they were known for not wasting any part of a butchered animal. Cracklins are a popular snack made by frying pork skins or fat and boudin is created from the ground-up leftover parts of a hog after the best meat is taken, which is mixed with cooked rice. It is usually formed into a sausage, but can also be rolled in a ball and deep-fried called a boudin ball.^[17]

Language[link]

Cajun French is a variety or dialect of the French language spoken primarily in the Acadiana region of Louisiana. At one time there were as many as seven dialects spread across the Cajun Heartland.

Recent documentation has been made of Cajun English, a French-influenced dialect of English spoken by Cajuns, either as a second language, in the case of the older members of the community, or as a first language by younger Cajuns.

Religious traditions[link]

Cajuns are predominantly Roman Catholic. However, Protestant and Evangelical Christian denominations have made inroads among Cajuns, but not without controversy—many Cajuns will shun family members if they convert to any form of Protestantism because of the extreme persecution the Cajuns were subjected to by Protestants during the Great Expulsion of 1755, and throughout their history for maintaining their Catholicism.^{[citation needed]}

The 1992 cookbook, Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic and Can You Make a Roux by Cajun Chef Marcelle Bienvenue outlines long-standing beliefs that Cajun identity was rooted in community, cuisine, and very specifically, devout Roman Catholicism. Traditional Catholic religious observances such as Mardi Gras, Lent, and Holy Week are integral to many Cajun communities. Likewise, these Traditional Catholic religious observances may further be understood from Cultural Catholicism in Cajun-Creole Louisiana by Marcia Gaudet^[18] which tells us that such traditional religious observances, although they may not be "strictly theological and liturgical forms", are still integral and necessary to many and remain religiously valid as "unofficial religious customs and traditions are certainly a part of Roman Catholicism as it is practiced".^[19]

Mardi Gras[link]

Musicians playing at a traditional Courir de Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras, (French for "Fat Tuesday", also known as Shrove Tuesday), is the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, a 40 day period of fasting and reflection in preparation for Easter Sunday. Mardi Gras was historically a time to use up the foods that were not to be used during Lent, including fat, eggs, and meat.

Mardi Gras celebrations in rural Acadiana are distinct from the more widely known celebrations in New Orleans and other metropolitan areas. A distinct feature of the Cajun celebration centers on the Courir de Mardi Gras (translated: fat Tuesday run).^[20] A group of people, usually on horseback and wearing capuchons (a cone-shaped ceremonial hat) and traditional costumes, will approach a farmhouse and ask for something for the community gumbo pot. Often, the farmer or his wife will allow the riders to have a chicken, if they can catch it. The group then puts on a show, comically attempting to catch the chicken set out in a large open area. Songs are sung, jokes are told, and skits are acted out. When the chicken is caught, it is added to the pot at the end of the day.^[20] The courir held in the small town of Mamou has become well known. This tradition has much in common with the observance of La Chandeleur, or Candlemas (February 2), by Acadians in Nova Scotia.

Easter[link]

On Pâques (French for Easter), a game called pâquer, or pâque-pâque was played. Contestants selected hard-boiled eggs, paired off, and tapped the eggs together — the player whose egg did not crack was declared the winner. This is an old European tradition that has survived in Acadia until today. Today Easter is still celebrated by Cajuns with the traditional game of 'paque', but is now also celebrated in the same fashion as Christians throughout the United States with candy-filled baskets, "Easter bunny" stories, dyed eggs, and Easter Egg hunts.

Folk beliefs[link]

One folk custom is belief in a traiteur, or Cajun healer, whose primary method of treatment involves the laying on of hands and of prayers. An important part of Cajun folk religion, the traiteur is a faith healer who combines Catholic prayer and medicinal remedies to treat a variety of ailments, including earaches, toothaches, warts, tumors, angina, and bleeding. Another is in the Rougarou, a version of a Loup Garou (French for werewolf), that will hunt down and kill Catholics that do not follow the rules of Lent. In some Cajun communities the Loup Garou of legend have taken on an almost protective role. Children are warned that Loup Garou can read souls, and that they only hunt and kill evil men and women and misbehaved horses.

