THE BRIDGE
VOL 8, No. 2March 1998
The Cajun Connection is dedicated to bringing the good times of
South Louisiana to the Tampa Bay area;
the food, the music, and the dancing.
Join the Fun - Join The Cajun Connection
Cajun Connection People - A quick introduction
Benny Sylvester, able to cook anything with roots or feet. Edwina Sylvester, club spokes-model. Dave Hildebrand, World's Greatest Tourist Guide and Bahama Mama expert. Peggy Hildebrand, cool bowling shirt.Dede Peck, world record holder for biggest grin ever at Randol's. Randy and Pam Hebert, building material donators for dance pavilions at Cafe on the Bayou.
Barbara Cowan, maker of a zillion phone calls. Betty Hilliard, chopper of a zillion onions. Kevin and Liz Royak, printer of a zillion mailing labels. Don and Carol, golly Gee. Lynn Borisenko and the tee shirt dummy, twins from the neck down. Paul Carr, Christmas Party Jam inspirer. Joe, Kim, and Arianne Kopacz, Chairman and committee members of the free s**t committee. Andrea Posner, longs for life as a legislative liaison to Louisiana.
Mark Charts, the next great Cajun mandolin player. Sarah Blanchard, mother-to-be of the next great Cajun mandolin player after Mark. Ellen Raabe, hottest fiddler on the Congregate Living Facility circuit. JoEllen Johnson, marching to a different bodhran. Bill Levens, Attorney at La. Sheri Levens, believes Zydeco is the key to mental health. Davida Johns, doing a photo essay on sweet potato pies. Roger McClintock, rhythm guitarist and out-of-state kitchen help recruiter.
Tom, Lorrie, Vince, Bridgette, Vicki, Dennis, Don and the gang at Skippers, our hosts. Paul and Sally Hooper, can still dance to Zydeco despite their advanced years. Eric Olsen, Ambassador to the Big Easy. Tom Seitzenger and Karen, proof that opposites attract.
Carol and Ian, President and Vice-President of the Open Mike Handley Fan Club. Jan Ledman, temporarily disabled dancer. Everyone else - friends who can't wait for her to get back on the dance floor. Don and Kacy, look like the American Gothic picture, at every dance in town. Trip, dance floor repairman. Rocky, Christmas Party Decorating Consultant. Paul and Molly, managers of the new band, Little Rickyanne and the Zydeco Parents.
Joe Norton and Sue, anyone that dances that well together has to be in love. Dru Greene, campaigner to get our music on WMNF and official waltz role model. Jon Thaxton, great dancer and professional gopher tortoise gofer. Larry Green, bear of a hugger. Eric Harris, calls Contra, craves Cajun.
Mark Hahn - The Dipper. Judy Dvorak, The Dippee. Thud!
Saturday Nights
A Poem by the soon to be famous Cajun poet, Liz Bahs
I would like to be a zydeco frottoir player.
Wash boarding fingertips down, click
clicking out notes--shoulders bounce,
hunching; muscles tighten then release.
I would feed the souls of the crowd,
shuffling, grit sliding underfoot
shushing rock step back shift side
to side and spin. Eyes close,
and I strum my chest plate of medieval armor.
Hands reach into the air, towards the band,
wrists circle, calling for more
heavy backbeat--more music to whirl
us breathless and melting,
out into the night
Steve Riley Diary
The normal perspective for a concert article is looking back. I thought I'd try something different. I am sitting here writing a couple days before the Steve Riley concert. The best way to describe my feelings is "on the fence between happiness and horror". I know in my heart that it will be wonderful, but I can't make myself forget Murphy's law.
When we started conceiving the idea for the Humane Society fund-raiser, our first choice for a band was Steve Riley. We couldn't swing that, but lucked out and hired a band that will someday be regarded with the same respect as the Mamou Playboys.... Kevin Naquin, Hubert Maitrè, and the Ossun Playboys. But the effort to hire Steve and the Boys wasn't in vain, they were available for the Friday the 13th date. We can thank Tom and Vince at Skipper's for all this luck, it wouldn't have happened without their help.
Today, I was sitting in a restaurant booth at noon time. The guy in front of me was reading the paper and held it up so I could get a clear view of it. I almost jumped up and shouted when I realized I was looking at an article about this Friday's concert in the Baylife section of the Tampa Tribune! I waited impatiently until he was done reading than I surprised him by asking if I could see the paper. He handed it over and I was ecstatic reading quotes from two of my role models, Steve Riley, accordion player, and Benny Sylvester, President of the Cajun Connection. I called Benny and Edwina later that day and they said the article brought calls from Ocala, Cocoa Beach, and all points in between. Gosh darn we are famous!
