Archive Files of Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco Musicians
Posted between 1999 and 2008

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            T-Salé

Click here for high res photos of T-Salé posted on Flickr.  

For schedules, music clips, and current information, be sure to check out T-Salé's MySpace page.
 

T-Salé releases 2007 CD, Un Autre Tit Bout

“Un autre tit bout” is the shout often heard in Cajun dance halls or at festivals when the crowd really likes a song and wants to hear a little bit more.  Members of T-Salé hear it often when they perform, and, for that matter, fans have been eagerly awaiting for some more in the form of another recording after the group’s initial release in 2004. In November 2007, T-Salé released their second CD, titled, appropriately enough, Un Autre Tit Bout.

Just as they did on their first CD, the brothers Jean-Jacques Aucoin and Louie Aucoin draw inspiration from their grandfather, Cyprien Landreneau, and his cousin Adam Landreneau, in their performance of “La danse du Lac Charles,” “Treville est pas pêcheur,” and “Ta robe barré” from the Cyp and Adam repertoire.

The band once again has also included Creole songs like the Bois Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot instrumental “La danse de la misère” and Amédé Ardoin’s “Les blues de Crowley,” plus Boozoo Chavis’s classic zydeco farewell, “I’m Going Away,” with Dave Trainer on vocals.

Some of the songs are Cajun standards like “Hippy Ti Yo” and “Tu peux cogner mais tu peux pas rentrer” with Trainer on keyboard. Aldus Roger’s “Love Sick Waltz” is one of several tunes on which Jean-Jacques and Louie offer excellent brotherly harmonizing. The band also plays Roger’s “Diga Ding Ding Dong,” a song which reverses the typical Cajun theme of love lost and instead celebrates the woman’s departure.

Other cuts include Pee Wee Broussard’s “Valse de tout l’monde” the Touchet Brothers’ “I’ll Walk Alone,” and Adam Hebert’s “La porte du nord.”

According to the liner notes by Todd Mouton, the band’s original instrumental “The Whirlybird Special” was inspired “by a notorious private bar where the house drink includes Irish whiskey and pickled quail egg,” yet another exotic Louisiana experience translated into a lively Cajun tune.

The musicians have remained the same over the years, with Richard Burgess on guitar and Todd Aucoin on drums and t-fer, in addition to the Aucoin brothers and Trainer. Guest Todd Ortego is on scrubboard. The CD was co-produced by Dirk Powell and T-Salé and released by Swallow Records

After many years playing together, the band members deliver tight, solid performances. Beyond that, they obviously really enjoy playing together, and this friendship among musicians, which has always had a central role in Cajun and Creole music, is yet another reason that T-Salé continues as one of the top new generation Cajun bands.

For more information on the band, scroll down. Click here for a description of the band's first CD.

Posted 12-23-07

 

Photos were taken at Downtown Alive! in Lafayette Oct. 12, 2007, and at the Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette Nov. 16, 2007.
T-Salé performed March 3, 2005, on the LSUE campus before an audience that included members of the LSU Board of Supervisors, LSU System officials, and other special invited guests.

Click here for details and other recent photos of the band.
T-Salé's first CD was released in Eunice May 24, 2004, on Swallow Records. It includes many of the songs described below, plus two new compositions: 14 cuts in all. It's a great addition to anyone's collection of Cajun music.

Click here for more information.

Photo at left taken at the Liberty Theater May 8, 2004.
 

Contact T-Salé at tsalecajunband@hotmail.com.

Phone (337) 344-7398
or write 99 Mathews Blvd.
Lafayette, LA 70508.


T-Salé is a young Cajun band with strong ties to traditional Cajun music. The band was formed by Jean-Jacques Aucoin and his brother, Louie Aucoin, the grandsons of legendary accordionist Cyprien Landreneau of Mamou. With his cousin Adam Landreneau on fiddle, Cyp Landreneau performed at the Newport Festival in 1965, toured Europe, and played on Saturday morning radio broadcasts from Mamou hosted by Revon Reed. T-Salé's repertoire includes some of the old Adam and Cyp songs like "La Valse de Prairie Ronde" (the first song Jean-Jacques learned to play),  "La robe de Rosalie," and "L'amour dans la Talle de Ronces."

The band has gone beyond the standards played by every Cajun band to rediscover some of the great songs from the past, including a hauntingly beautiful interpretation of Canray Fontenot's "Jug au Plombeau" as well a spirited version of "La Coulée Rodair." Other numbers in the set at the Liberty Theater Nov. 2, 2002, included Adam Hebert's "Le Moulin," Shirley Bergeron's  "J’ai fait mon idée" and "Quelle Étoile," Iry LeJeune's "La Valse de Gros Chemin," which features nice harmony vocals by the two Aucoin brothers, and the Balfa Brothers' "Watermelon Reel."

In an interview on the television version of the "Swamp and Roll Show" on KDCG in Opelousas, Jean-Jacques Aucoin told Todd Ortego that he first became really interested in Cajun music while taking a Cajun dance class at LSUE, where he and his brother both attended before moving on to LSU.

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In the right column, going down, are shots of Jean-Jacques Aucoin on accordion and Louie Aucoin on bass, including a photo of a wash tub bass Louie played at a Louisiana Folk Roots jam session during the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival in 2002. Paul Edwards is shown playing drums with the band. In the left column are shots of David Trainer on fiddle, along with Richard Burgess in the second shot; Todd Aucoin on drums; Roddy Aucoin (Jean-Jacques' wife) on triangle; and Louie with Shannon Comeaux, his fiancée (they are now married), on triangle in the last photo at Festival International in April 2003.

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 In the top photo in this section, T-Salé is shown performing at Ardoin's Dance Hall in Eunice during a Sunday afternoon dance following the annual World Championship Crawfish Étouffée Cook-off March 30, 2003. The photo underneath was taken from the balcony of the dance hall.

The next photo was taken at the Ville Platte Civic Center during Arrête Pas La Musique, a fund-raiser for the Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Week planned at Chicot State Park in November 2003. Dancing at far left in the photo are Gilbert and Margaret (aka Winky and Chicken) Aucoin, parents of Jean-Jacques and Louie Aucoin.

The photos below were taken at Festival International de Louisiane April 27, 2003.
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All photographs and text by David Simpson.

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