SATURDAY 5:30 pm HISTORIC EUREKA THEATER with Tom Rigney & Flambeau 8:30 pm HISTORIC EAGLE HOUSE with Tom Rigney & Flambeau SUNDAY 1:30 pm ADORNI WATERFRONT CENTER with Tom Rigney & Flambeau MICHAEL DOUCÉT
CAJUN, AMERICANA
MICHAEL DOUC É T, fiddler, composer, and bandleader, is perhaps the single most important figure in the revitalization of Cajun music in the United States. A Louisiana native, Doucét is widely regarded as the world’s best Cajun fiddler and leads the globetrotting band BeauSoleil, featured in documentary films and movies such as Belizaire the Cajun and The Big Easy . He's a two-time Grammy Award Winner and eleven-time Grammy Award nominee. Since the mid-'70s, Doucét has been one of the dominant figures of the Cajun music revival, respected for his scholarship and admired for his showmanship. On the one hand, Doucét dredges up ancient Cajun tunes with medieval French roots, and on the other, plays flamboyant fiddle with Beausoleil. Aside from Beausoleil, singer and fiddler Doucét has performed and recorded with the more purely traditional Savoy- Doucét Cajun Band. He is as passionate about Cajun
he was influenced by rock music, although Cajun music was ever-present. Doucét played in folk-rock bands with his cousin, Zachary Richard, at the age of twelve, then joined a Cajun rock group. In 1974, he and Richard visited France and after his return to the U.S., he learned violin, which quickly became his principal instrument. Additionally, he plays guitar as well as mandolin and accordion, and also sings. Deeply influenced by older musicians such as Amédé Ardoin and especially Dennis McGee (who became a friend), Doucét and a group of like-minded friends formed a band in 1975, naming it Coteau. He also formed Beausoleil with Kenneth and Sterling Richard in 1977. With Beausoleil, Doucét blended elements of traditional Cajun music with zydeco, adding hints of jazz, blues, and country. In 2005, Doucét and Beausoleil received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, and in 2007 they were awarded a United States Artists Grant. The band has been nominated many times for Grammy awards, and won for Best Traditional Folk Album with 1997's L'Amour Ou La Folie . Among many pieces Doucét has composed for his band are Chanson D’Acadie, Bunk's Blues, Conja,Newz Reel, Quelle Belle Vie, L'Ouragon, and Freeman’s Zydeco, the latter in collaboration with Fremont Fontenot. Doucét has performed frequently in concert and on record in a trio, the Savoy-Doucét Cajun Band, with Marc and Ann Savoy. He has also worked with Bruce Molsky, Darol Anger, and Rushad Eggleston as Fiddlers 4, and has recorded several solo albums. Since 1997, Doucét has been involved in education and has been adjunct professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette.
Doucét and Tom Rigney
tradition as he is eager to drop-kick it into the 21st century, and for that reason, Doucét has earned the applause of both purists and plebians who just want to boogie. Following a family tradition, Doucét played music from his earliest years, mastering banjo at the age of five and guitar at eight. Like others of the era,
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