Tomorrow night Edwina will be joined by several volunteers and begin chopping vegetables for 200 servings of Crawfish Etoufeè. When they are done, they will eat Benny's red beans and make their plans for the next day. I am taking Friday off from work to get over to Skippers early and cook corn and potatoes. We will also be setting up the booth for tee shirt sales, membership recruiting, and sundries. We have something new planned, a Cajun Yell contest. Is it going to be a success or a flop? I really don't know. But it is for a great cause, endowment of a cajun music studies program at USL in honor of Tommy Comeaux.
That was my turn. Now it's yours. Jot down ten or twenty words that describe the night you had at Skipper's. Mail 'em, e-mail 'em, hand them to Board members when you bump into us at Skipper's, or get them to us any way you can. We will print as many as we can in the next full newsletter.
Happy Hour
The next Happy Hour will be held from 6 P.M. until ??? on Friday, March 13th at the Cajun Café on the Bayou located at 8285 Park Boulevard in Pinellas Park (next to the Wagon Wheel Flea Market). If you need directions, call the restaurant at (813) 546-6732. Joe will have plenty of good food waiting for us and we will bring the music. Hope to see you there, chere!Who are Kevin Naquin, Hubert Maitrè, and the Ossun Playboys?
Never heard of them, eh? They will be at Skipper's on Saturday, March 21. We will be serving boiled crawfish, having a crawfish eating contest, giving dance lessons, holding a dance contest and another Cajun Yell contest. Music will begin at 8:00 P.M.
We heard these fellows for the first time last September at Festivals Acadiens. I didn't think I would feel like dancing in the heat and dust, but I realized I was wrong soon after they took the stage. They inspired us to get up and two step on the lumpiest, bumpiest dance surface I ever danced on. When I glanced up to see what they looked like I was amazed to see a bunch of teenagers with a guy who looked like their Dad, and they were really jamming.
It turns out these youngsters have been around longer than I thought. Kevin is the great-grandson of Cajun music pioneers Edius Naquin and Hadley Fontenot, who teamed up to teach him how to play accordion when he was 13. He has been recording since he was 16, four whole years ago. Hubert Maitrè, the only member old enough to drink alcoholic beverages, is the lead singer on most songs. He learned guitar from another well known Cajun musician, Adam Maitrè, his Dad. Hubert's son, Derrick has played with him for over ten years, starting on triangle and now playing drums. Courtney Granger plays fiddle, guitar, and sings. He is the nephew of Dewey Balfa. Need I say more? John Gary is also a multi-talented member playing bass, fiddle, accordion, drums and steel guitar.
The band just recorded a great traditional Cajun CD, Dans Le Coeur O'ssun, and it is selling well in Southwest Louisiana. These guys have never been to Florida so let's make them feel really welcome. Maybe they will remember us ten years from now when they are as popular as Steve Riley and Beausoleil!
Humane Society Fund Raiser
The Board of Directors has decided to make the Kevin Naquin Crawfish Boil a fund-raiser. All profits from the gate and food will be donated to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. The Humane Society has agreed to use all of the funds to support their pet education programs. Hopefully, we can teach a few people to be more responsible for their animals and reduce the number of unwanted, suffering cats and dogs in our community.You may know people who resist coming to a Cajun dance party, but would be grateful for a chance to support this cause. Be sure to let them know all the details, or give them the Hot Line number 1-813-986-7978 so they can find out on their own. More people at the event will help us meet our fundraising goal of at least $500.00. It will also increase our exposure in the community. If more people come to our shows, there will be more Cajun and Zydeco concerts; and they will be provided by more bands from Southwest Louisiana. It is a win-win situation for everyone!
Results of Zydeco Poll
Forty-two people responded to the poll we took to determine if Cajun Connection members wanted to hire an occasional Zydeco band. Thirty-five of the respondents said they would favor an occasional zydeco concert. People who had the opportunity to comment often expressed the opinion that they would like to see concerts where both a Cajun band as well as a Zydeco band could perform.Your Board hears you. We are working on arranging a concert in the spring or early summer that will feature a Zydeco band.
