3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent introduction to Cajun music., September 25, 2000
This review is from: Cajun Country [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I thoroughly enjoyed this video.
The music featured was very diverse and was not over-produced, as are so many documentaries of folk music.
Of particular interest to me was the historical background of the music and the diversity in the Black and White Cajun communities.
I just wish the didn't have to show so much of Alan Lomax's mug! :-)
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm passionate about Cajun culture, November 23, 2006
This review is from: Cajun Country [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This was a lovely and informative video, and I wish it were on DVD.
It starts out with an unexpectedly poetic sequence, showing rural Cajuns riding across the countryside in the fog on horseback in costume during Cajun Country Mardi Gras, playing pranks, playing at being punished, and asking for donations (of both money and live chickens) from local farmers. They're just having the greatest Lousiana fun they can. I couldn't imagine anyone in my hometown of Los Angeles celebrating a holiday in this way, which is one thing that makes it so charming to me.
Lomax covers a wide variety of Cajun and zydeco musicians, and turned me onto some that I never knew about, like Chuck Guillory and D.L. Menard, both of whom are quite charismatic.
Immediately before viewing this video, I rented Les Blank's retrospective of Cajun and zydeco music, but I'm not really sure which one was better. The Les Blank documentary had more straight interviews with musicians while this one duplicated some of the musicians and brought in some others.
One strange thing was that several still photographs used in the Les Blank documentary were also used in this one, so I guess someone like perhaps Dennis McGee must have shown his own personal photos to both documentarians.
The irrepressible ninetysomething Dennis McGee appears in both videos, and is a high point. But it's especially fascinating when Lomax asks McGee's wife about Dennis's early philandering in the fais do-dos (it takes guts to ask such questions straight out) and gets an angry and unsparing answer from Mrs. McGee while McGee smiles and squirms nearby. Ah, musicians.
It's fascinating when they talk about how the hugely talented Negro accordionist Amadie Ardoin played close to the ledge, performing at white dances and fais do-dos all over Louisiana, but how he was sometimes chased across a field by drunken whites, leaving his accordion behind. A somber moment comes when we hear of Ardoin's sad end, which says much about the Southern bigotry of that period.
I think I'm going to buy this video. I want to be able to play it over and over again. I want to listen to the accents. I want to study the music. And anything with Michael Doucet in it is just lovely (here he's playing "Le Jig Francais" and other soaring songs). If you're looking for the flavor of Cajun country, you'll find lots in here that's worth a look or two.
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