Pine Leaf Boys: Get Off My Lawn

[BabbForHeisman]

Last year...kicked off of campus
This year...playing Jazz Fest

Not bad

[RaginRash]

Last year...kicked off of campus
This year...playing Jazz Fest

Not bad

Fais-Do-Do Stage
Friday, May 5th

I will be at "da Fess" today.

http://www.nojazzfest.com/schedule/5506.html

[Rebel02]

The Pine Leaf Boys played Wednesday night at Festival International.

[jfolse]

Look I was a chemical engineering student back a couple years ago. So I had to take a lot of courses in the chemistry building. I can understand that the noise would be a problem to the students. That being said I dont see a problem with the band performing out side of PJ's. But hey its Louisiana we tax are permit the death out of our citizens. This should be no surprise.

[NewsCopy]

On the second Friday of this year’s Jazz Fest, the Pine Leaf Boys made their Fair Grounds debut. There was a lot riding on the show because Cajun music desperately needed a young band to come forward and get young audiences excited about the genre. If any act was going to break through the domination of zydeco and make South Louisiana dancehalls safe again for fiddle music, this was the group that was going to do it. Chris Strachwitz, the owner of the California roots-music label Arhoolie Records, paced nervously on the sidelines. Onto the Fais Do Do Stage came the five musicians, all in their early 20s, wearing baseball caps, jeans and sneakers. They began with Clifton Chenier’s “Zydeco Sont Pas Sale,” and Wilson Savoy and Cedric Watson pumped the bellows of their button accordions as if they were trying to get a fire started. They soon succeeded, and the zydeco standard crackled and sparked, even with the old-school Creole spin the band put on it. That was fine, but there’s no shortage of South Louisiana bands that can play stomping zydeco two-steps. What’s missing are young bands that can play fiddles and waltzes with the same intensity that they bring to zydeco. So Strachwitz kept pacing. The real test would be the second song, a traditional waltz called “Musician with a Broken Heart.” Savoy picked up a fiddle and Watson stayed on the squeezebox—the reverse of their primary instruments—and Watson sang the lilting lament in French. The rest of the story By Geoffrey Himes offbeat.com

[Tripple Threat]

Excellent story.

[NewsCopy]

Pine Leaf Boys include Cedric Watson, Blake Miller, Drew Simon, Wilson Savoy (foreground) and Jon Bertrand. Cajun music thrived in the first half of the 20th century, but took a serious hit in the 1950s. The emergence of rock 'n' roll hurt most traditional music, but more devastating were "Americanization" policies in Louisiana schools that discouraged the speaking of French and cast a stigma over Cajun music. In the mid-'60s the traditional Cajun band of Dewey Balfa performed at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. Instead of being mocked, as some south Louisianans cynically had suggested, Balfa's music was embraced, marking the start of a successful cultural revitalization. One of the major artists in this revival was Eunice-based accordionist and accordion maker Marc Savoy, whose 20-something-year-old son, Wilson, is introducing a new generation to the music through his band, the Pine Leaf Boys. Members, who live together in Lafayette, recently released their second CD on the Arhoolie label, Blues de Musicien. Although they play in a traditional style and sing many songs in French, they have earned many fans of their own age. Part of their success has to do with their music's irresistible drive. The rest of the story By Scott Barretta Clarion-Ledger

[Cajunbander]

I believe I saw them playing the other day at PJ's. I wonder if they have to deal with the University to play there, I'm assuming PJ's is private property. I could be wrong, but they might've found a loophole.

[Turbine]

Congratulations to the Pine Leaf Boys for their Grammy nomination.

[Tripple Threat]

Great accomplishment! To go from being tossed off campus to a Grammy nomination...It's nice to see them get noticed...

[RaisingCajun08]

I just hope that the lady from California does not win the Grammy.

[NewsCopy]

  JEDDAH: Jeddawis and expats had an opportunity to experience the rich sound of Acadiana when the Pine Leaf Boys blew into town for two performances. The five members of this Grammy-nominated group all come from the Cajun heartland of southwestern Louisiana, one of the more culturally distinct regions of the United States.

The boys performed at a casual gathering yesterday afternoon at the Sierra Compound before heading on to a larger audience last night at the King Abdul Aziz Cultural Center. The band is touring the region as part of the US State Department's cultural diplomacy efforts.

The rest of the story

Angelo Young
Arab News