Tommy Comeaux Fund-raiser
By Joe KopaczIt was with great regret that we learned of the recent death of Dr. Tommy Comeaux. Tommy Comeaux, a four-time nominee for the Grammy Award, may be best known to Cajun Connection members as the bass player for Beausosleil. The 45-year-old Comeaux died November 8, 1997 as a result of being struck by an automobile while riding his bicycle. At various times, Tommy had played with about 25 bands. Apart from his musical accomplishments, he was also a noted physician and head of the pathology department at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Lafayette.
A fund has been established at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Tommy's name. The Dr. Tommy Comeaux Endowed Fund for Traditional Music will focus on the preservation and perpetuation of American music, with special emphasis on the music of the Acadiana region. The fund will sponsor scholarships, community performances, and instruction in traditional music forms.
The purpose of the Cajun Connection, as stated in the Articles of Incorporation, "is to educate the general public about Louisiana life and culture". With that in mind, the Board of Directors recently voted to make a $100 contribution to the fund. At future club events, we will have fund raising activities so we can make additional donations. Also, we are currently working on putting together a benefit concert featuring Beausoleil, with the proceeds to go to the fund. Please be generous and help keep Tommy's music alive!
Response from WMNF
The last Le Pont contained excerpts from an e-mail Dru Greene sent to Randy Wynne at WMNF. Dru essentially asked Randy why there was no regularly scheduled Cajun/Zydeco programming on the station, and made a strong case for including it in the future. Randy was kind enough to provide us with the following response.Dear Cajun Connection Folks,I appreciate the e-mail from Dru Greene and the interest in WMNF from the Cajun Connection. First a little background on WMNF and Cajun-Zydeco music. We have played Cajun and Zydeco music since the station went on the air in 1979 - long before there was a Cajun Connection or any Cajun music had come to the area. On the concert scene, we introduced Zydeco music live to Tampa Bay when we headlined Buckwheat Zydeco at Tropical Heatwave in 1986. The next year we teamed File' with Buckwheat for the first of several Louisiana Saturday nights, including a series of big concerts headlined by Beausoleil. I know for a fact that most people who came to these concerts had never danced to Cajun music before. I suspect that the Cajun Connection has many members who came to the club as a result of WMNF's efforts.
A few years ago the Cajun Connection pledged to guest host a show on WMNF where they would play Zydeco and Cajun music. A major reason the Cajun Connection "bought" the airtime was to promote their next event. This has now evolved into an ongoing relationship: the Cajun Connection pledges, comes in to do the show and promotes their next event. I agree with Dru that this is a problematic arrangement.
The station does not sell airtime; the guest host slots are a thank you gift for a pledge; they are intended as one-shot deals where members of the listening audience can program a show, not as an ongoing bi-annual show. The Cajun Connection shows have been overly promotional, with too much pushing of the next event, making the show sound sometimes like an extended paid commercial. Our station does not allow for repeated and explicit urging to attend an event, as explained in the guest-host information packet you receive before each guest-host show, unless it's a WMNF event.
This brings up several questions. If you can't buy airtime, how can you get Cajun and Zydeco music on WMNF?
We mix Cajun and Zydeco with many of our shows, and we will continue to play it. We also announce the Cajun and Zydeco shows that come to town, and play Cajun and Zydeco artists that are coming. We do not have a show specifically targeted to Cajun and Zydeco. We will consider a proposal for such a show, but keep in mind we would want a regular show to have little promotional element outside playing the music and brief announcements about where it can be heard live. A regular show cannot be the Cajun Connection promotional vehicle. Secondly, getting a show on WMNF has become intensely competitive. The station's weekday programming has moved away from specific genre music shows toward programming that mixes styles, leaving such specialty shows to the evening and weekend. Almost every show now on the station is well-supported and well-loved. To put on a new show means a show has to be taken off. Still, I'd entertain a proposal, you just need to know we cannot put on every good idea. Some of the things we will consider are the qualifications and appeal of the host(s); the proposed scope and format of the show (all Louisiana music, or just Cajun and Zydeco?); and when it can fit into our existing schedule. We do not have (or intend to have) a show for every ethnic and cultural group in Tampa Bay. The next round where we would look at our existing schedule and consider proposals concludes in February, 1999.
In the meantime (and if a regular show cannot be scheduled), I'm happy to schedule an occasional Cajun-Zydeco special on Traffic Jam. These shows would not have to be paid for, but I also would expect they would not be overly promotional. I hope to hear from you about this.
The station will also consider a concert/dance that is co-sponsored by the Cajun Connection and WMNF (I'm assuming the Cajun Connection is incorporated as a non-profit). We choose our events carefully, but we are happy to hear your ideas or proposals.
