Turning Cajun and zydeco musicians loose on rock music was a novel idea for the first En Francais. The novelty has worn off, but the thrill these melded melodies produces is no less welcome on En Francais 2.
Featuring a baker’s dozen tracks that range in interpretation from grungy and guttural to quaintly traditional, En Francais 2 is full of surprises. Some of the groups performing on the record — The Babineaux Sisters, Isle Deniére, The Brasseurs — are less well known in Lafayette clubs but bring, like Michael Doucet, Al Berard, Geno Delafose and Terrance Simien, an authenticity, intensity and high level of musicianship to the production.
Produced by Karlos Knott, Louis Michot and Todd Mouton, En Francais 2’s sound is rich and earth-toned. There is so much serendipity, so much combustible happenstance magic in these tracks, the conceit — taking popular rock and, in a few cases, R’n’B songs and recording them Cajun- and zydeco-style — evaporates in the sheer joy of the experience. And then there’s track 8, Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” performed by the Soul Express Brass Band featuring zydeco accordionist Corey Ledet. It’s a brazen departure from form on the record and emphatic proof that melding zydeco accordion with New Orleans funky brass isn’t just a righteous experiment, it’s plain righteous.
En Francais 2 was worth the wait. Here’s to hoping there will be more. — Walter Pierce
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
Is it a crime for citizens to photograph, video, or take notes of a police officer in the line of duty, or a right protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? Locally, such activity, as witnessed recently, will at the very least result in a night spent behind bars.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
Featuring a baker’s dozen tracks that range in interpretation from grungy and guttural to quaintly traditional, En Francais 2 is full of surprises. Some of the groups performing on the record — The Babineaux Sisters, Isle Deniére, The Brasseurs — are less well known in Lafayette clubs but bring, like Michael Doucet, Al Berard, Geno Delafose and Terrance Simien, an authenticity, intensity and high level of musicianship to the production.
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