The Ocean State is pretty far from Louisiana, but the sound of Cajun country can be found all around Rhode Island – thanks in part to Alan Bradbury and Michelle Kaminsky. They’ve been dedicated to playing and teaching Cajun, Creole and Zydeco music here for decades, bringing back what they’ve learned from master musicians in Louisiana. They’re two members of the Cajun band Magnolia, which has been playing together throughout New England since 1989. For this week’s episode of Artscape, they joined morning host Luis Hernandez in the studio for this interview and live performance.
Transcript:
[in-studio performance of “Les Trac de Mon Boghei” by Alan Bradbury, Michelle Kaminsky and Maggie Moniz]
Luis Hernandez: Alan Bradbury, Michelle Kaminsky, welcome to The Public’s Radio.
Alan Bradbury: It’s good to be here.
Michelle Kaminsky: Thank you so much. It’s really exciting.
Hernandez: When did you start listening to Zydeco and Cajun music?
Kaminsky: Okay, something like 1989. I went to violin making school in Chicago. And next to me set this guy who liked Cajun music, and his brother became my boyfriend. And I kind of had to check it all out and see for myself, so I went with them on a trip to Louisiana to learn about the music and the dancing and the food. And I struggled to learn it, I have to say it was unsuccessful. I tried to learn it, and I was pretty terrible at it. So I gave it up.
Hernandez: You went to Louisiana, but you were in the southwest corner of Louisiana, the southwest part of Louisiana. That’s where you were introduced really to Zydeco and Cajun music.
Kaminsky: Definitely.
Hernandez: Tell me a little bit about what that experience was like.
Kaminsky: Oh my gosh, there’s nothing like it here. It looks like neglected buildings, and flat land. And, you know … various uninteresting buildings. And then in one of those dilapidated buildings, somebody tells you – and back in those days, there was no GPS or anything. So you were like, on the map, looking for the address, going to this neglected, falling-apart building. You’d go in, and the music would be fantastic. And the room would be full of people dancing. … And people welcomed us. And they were curious, like, what are you doing here? … And the musicians were just like, come on, come on and play. They were so generous in sharing the music with us, and joyful.
[in-studio performance of “L’anse au Paille” by Alan Bradbury, Michelle Kaminsky and Maggie Moniz]
Hernandez: But you said you tried it, and then you gave up?
Kaminsky: That’s true. That was the first time. I definitely gave up. And then I met Alan.
Hernandez: Alan, for you, yeah, how did you come into Zydeco and Cajun?
Bradbury: Back in the early 80s, a man named Franklin Sawaki was trying to get a festival going. … I was on the site crew and the stage crew. And I remember the first day I heard a Cajun band, and it was actually Tracy Schwarz playing some solo accordion music. And I thought, “What is that sound?” And I went running out to the front of the stage and I was, you know, I was hooked almost immediately. And the people that I met, Dewey Balfa, who was kind of a national treasure, they were not at all standoffish. They would say, “Oh, you like this music? Great, you got to come down to our place,” you know, “we’ll go out we’ll go dancing. We’ll do this. We’ll do that.” … I couldn’t really play. I did buy an accordion. But it was a few years before I met Maggie and Chris, who were in a band called Magnolia and they asked me to join. And then I had to get with it.
Hernandez: Tell me a little bit about the themes though, because I’m really fascinated about that, the themes that you find in Cajun and Zydeco music.
Kaminsky: The first thought that comes to my mind is country music in French. Let’s see, “You left me,” “you left me to die,” “I’m brokenhearted,” “I have no food.” Am I missing anything?
Bradbury: “Let’s go out and have a good time.”
Kaminsky: Right.
Bradbury: Quite often in the same verse, you’ll see that.
Hernandez: I spent quite a few years as a kid in Louisiana, different parts of Louisiana, so Zydeco and Cajun. But, you know, I was just curious – and either of you, please share – does it change at all when you come back to Rhode Island? Because the influences here are different, you know, life is different here. It’s not the swampy, hot, humid, you know, Louisiana, which is so beautiful, but it’s a different world.
Bradbury: Do you mean, does the music change?
Hernandez: Does the music change?
Bradbury: Yeah, I would say it changes a little bit. We’re in a very different situation here. We don’t have a dancehall culture in Rhode Island. We often end up playing for people as a concert. And we try to pick songs that are, you know, have a story to tell or that are in some way interesting. But, you know, I’m probably not the best judge of that. I think if you ask somebody from Louisiana, they would probably say, “that’s not the way my daddy taught it,” or something like that. But there’s been, the scene down there in the last 10, 15 years has opened up a lot. … Music used to be kind of … not considered such a good path in life in Louisiana, even though everybody did it. It was something that you stopped once you got married or you got a job. But now it’s, everybody’s very proud of it. There’s a tremendous desire to spread their music.
Hernandez: Is there a, you know, a Cajun music community here in Rhode Island? How would you describe it?
Kaminsky: I think that a lot of the love for Cajun music in Rhode Island came from the French community in Rhode Island that came from Canada. Even though you don’t hear a lot of French anymore in Rhode Island, when those Franco Americans heard Cajun music with fiddle and accordion and French lyrics, they fell in love with it because it spoke to something right in their hearts even though the dialect is different. And I think that’s one of the reasons why it’s stuck around so strongly here in Rhode Island.
Bradbury: There’s a Cajun dance community. There are a few people who play some, a little bit of Cajun music, but probably not with the level of manic dedication that we have. I think the dance community is really, you sort of can’t separate them. If you have Cajun music, it will not survive if you don’t have dance. It’s just not that…
Kaminsky: It’s not concert music.
Bradbury: It’s really not. But we’ve always had, because of the festival and because of a lot of the bands that Chuck Wentworth was bringing up – he was a promoter – there was a community of people who were hungry for dancing. So we started a monthly dance. And we kept it going really until COVID.
Kaminsky: I was thinking, what Alan was saying about the music and the dance, and not that many people playing music – however, in the most recent year, there’s been a surge of folks interested in playing who are really good musicians. … And it has been so uplifting and energizing. And I look forward to seeing that this is the future of musicians, of Cajun musicians here in Rhode Island, people interested in playing the music. So I’m very excited about that.
Hernandez: Alan Bradbury, Michelle Kaminsky of Magnolia, it’s such a pleasure. Thank you so much. I appreciate you sharing with me today.
Bradbury: Thank you.
Kaminsky: Thank you. It’s such a treat.
[in-studio performance of “Les Trac de Mon Boghei” by Alan Bradbury, Michelle Kaminsky and Maggie Moniz]
In-studio performance by three of the members of Rhode Island-based Cajun band Magnolia, featuring Alan Bradbury on accordion and vocals, Michelle Kaminsky on fiddle, and Maggie Moniz on guitar and vocals. You can find a list of upcoming shows and more information at www.magnoliacajunband.com.
