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Maryville, TN, Daily Times Steve Wildsmith, September 2007 Lost Bayou Ramblers to give a Cajun education at Brackins The Lost Bayou Ramblers may be a Cajun band, but they don't fit the stereotype. And, drummer Chris Courville told The Daily Times this week, when it comes to stereotypes, the band has heard a lot of them, some more ridiculous than others. "We've run across a lot of outlandish stereotypes - mostly that we don't have any dry land, that there are no schools or higher education, that all of us can half-speak English, but not really," he said. "Basically, a lot of people have no idea what being a Cajun really means. Louisiana and Southern Louisiana is a mixture of all kinds of things, which is what it has been since New Orleans was first settled. There's an extremely strong cultural identity, and there's been a resurgence in the last few years with younger people getting interested in learning the language and about the culture. "At the same time, Cajun culture is very contemporary. Even in Nova Scotia, Cajuns lived within an ethnic group but maintained their own identity, and it's the same way in Louisiana. We have a very unique Louisiana Cajun identity with the food and the music and the language, but we live in America." The band was started by two brothers, fiddler/vocalist Louis and accordion player Andre Michot, both of whom grew up in Pilette, La. The siblings were immersed in Cajun culture from the beginning, with their father and uncles playing in the touring band Les Freres Michot. At the age of 10, they joined the band themselves, and not long afterward, they met the rest of the players who would form the Ramblers - Courville on drums, Alan LaFleur on upright bass and Cavan Carruth on rhythm guitar. The band started in 1999, playing a highly infectious brand of Cajun music that marries rock 'n' roll fervor, punk energy and a driving beat that seems lifted out of the foot-worn pine boards of some long-forgotten shack on stilts in the middle of the swamp. With a vast Cajun repertoire of early accordion dancehall tunes, pre-century fiddle tunes and Cajun swing, they added a healthy dose of original songs, and have since made a name for themselves beyond the Louisiana region. "A lot of people tend to associate Cajun music with New Orleans, which is a fallacy to a point," Courville said. "Basically, Cajun culture doesn't center around New Orleans; it centers around Western and Southwestern Louisiana. The only reason it's present in New Orleans is because the city is a hub for people and tourists who go there to see something Cajun. Cajun culture comes from the intermingling of cultures in those coastal regions. "Another fallacy is that Cajun music is just played by old men in suspenders and Cajun-print bowties who don't move around very much and are not very energetic. Some people think of it as older folk music. We like to think we play really energetically. We're all young guys, and we get pretty rowdy. We'll have people get on the tables, and there's a lot of whooping and hollering. We don't stay calm." And they do it all without amplification, on traditional instruments that could just as easily pass for those crafted by the hands of their grandfathers. (All members of the band are Cajun, except for Carruth - "Unfortunately, he's not Cajun, but we let him slide," Courville joked.) Monday night, when the band will perform at Brackins in downtown Maryville for the third birthday celebration of the Lost Cajuns of East Tennessee Social Group, will mark the first time the Lost Bayou Ramblers have performed in East Tennessee, but given the nature of the band's performance, it hopefully will make an impression, Courville added. "Hopefully, when people come in, they're not going to be able to sit down, because we have an emphasis on the beat," he said. "It's all about getting up dancing and having a good time and making sure nobody leaves with a frown on their face."

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