Celebrations and gatherings[link]

Cajuns, along with other Cajun Country residents, have a reputation for a joie de vivre (French for "joy of living"), in which hard work is appreciated as much as "passing a good time."

Community gatherings[link]

In the culture, a coup de main (French for "to give a hand") is an occasion when the community gathers in order to assist one of their members with time-consuming or arduous tasks. Examples might include a barn raising, harvests, or assistance for the elderly or sick.

Festivals[link]

Cajun fiddler at 1938 National Rice Festival, photographed by Russell Lee.

Laissez les bons temps rouler is a more than a cliché phrase of the local culture, which means "let the good times roll", as nearly every village, town and city of any size has a yearly festival, celebrating an important part of the local culture and economy. The majority of Cajun festivals include a fais do-do ("go to sleep" in French, originating from encouraging children to fall asleep in the rafters of the dance hall as the parents danced late into the night) or street dance, usually to a live local band. Crowds at these festivals can range from a few hundred to more than 100,000.

Other festivals outside of Louisiana[link]

• In Texas, the Winnie Rice Festival and other celebrations often highlight the Cajun influence in Southeast Texas.
• Major Cajun/Zydeco festivals are held annually in Rhode Island, which does not have a sizable Cajun population but is home to many Franco-Americans of Québécois and Acadian descent. It features Cajun culture and food, as well as authentic Louisiana musical acts both famous and unknown, drawing attendance not only from the strong Cajun/Zydeco music scene in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York City and California, but from all over the world. In recent years the festival became so popular that there are now several such large summer festivals near the Connecticut-Rhode Island border: The Great Connecticut Cajun and Zydeco Music & Arts Festival, The Blast From The Bayou Cajun and Zydeco Festival, Rhythm & Roots Festival also in California the Cajun/Zydeco Festival; Bay Area Ardenwood Historic Farm, Fremont, Calif. and The Simi Valley Cajun, Creole Music Festival.

Tributes[link]

A statue of Evangeline—fictional heroine of the poem Evangeline by Longfellow—at St. Martinville, Louisiana. The statue was donated by actress Dolores del Río (who also posed for it), who portrayed Evangeline in a 1929 silent film by director Edwin Carewe.

Documentary films

• Spend it All (1971, color) director: Les Blank with Skip Gerson
• Hot Pepper (1973, color) director: Les Blank
• J'ai Été Au Bal (English: I Have Been To the Ball), by Les Blank, Chris Strachwitz & Maureen Gosling; narrated by Barry Jean Ancelet and Michael Doucet (Brazos Films). Louisiana French and Zydeco music documentary.
• Louisiana Story (1948, black and white) director: Robert Flaherty. Further addressed in 2006 documentary Revisiting Flaherty's Louisiana Story, by a group at Louisiana State University.

Film

• Southern Comfort (film) (1981, color) director: Walter Hill, starring Powers Boothe
• Belizaire the Cajun (1986, color) director: Glen Pitre, starring Armand Assante
• Little Chenier (2006, color) director: Bethany Ashton, starring Johnathon Schaech

Literature

• Evangeline (1847), an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow loosely based on the events surrounding the 1755 deportation. It became an American classic, and also contributed to a rebirth of Acadian identity in both Maritime Canada and in Louisiana.
• Bayou Folk (1894) by Kate Chopin who wrote about the Creoles and Cajuns (Acadiens).
• Children's book author Mary Alice Fontenot wrote several volumes on Cajun culture and history.

