The Cajun Carousel

The dance partners came in all shapes, sizes and ages. The Boston brahman and the little old lady in the halter top, the Indian brahmin and the striking woman in dreadlocks, the tall, elderly gent dressed all in black and the tiny teenie bopper in sequined tights, the thirtysomething pony-tailed hippie and the soccer mom in purple cowboy boots and Stetson hat, all whirling around and around to the sounds of Little Annie and the Zydeco Cha Chas.

I call it the Cajun Carousel, this mass of fais do-do-ing humanity under the big Dance Tent at the 2006 Rhythm and Roots Festival.

The music was Cajun: Rooted in the Acadian ballads of French-Catholic Canada, transplanted to Louisiana and steeped in the native Creole and Zydeco. Heavy on accordian, fiddle, slide guitar and washboard with a soulfully infectious beat and soulful vocals.

The dancing was Cajun: The one-step jig, the two-step jitterbug and waltz.

The mood was sublime, if tinged with sadness: It was the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the death and destruction in Nawlins, the home of Cajun culture.

Other acts at the festival included The Savoy Family Band, Curley Taylor, the Horseflies, Steve Riley and the Mamu Playboys, Marcia Ball, Los Lobos and Dr. John. Not a bad note was played.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

* * * * *

The DF&C and I haven't made it all the way back to Kiko's House from this wonderful if somewhat soggy Labor Day weekend jaunt to the Rhode Island coast, but I had to share.

I had to share the fact that I didn't think of George Bush or Iraq for two whole days as I basked in the glow of several thousand like-minded Cajun music lovers, to the last person good humored and polite. Even the drunks fell down in style.

But alas, the real world beckons and Kiko's House will resume a full course of blogging in a day or two.

Soc au' lait.