Abstract
This chapter is essentially about the globalisation of an evolving musical form. It explores the flourishing, in the 1990s, of a scene developed in Derby, in the English East Midlands, dedicated to Cajun music, historically the folk music of the poor whites of Southern Louisiana. Based on interviews with, and other testimony of, people who either ran or attended the Swamp Club, the centre of this scene, the chapter discusses how local enthusiasm for this imported music was generated, sustained, and, at length, dissipated. A key theme in the chapter is authenticity and arguments over what “real” Cajun music should be. This “authenticity,” it seems, was policed less strictly by the bearers of the tradition (the Louisiana Cajuns) than by the Derby newcomers to it.
Borrowash is a village to the east of the Derby in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, UK.
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Notes
- 1.
“Swamp Club Revival” http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/content/articles/2004/12/08/rcajun_swamp_club_feature.shtml. Posted 24th September 2014; access 21st October 2016.
- 2.
The chapter is based on interviews with Chris Hall and John Elliott, the musicians who ran the Swamp Club. Neither is certain of the exact date of the Swamp Club’s closure. John’s best estimate was that it coincided with the birth of one of his daughters, who was 20 at the time I spoke to him, by telephone, on 27th February 2018.
- 3.
Including freed African and Haitian slaves. See Megan Romer “What is the difference between Cajun Music and Zydeco?” http://worldmusic.about.com/od/northamerican/f/DiffCajunZydeco.htm. Access 21st October 2016.
- 4.
See Cynthia LeJeune Nobles “Many Meanings of Gumbo” http://bitesofhistory.com/2013/05/05/many-meanings-of-gumbo/. Access 4th March 2018.
- 5.
Chris Hall, email to the author 22nd March 2018.
- 6.
Ann Savoy “Cajun Music: Alive and Well in Louisiana” http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/creole_art_cajunmusic_aliv.html. First published 1990. Access 21st October 2016. See also Broven (1992).
- 7.
John Bush “Artist Biography: Nathan Abshire” https://www.allmusic.com/artist/nathan-abshire-mn0000376349/biography. Access 4th March 2018.
- 8.
Jon Pareles “D.L. Menard, ‘the Cajun Hank Williams,’ Is Dead at 85” New York Times 30th July 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/arts/music/dl-menard-the-cajun-hank-williams-is-dead-at-85.html. Access 4th March 2018.
- 9.
Unattributed “Dewey Balfa: Master of cajun music” https://folkways.si.edu/dewey-balfa-master-cajun/music/article/smithsonian. Access 4th March 2018.
- 10.
Ancelet “Continuity…” p. 13.
- 11.
“Dewey Balfa: Master….”
- 12.
Barry Jean Ancelet “Lomax in Louisiana: Trials and Triumph” Louisiana Folklore Miscellany 2009 Available at: http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/LFMlomax.html. Access 5th March 2018.
- 13.
http://www.annsavoy.com/musiccajunsavoyfamily.html. Access 5th March 2018.
- 14.
See http://www.zacharyrichard.com/english/biography.php. Access 5th March 2018.
- 15.
http://www.acadianmuseum.com/museum.html. Access 5th March 2018.
- 16.
Don Black, Don “Tommy Steele: Bermondsey Boy” BBC Radio 2 26th December 2011.
- 17.
See http://www.45worlds.com/vinyl/album/33s1122. Access 5th March 2018.
- 18.
Jambalaya is a traditional Cajun dish deriving from French and Spanish cuisine and comprised of meat, vegetables and rice.
- 19.
See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046425/. Access 5th March 2018.
- 20.
See Renton 2016.
- 21.
Unless otherwise stated, all quotations of Chris Hall are taken from an interview I had with him in Derby 8th February 2018.
- 22.
A shorthand term to describe old English folk songs, often sung without instrumental accompaniment, the singer cupping a hand over one ear better to maintain pitch.
- 23.
Improbably, one of the best accounts of Menard’s regard for Williams can be found on a website dedicated to the British band Roxy Music, D.L. and other Cajun musicians having played on a track on singer Bryan Ferry’s solo album Frantic (2002). The site is curated by John O’Brien. See http://www.vivaroxymusic.com/musicians_151.php. Access 10th March 2018.
- 24.
A quasi-Masonic organisation dating from the early nineteenth century.
- 25.
Email to the author, 13th March 2018. WOMAD is an acronym for the annual World of Music, Arts and Dance festival. Andy Kershaw at the time was a BBC radio presenter, sympathetic to roots and world music.
- 26.
A term often used to refer to New Age Travellers—often young, nomadic, and environmentally concerned people.
- 27.
Telephone interview, 12th March 2018.
- 28.
This is still in operation and can be reached at: http://swampmusic.co.uk/.
- 29.
Email to the author 9th March 2018.
- 30.
From their album The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse (Liberty Records, 1968).
- 31.
See http://www.mamouplayboys.com/biography/. Access 12th March 2018.
- 32.
The tune was called “Lafayette Breakdown,” retitled “Mamou Playboys’ Special” and the first track on the album they were making—Friday at Last (1997).
- 33.
Interview by telephone with the author, 28th February 2018.
- 34.
Email to the author, 9th March 2018.
- 35.
Email to the author, 9th March 2018.
- 36.
Email to the author, 9th March 2018.
- 37.
Email to the author, 12th March 2018.
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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Chris Hall, John Elliott, Prof. Barry Jean Ancelet, Nick Barber, Iain Sunter, John Kemp, and Brett Lashua for their help in the preparation of this chapter.
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Wagg, S. (2019). The Bayous of Borrowash: Cajun Music in Derby, England, in the Late Twentieth Century. In: Lashua, B., Wagg, S., Spracklen, K., Yavuz, M.S. (eds) Sounds and the City. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94081-6_10
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