Songs

• Jambalaya (On the Bayou), (1952), a song credited to Hank Williams. Jambalaya is about life, parties and stereotypical food of Cajun cuisine. The music is taken from the Cajun song "Grand Texas".
• Acadian Driftwood (1975), a popular song based on the Acadian Expulsion by Robbie Robertson that appeared on The Band's album, Northern Lights - Southern Cross.
• Louisiana Man, an autobiographical song written and performed by Doug Kershaw. It became the first song broadcast back to Earth from the Moon by the astronauts of Apollo 12. The song not only sold millions of copies but over the years has become the symbol of Cajun music.
• Jolie Blonde: lyrics & song history of the traditional Cajun waltz (aka Jolie Blon, Jole Blon or Joli Blon) often referred to as "the Cajun National Anthem".
• Mississippi Queen, 1970 song by Mountain about a Cajun woman visiting from Mississippi
• Elvis Presley was a Cajun, a song from the 1991 Irish film The Commitments in which a 2-piece band plays along to the lyric "Elvis was a Cajun, he had a Cajun Heart"
• Amos Moses, a song by Jerry Reed about a fictional one-armed alligator-hunting Cajun man.
• Perfect Day, a song by Lady Antebellum starts off with the singer seeing "a Cajun man with a red guitar singing on the side of the street" and throwing "a handful of change in his beat up case and [saying] play me a country beat".

See also[link]

Acadia portal

• Cajun cuisine
• French American
• French Canadians
• Great Upheaval
• List of Cajuns

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Maria Hebert-Leiter "Becoming Cajun, Becoming American: The Acadian in American Literature from Longfellow to James Lee Burke". Baton Rouge,LA. :Louisiana State University Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-8071-3435-1
• Dean Jobb, The Cajuns: A People's Story of Exile and Triumph, John Wiley & Sons, 2005 (published in Canada as The Acadians: A People's Story of Exile and Triumph)

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (November 2011)

• "St. Martinville, Louisiana", Acadian Memorial
• "Erath, Louisiana", Acadian Museum
• "Living history museum, Lafayette, Louisiana", Vermilionville Website
• "The Silence of the Gators: Cajun Ethnicity and Intergenerational Transmission of Louisiana French", Multilingual Matters
• Margaret D. Bauer, "An Interview with Tim Gautreaux: 'Cartographer of Louisiana Back Roads'", Southern Spaces, 28 May 2009. http://southernspaces.org/2009/interview-tim-gautreaux-cartographer-louisiana-back-roads
• Chandeleur
• The Simi Valley Cajun, Creole Music Festival
• Jolie Blonde : lyrics & song history
• J'ai Été Au Bal
• Cajun/Zydeco Festival; Bay Area Ardenwood Historic Farm, Fremont, Calif.
• The Great Connecticut Cajun and Zydeco Music & Arts Festival
• Rhythm & Roots Festival
• The Blast From The Bayou Cajun and Zydeco Festival
• Cajun Culture
• Patricia A. Suchy and James V. Catano, "Revisiting Flaherty's Louisiana Story," Southern Spaces, 27 April 2010.
• "Cajun South Louisiana", Southern Spaces, 12 March 2004.

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Justin Wilson may refer to:

• Justin Wilson (chef) (1914–2001), American chef and humorist
• Justin Wilson (racing driver) (born 1978), British Formula One and IndyCar driver
• Justin P. Wilson (born 1945), comptroller and former deputy governor of Tennessee
• Justin Wilson (baseball), Pittsburgh Pirates minor league player

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JJ Cale
Cale in 2006
Background information
Birth name	John Weldon Cale
Born	(1938-12-05) December 5, 1938 (age 73) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Genres	Americana, Cajun, blues, swamp rock, Red Dirt, Tulsa Sound
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, piano, keyboards, bass, drums
Years active	1958–present
Labels	Shelter, Mercury, Polygram, Virgin, Rounder, Silvertone
Associated acts	Leathercoated Minds, Eric Clapton, Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell
Website	jjcale.com

JJ Cale (also J.J. Cale), born John Weldon Cale^[1] on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,^[1] is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and musician. Cale is one of the originators of the Tulsa Sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz influences. Cale's personal style has often been described as "laid back".

