Louisiana's hidden music

Southern Living, Oct 2003 by Parker, Melanie

Come hear the Cajun heartbeat in Eunice.

Every Saturday morning, the Savoy Music Center in Eunice, Louisiana, draws music lovers from just up the road and all over America. Many come to hear Cajun music in its purest form from people who need music as much as air and water.

Exploring South Louisiana feels like being in another country. This is the land of the Acadians, a people displaced here from Nova Scotia in 1755, their culture virtually isolated until the 1930s. French, the lyrical language of Cajun music, is still widely spoken.

"I was born and raised on this music," says Linus Bertrand, who regularly plays his accordion at the center. "When the doors open, we're waiting."

Driving about 20 minutes west from Opelousas on U.S. 190, you can't miss the center. You've arrived when you see musicians jamming in the gravel driveway and on the back of pickup trucks.

Inside the modest green building that houses the Savoy Music Center, the wizened and the young are tightly gathered, wielding fiddle, accordion, and guitar. Packed in rows of folding metal chairs, audience members keep a frantic beat with triangles and wooden spoons. A singer hits a highpitched wail, his voice on the verge of cracking. "Cajun music is often about a woman who gave you a hard time and left you for another man," says Linus. "In the end, you always want her back."

Behind this scene are Ann and Marc Savoy, known as crusaders for all that is genuinely Cajun. Marc, whose handcrafted accordions are coveted internationally, opened his music store in 1966. Ann, a ravenhaired beauty from Virginia, met her husband at a national folk festival in the 1970s. "I decided that for the rest of my life I wanted to document the lives and music of these amazing French-speaking people," she says.

MELANlE PARKER

Savoy Music Center: 4413 U.S. 190 East, Eunice, LA 70535; (337) 4579563 or www.savoymusiccenter.com. Acoustic jam sessions: 9 a.m.-noon every Saturday. Interested in learning more about Cajun music? Read Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People, compiled and edited by Ann Savoy. Listen to Le Trio Cadien (Rounder Select) and The Best of the Savoy-Doucet Cajun band (Arhoolie Records).