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Archive Files of Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco Musicians |
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Jr. Melancon:
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To become fully juniorized, you really need to be there for a live performance to see Jr. Melancon bend his knees to make the accordion more an extension of his body than a separate musical instrument and then lean backwards while moving rapidly in time to some of the hottest accordion licks in Cajun music.
But, even if you can't make it to the nightclubs and festivals where Jr. Melancon and the Come Down Playboys perform regularly, you can experience juniorization through the group's 2002 CD, "dis is me," released in September 2002 by Acadiana Records of Eunice.
All of the band members have the musical backgrounds to match Jr. Melancon's super-charged style.
Chad Cormier is just as hot on fiddle as Jr. is on accordion.According to Herman Fuselier in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Cormier spent eight-and-a-half years playing on on Bourbon Street with his father and brother (they are natives of Church Point).
On bass guitar is Blain Gaspard, who has played with Steve Riley, Jo-El Sonnier, and Aldus Roger, and spent a decade in Nashville. On drums is his younger brother, Troy, an original member of Wayne Toups' band.
Mike Daigle is on guitar in the performance from early December 2002 shown on this web page. On the CD, Scott Ardoin played guitar.
The numbers receiving the most airplay from the CD are probably "Couzan Pierre," a song about drinking beer and playing music, written by Dave Faul of Lawtell and Gerard Dole of Paris, France, and "Chicken on the Run," sung in English. Faul and the Gaspard brothers also wrote the CD's only other all English song, "I Fell Off the Wagon." The CD also features juniornized versions of "Le Hack à Moreau," "Paper in My Shoe," "Amédé Two-Step," "La Valse des Musiciens," and and "Saturday Night Special." Blaine Gaspard handles the vocals on "Jeunes Gens de la Campagne," and Chad Cormier sings "La Valse à Tolan," a Cajun standard (according to Raymond François Tolan was a Eunice bartender).
For booking information, contact Blain Gaspard, 337-235-9781 or Jr. Melancon, 337-684-6415.
Posted 1-7-03
All photographs and text by David Simpson.