His only U.S. hit single, Crazy Mama, peaked at #22 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1972. During the 2006 documentary film To Tulsa and Back Cale recounts the story of being offered the opportunity to appear on Dick Clark's American Bandstand to promote the song, which would have moved the song higher on the charts. Cale declined when told he could not bring his band to the taping and would be required to lip-sync the words to the song.

His songs have been performed by a number of other musicians including "After Midnight" and "Cocaine" by Eric Clapton,"Cajun Moon" by Randy Crawford, "Magnolia" by Jai, "Bringing It Back" by Kansas, "Call Me the Breeze" and "I Got the Same Old Blues" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Travelin' Light" and "Ride Me High" by Widespread Panic, "Tijuana" by Harry Manx, "Sensitive Kind" by Carlos Santana, "Cajun Moon" by Herbie Mann with Cissy Houston, and "Same Old Blues" by Captain Beefheart.

Biography[link]

Cale was born on December 5, 1938, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Some sources incorrectly give his real name as "Jean-Jacques Cale". A Sunset Strip nightclub owner employing Cale in the mid-1960s came up with the "JJ" moniker to avoid confusion with the Velvet Underground's John Cale.^{[citation needed]} In the 2006 documentary, To Tulsa and Back: On Tour with J.J. Cale, Rocky Frisco tells the same version of the story mentioning the other John Cale but without further detail.

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

• 1958 "Shock Hop/Sneaky" [45 - as Johnny Cale]^[2]
• 1960 "Troubles, Troubles/Purple Onion" [45 - as Johnny Cale Quintet] ^[2]
• 1961 "Ain't That Lovin You Baby/She's My Desire" [45 - as Johnny Cale Quintet] ^[2]
• 1971 "Crazy Mama" [45 as J.J. Cale], from the album Naturally, peaked at #22 on the US single charts on April 8, 1972.

[edit] Albums^[3]

• 1966 A Trip Down The Sunset Strip (with the Leathercoated Minds)
• 1972 Naturally
• 1973 Really
• 1974 Okie
• 1976 Troubadour
• 1979 5
• 1981 Shades
• 1982 Grasshopper
• 1983 #8
• 1984 Special Edition (a compilation of hits from previous albums)
• 1990 Travel Log
• 1992 Number 10
• 1994 Closer to You
• 1996 Guitar Man
• 1997 Anyway the Wind Blows: The Anthology
• 1998 The Very Best of J.J. Cale
• 2000 Universal Masters Collection
• 2001 Live
• 2004 To Tulsa and Back
• 2006 The Definitive Collection
• 2006 Collected (with bonus tracks) (Dutch release only)
• 2006 The Road to Escondido (with Eric Clapton)
• 2007 Rewind: The Unreleased Recordings
• 2009 Roll On
• 2011 The Silvertone Years (A collection chronicling JJ Cale's music released by Silvertone Records between 1989-1992)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: JJ Cale

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (February 2011)

• J.J. Cale Official website
• "To Tulsa and back - On Tour with J.J. Cale" Documentary about J.J. Cale
• VH1: Biography
• Laid Back – Thirty years under the influence of "Cocaine"
• JJ Cale Fan Network
• NPR: June 2004 story
• Rocky Frisco: Rocky Frisco Cale's Pianist
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Cale, John Weldon
• On his Casio 360 guitar
• To Tulsa and back - On Tour With J.J. Cale

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2010)

Cajun Dance Party were a five-piece band based in London, England. They originally consisted of Robbie Stern, Max Bloom, Daniel Blumberg, Will Vignoles, and Vicky Freund.^[1] The band has split after Blumberg and Bloom left the band in 2009 to form the band Yuck, while other members of the band went to university. Freund now performs with the band The Mourning Laughter.

