Michael Doucet

Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil in 2005

BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet are pictured on this page during a performance in downtown Baton rouge May 20, 2005, before a large crowd. In the third photo from the top, Michael Doucet is playing an especially energetic version of the "Eunice Two-Step," a real treat for those of us who drove over to Baton Rouge from the town celebrated in the song's title.

Beyond continuing to play their own distinctive mix of traditional and innovative Cajun music at venues far and wide, BeauSoleil has recently enjoyed other notable achievements.

In 2005, Michael Doucet, was one of twelve artists awarded the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship by The National Endowment for the Arts. Beausoleil’s 2004 CD Gitane Cajun  on Vanguard was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Folk Album--the group's 10th Grammy nomination (BeauSoleil won in 1997). The group also released a 2005 DVD, Live from The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.  Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil were featured in the summer 2005  Louisiana Endowment for Humanities magazine Cultural Vistas cover story by Ben Sandmel.

As suggested by the title of the CD, Gitane [Gypsy] Cajun takes the listener on a musical journey--and with Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil that also means an emotional and spiritual voyage: Buddhist Cajun in "Windhorse Eyes," Cajun Rimbaud in "Le soleil brille," a classic two-step in "Peux pas me refuser," lost love in "La flèche d'amour" and "Les fleurs fleurissent," Cajun swing in "Tu m'as fait rire," an instrumental tribute in "Me and Dennis McGee," plus other traditional tunes like "La femme qui jouait aux cartes," Michael Doucet's version of "Le hack à Moreau," a tribute to Boozoo Chavis based on "Bye Bye Catin," the Caribbean rhythm of Canray Fontenot's "Malinda," and a song described in the liner notes as "the secret bridge to 10,000 Cajun tunes," Sidney Brown's "Chère bébé." All of that and two instrumental versions of "Gitane Cajun": the journey is the reward.