Customer Reviews

Play Traditional Cajun Music

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Leave your Wayne Toups discs at the door. If he is what you call Cajun music, you've got it all wrong. Being Cajun, I don't like it when people get artists like Toups confused with real, traditional Cajun music. I'm not bashing Toups. As a matter of fact, I quite enjoy his music. But most people outside of Louisiana think he's the real thing. The Balfa Brothers are REAL Cajun music. They play traditional and cherished songs of the Cajun people of Louisiana. Their recordings are crucial since most of the artists before them never made it into a recording studio. If you are Cajun, or have ties back to Louisiana, I highly suggest you get this recording if, for no other reason, to have a piece of your culture in your possession.
Go out and enjoy Wayne Toups and some of the new, peppier stuff that mixes zydeco and Cajun, but always remember that the Balfa's laid the ground work.

I grew up in Mamou, Louisiana and went to grade school with Dewey's nephew, Tony. So, I think I might have some credentials in reviewing this album. Out of all the Cajun music I have in my collection, this CD gets played more than all the others combined. And that includes Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, headed by a guy closer to my age and from my hometown. Granted, the Balfa's were also from the Mamou area (closer to Basile). Steve Riley learned from Dewey Balfa, for one thing, and as good as he is, will never be able to capture that something special that was the Balfa Brothers.

I think, primarily, the Balfa Brothers captured the sound of an era that was in its twilight. Everything since will always be different (read: more modern) mainly because of the cultural changes and secondly because of the technological advances in music.

In the 60's and 70's, the revival of Folk music also awakened those of us growing up in culturally rich places such as Mamou. Cajun music became "cool" again against the backdrop of great music from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elton John and others of that time. People started flooding into places like Fred's Lounge to hear the music in public again instead of just at house parties.

It is the pureness, the simplicity (but certainly not simplistic - just ask the many very good musicians who have struggled to learn these riffs), the raw emotion and most of all the sheer beauty of the music that stands out. The twin fiddling, the truly distinctive vocals (with some nasal tone absolutely necessary for Cajun sound), the haunting waltzes and the "joy-in-your-heart" upbeat tempos all lead to a musical experience hard to explain or exceed.

You almost have to be from Acadiana to really understand what I mean, but I think if you find that you love Cajun music, you do understand. When I hear these songs now, I'm carried back to my youth. Not just for nostalgia, but because it is such strong and meaningful music. It has become part of the soundtrack of my life. Thank goodness for that!

For anyone looking for something even more raw and unpolished, but very good, I can wholeheartedly recommend a compilation called Folksongs of the Louisiana Acadians. Let me emphasize again, it is very unpolished, but if you love Folk and particularly Cajun music, it is very good. I also may be a little biased, since it includes a few songs with my grandfather, Isom J. Fontenot playing a very unique harmonica style, possibly never duplicated.

This might be old and cliche', but it's about the only Cajun French phrase I actually know... Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouller!

No fan or student of Cajun music or folk/traditional music in general should be without this essential album. Every song here is a classic in the Cajun repertoire, and is presented in true Balfa Brothers form: outstanding! The liner notes include all the song lyrics in Cajun French and English. If you don't own this album, you really have no excuse. Buy it now!

The Balfa Brothers were to traditional Cajun music what the New Lost City Ramblers were to Old Time Country Music, a modern door into a world gone by. With a deep feeling for the traditions the music represents and with superb musicianship, they perform songs many of which predate recorded musical history. The notes in this CD provide a good, but brief, history of the group and all the words in both French and English translation. Hopefully, this easily accessable and very enjoyable collection will encourage some to seek out the first recordings made of this unique and wonderful music in the 20's, 30's, and 40's.

this is cajun music not zydeco, don't understand a word but damn its goo

This is a classic album that I keep coming back too, either for listening pleasure (and I usually consider cajun music as primarily dance music, not listening music), to just studying and trying to learn how to play.

There is a reason everyone gives it a 5 star rating. If you think this is "too cajun" for you, i.e. you're new to the genre and don't quite get the classic nature of this album, start with something like "La Pointe" by Balfa Toujours, a very excellent "classic contemporary" album of itself, which includes Dewey Balfa's daughter, Christine, on guitar and vocals. Once that one whets your chops, you can return to this one and see where it started.

As a Louisiana native, I can comfortably say that this is perfect cajun music. It doesn't get much better than this!

The first time I ever heard the Balfa Brothers was in the movie "Southern Comfort" about the National Guard Soldiers in the Swamp. The song Parlez-Nous à Boire is played near the end of the movie in the camp. Not sure if it was the Balfa playing since I have never seen them but it shows muscians playing. I bought this CD for this song and have fallen in love with almost all of the songs.

Good music sometimes rolls, flows, and falls into a mainstream and never lets up, as if it were meant to happen. This seems to be the case here with this Balfa brothers recording. Smooth with hardly any rough edges, these are real Cajun sessions, nothing fake or artificial about it. Dewey, Rodney, Will, Burkeman, Harry, all the Balfa's literally take you back to their family roots to show us the traditional Cajun way. Cajun music consist of strictly French lyrics, acoustic guitars, fiddle, accordion, the triangle, and there's the tight vocals and harmonies of the brothers. This is vol.1 and vol.2 of the original vinyl combined on one twenty four song disc. Some of these songs were featured on the motion picture "Southern Comfort", where you can catch Dewey Balfa in a cameo appearance naturally as one of the musicians, - one song featured in the film "Parlez-Nous a Boire", - also listen for The Balfa Brothers cover of Iry LeJeune's, "Lacassine Special", an essential recording, don't miss the Bayou train.

This is the album which features the haunting tracks from the film southern comfort,played in the cajun village toward the end of the movie. its a superb introduction to cajun music in general.