Biography[link]

The band came into being when guitarist Robbie Stern invited Daniel Blumberg (vocals), Max Bloom (bass guitar), William Vignoles (drums) and Vicky Freund (keys) to start playing together, originally to participate in their school 'battle of the bands' in 2005. In their first few band practices, the 15 year olds began working on their first four songs, 'The Next Untouchable', 'Colourful Life', 'Amylase' and 'Buttercups', which were recorded as demos and submitted to their myspace site shortly after.

The band played their first few shows at the West London all ages club night 'Way Out West', performing in the bar beneath Brentford FC football stadium. Way Out West was well known for putting on many up and coming bands such as Jamie T, Late of the Pier, Video Nasties, and Laura Marling. The organizer of the event, Keith Anderson, began to manage the band shortly after. Their first single, "The Next Untouchable", was released on Anderson's record label as a limited edition 7" single, with 500 copies being put into production.

Cajun Dance Party's debut album was entitled The Colourful Life, and released in April 2008. The band recorded the album sessions with Bernard Butler at the recording studio, West Heath Yard, owned by Edwyn Collins. West Heath Yard was also a music industry spoof which aired for a short while on Channel 4 in 1999, The album consisted of nine tracks, with singles from the album including "Colourful Life", "The Race", and "Amylase". The album was given 4/5 in The Guardian.^[2]

The band made many festival appearances in the UK and abroad, performing at such festivals as Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury, Oxegen, T in the Park, Underage Festival, Camden Crawl, Summersonic Festival in Japan and Les Inrocks tour in France.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• The Colourful Life (2008)

Singles[link]

• "The Next Untouchable"
• "Amylase"
• "The Race"
• "Colourful Life"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Daily Music Guide Colourful Life review
• Live review The Point, Cardiff
• Cajun Dance Party entry in The Indie Music Database

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since January 2010. Its lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. Tagged since January 2010.

Doug Kershaw
Doug Kershaw playing the fiddle at the 2009 Festivals Acadiens et Créoles
Background information
Birth name	Douglas James Kershaw
Born	January 24, 1936 in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, U.S.A.
Genres	Cajun music, country, folk
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Fiddle
Years active	1948–present
Website	Website

Douglas James "Doug" Kershaw (born January 24, 1936) is an American fiddle player, singer and songwriter from Louisiana. Active since 1949, Kershaw has recorded fifteen albums and charted on the Hot Country Songs charts.

Early life[link]

Born in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, Kershaw did not learn English until the age of eight. By that time, he had mastered the fiddle, which he played from the age of five, and was on his way to teaching himself to play 28 instruments.^[1] His first gig was at a local bar, the Bucket of Blood, where he was accompanied by his mother on guitar.

Kershaw became interested in Cajun music during parties his parents would hold on the family's houseboat in Louisiana, where he first heard Cajun bands playing the music.

Doug grew up surrounded by Cajun fiddle and accordion music. After teaching his brother, Rusty (born Russell; February 2, 1938), to play guitar, he formed a band, the Continental Playboys, with Rusty and older brother Peewee (Nelson Kershaw) in 1948. With the departure of Peewee from the group, in the early '50s, Rusty & Doug continued to perform as a duo. In 1955, when Doug was 19 years old, he and Rusty performed on the Louisiana Hayride radio broadcast in Shreveport, Louisiana. The two were so popular that they were invited to perform at the WWVA Jamboree (later renamed Jamboree U.S.A.), in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Although the brothers initially sang in French, J.D. Miller, owner of the Feature record label, persuaded them to incorporate songs in English into their repertoire. In 1955, Doug and Rusty recorded their first single, "So Lovely, Baby." Released on the Hickory label, the tune went to number 14 on the country music charts. Later that same year, Doug and Rusty were invited to become cast members of the Louisiana Hayride cast. The Kershaws appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee and became regular members of the Opry cast the following year.^[2]

Despite the demands of his music career, Doug enrolled in McNeese State University, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he earned an undergraduate degree in Mathematics. At the peak of their early career, in 1958, Doug and Rusty both enlisted in the United States Army. They devoted their attention to the military until their discharge three years later.