So we won't expect a Cajun Connection guest host pledge this week. I do hope that all Cajun Connection members will consider individually supporting WMNF, in recognition for the continuing support the station gives for this great music.
Thanks for your interest.
Randy Wynne
WMNF Program DirectorYou have to agree that WMNF has been the only radio station in Tampa Bay to play our music and stage concerts with Cajun and Zydeco performers. It is also true that many of our members joined the club because they were influenced by the station.
Has the club paid for the guest host slots to promote our events? Hell yes it has. It was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. We are a non-profit corporation that operates solely with help of volunteers with day jobs. No club member profits from our activities. All revenues in excess of expenses are put back into the club treasury. For the most part, all of the profits are expended on a year-end holiday party that our members attend for free. We can't afford expensive advertising and have an obligation to preserve our meager treasury so we can keep enjoying events well into the future. But we can tone down the promotions if the station wants us to. Our mission is to promote Southwestern Louisiana music, dance, food and culture, and more frequent programming will help accomplish that goal. Our club has to also remain financially solvent for it to happen, therefore we may be a little too eager to spread the word when the opportunity presents itself.
Finally, while Randy didn't make a total commitment, he sure presented some interesting ideas for future collaborations. An invitation to submit a proposal for a regular show, an offer to schedule specials without having to pay a fee, and co-sponsorship of an event. Be assured that we will follow up on all of these exciting ideas and keep you posted as things develop.
Thanks Dru, for getting the ball rolling.
Maque Choux 24 ears of corn
2 onions, finely chopped
2 large bell peppers, chopped
4 over-sized tomatoes
½ pound of butter
2 tablespoons of salt
2 tablespoons of black pepper
1. Cut corn off the cob; shave down the cob to get the juice.
2. Sauté onion, bell pepper, and tomato in butter for about 10 minutes.
3. Add corn and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Add salt and pepper about five minutes into cooking corn.
Join Today
You can join right now by using the Membership Form.
We will confirm receipt of your membership by return email or phone.
Membership fees are:
$13.00 - Individual
$25.00 - Family
You can make your check payable to The Cajun Connection and mail to:
The Cajun Connection
PO Box 447
Tampa, FL 33592
Boudreau & Clarence, the Feuding Twosome
It seemed that Boudreau and Clarence were accustomed to having heated arguments daily on Bayou LaForche. They would stand on each side of the Bayou and cuss and threaten, but they never ventured to cross during an argument.Before long, the whole picture changed when an oil company started building a bridge to cross the Bayou next door to Boudreau and Tibodeau's house. Well, the day the bridge was completed the feuding twosome had one hell of an argument. Boudreau came in to eat dinner. He told Clotile he had enough of Clarence. After his lunch he stormed out of the door to whip his butt once and for all. He had taken enough! Out of the door he went, shaking with anger. Clotile watched him walk almost across the bridge then abruptly turn around and come back to the house as fast as he could.
"What is the matter, chere? I thought you was gonna go over there to beat him up?"
"That's true, Clotile, I was sure gonna do that, but I gotta tol' you I got scared, me. All the time I looked at Clarence from this side of the Bayou he looked like a 'lil man, Mais, when I got almost across that bridge, I glanced up and there was a big sign there what said, 'Clarence 10 feet', so I ran back before he saw me coming!"
CALL LYNN AT (813) 626-7928 TO PLACE ORDERS FOR CAJUN CONNECTION TANK TOPS BEFORE THE HOT WEATHER!DANCE LESSONS BEGIN MARCH 1ST AT "COME DANCING STUDIO" CALL THE HOTLINE 813/986-7978 FOR DETAILS NOW!
MEMBERS - CALL DAVE AT 813/626-7928 WITH LEADS ON POSSIBLE NEWSLETTER ADS!
If you'd like to join The Cajun Connection, please email us today!
or complete our online membership form right now!
Please Sign Our
Return to Main Page
Cajun Music | Cajun Food | Cajun Links | Party Highlights
Site design by Spyce` ©1997,1998
This Bourbon Street Ring site
is owned by
Tampa Bay Cajun Connection.
[ Prev | Skip It | Next 5 | Random | Next ]
Want to join the ring? Get the info.
This Cajun Ring site
site
is owned by
Tampa Bay Cajun Connection.
[ Prev | Skip It | Next 5 | Random | Next ]
Want to join the ring? Get the info.
Return to Top of Page.
Get your own Free Home Page
