<< Back 11/13/02 BeauSoleil brings Cajun style music to the Peel SMN As a music critic who has had a long and public love affair with Louisiana music, I am often at risk of repeating myself. My challenge is to write fresh words about Cajun, Zydeco, and New Orleans jazz, rather than just rehashing old columns and stale imagery. In that effort, I have developed a simple rule for myself: I can use a food metaphor or the words laissez les bon temps roulez, but I cannot use both in the same review. It’s trickier than you might imagine. Take Lafayette’s BeauSoleil, for example. A food metaphor could do them justice, whetting appetites for, say, a bowl of musical gumbo or perhaps some fiddle etoufee. And yet these Cajun kings so clearly laissez les ol’ bon temps roulez —let the good times roll — that to avoid the phrase seems a bit mulish. Formed in 1975 by Michael Doucet, BeauSoleil has brought their brand of Cajun fire to dance halls worldwide, garnering a globe full of fans and a half-dozen Grammy nominations in the process. (They finally won one for 1997’s L’Amour Ou La Folie, which is, by the way, a helluva album.) When they got started, Cajun music — along with Cajun culture in general — was an endangered art form, suffering from years of national neglect and local ambivalence. Twenty-five years later, the opening notes of Cajun fiddle reels are known and loved from Louisiana to Lausanne; BeauSoleil has played significantly in that growth. Not bad for a group that aimed to record history rather than change it: “We just wanted to play the music as we heard it,” explains Doucet, “sitting around the kitchen table.” If so, it must have been some right lively kitchen tables that Doucet was sitting around. BeauSoleil’s latest, “Looking Back Tomorrow,” is a taste of BeauSoleil live. Recorded two years ago, it features Doucet on vocals and his trademark fiddle, brother David Doucet on vocals and guitar, Jimmy Breaux on accordion, Al Tharp on bass, Tommy Alesi on drums, and Billy Ware on percussion (and nowhere does the humble triangle get a harder workout than on a Cajun bandstand, my friends). Over 15 tracks, Beausoleil simmers, stews, and comes to a rolling boil; it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say a few of the songs are pan-fried. Regardless of the recipe, it’s all well-done; spicy and savory with a bit of sweet on the side. Very tasty. Take, for example, the second tune ... “Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez” ... on which BeauSoleil serves notice that they have every intention of letting the good times rock and roll and rollick and sometimes even rest. But not often. You can see my dilemma. It’s a difficult choice. I’ll decide Friday night.