"Louisiana Man" and solo career[link]

After fulfilling his military obligation, the two brothers recorded "Louisiana Man", an autobiographical song that Doug had written while in the Army. The song not only sold millions of copies but over the years has come to be considered a standard of modern Cajun music.^[3] The song was eventually covered by more than 800 artists.

There were three albums released by the duo on Hickory records, only one being released before they split up. The first was Rusty and Doug Sing Louisiana Man (LPM 103) in 1961. Kershaw (Genus Cambarus) (LPS 163) was released in 1972 and was a double LP. Louisiana Man (HR 4506) was the final Hickory album, released in 1974. By 1964, the brothers had elected to go their separate ways. It took another three years before Kershaw signed a songwriters' contract with BMI, in 1967.

In June 1969, Kershaw made his first network television appearance on the debut of the Johnny Cash Show. He capped the year with a week-long engagement at the New York City's Fillmore East as opening act for Eric Clapton's Derek and the Dominos. While it seemed to many rock and pop fans that Kershaw had appeared out of nowhere, he had already sold more than 18 million copies of the records he had made in the early '60s with his brother, Rusty. "Louisiana Man" had been a Top 10 country hit in 1961 and its follow-up, "Diggy Liggy Lo", had done almost as well. His performance in front of a national audience led to Warner Bros. Records signing him to a long-term contract.^[4] In November 1969, "Louisiana Man" was broadcast back to earth by the crew of the Apollo 12 moon mission. Beyond the southern venues, Kershaw became widely known in mainstream America as he played at major urban concert halls.

In 1970, Kershaw contributed a violin part to Arlo Guthrie's record single Alice's Rock and Roll Restaurant.^[5]

In 1971, Kershaw had a dramatically significant musical cameo in the movie Zachariah, starring Don Johnson and John Rubinstein.

Later life[link]

Despite the success of his solo career, Kershaw was plagued by depression and sorrow. His father had committed suicide when he was only seven. Marrying his wife, Pam, at the Houston Astrodome on June 21, 1975, Kershaw began raising his own family that included five sons - Douglas, Victor, Zachary, Tyler, and Elijah; and two grandsons and a granddaughter. His son, Tyler, plays drums in his band as well as manages his shows. Although he continued to perform and record, his albums of the 1970s failed to duplicate the commercial successes of "Louisiana Man" and "Diggy Diggy Lo".

In 1982, Doug Kershaw was featured as a stellar singer and musician from Louisiana, on the Southern Stars poster created by Dianna Chenevert to promote him and historically document his contribution to the music industry. On October 12, 1983 USA Today reporter Miles White highlighted Doug Kershaw as one of the famous entertainers on the poster which gave him additional nationwide attention. Kershaw rebounded with his biggest selling hit, "Hello Woman", which reached the country music Top 40. By 1984, Kershaw's battle with drug and alcohol abuse, came to a close and his previous erratic behavior, changed for the better.

In 1988, he recorded a duet, "Cajun Baby", with Hank Williams, Jr., that became a Top 50 country hit. Kershaw released a French-language album, Two Step Fever, in 1999, and Michael Doucet of Beausoleil is featured on the duet "Fievre De Deux Etapes". Hot Diggity Doug was released in mid-2000 and Still Cajun After All These Years followed in early 2001.

Kershaw formerly owned and operated The Bayou House, a restaurant in Lucerne, Colorado, but parted ways with his partners in 2007 due to his displeasure with management and ambiance.^[6]

In 2009, Doug was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Seemann, Charlie. (1998). "Doug Kershaw." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 279.
• Haas, Kyle. "Bayou House closes its doors." The Greeley Tribune 28 May 2008. <http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20080528/BUSINESS/642059053>.

External links[link]

• Official booking website