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Like it was.
Take those ideas about modern interpretation to the Cajun sound, and bury them. There’s no desire for electronics, no place for translated lyrics and no need for musical progression, says the band Comme C’était.
The group’s name translates to “Like it was,” and the musicians who perform on a weekly basis maintain a firm grasp on “traditional Cajun French music.” Creole, swing and zydeco are as present as English lyrics, which is to say, not at all.
“It’s a wonderful thing to be able to share the traditional Cajun music,” says Jerry Moody, the group’s 63-year-old leader and co-founder. “The songs that my wife and I do, we sing them like they were recorded. A lot of times, the songs are watered down, the lyrics are changed to accommodate the length of the song or for different reasons – peoples’ ability to speak French and that type of stuff.”
Moody, who moved in with his francophone grandmother as a teenager, is fluent in the language. He’s also well versed in Cajun music, which he claims to have loved since he was a child, and the history of the accordion.
While on stage at the Cajun jam session at the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center every Monday night, Moody sticks to the accordion. His wife Judy Pringle plays acoustic guitar, 79-year-old Mevin Mire hulks over the steel guitar and 62-year-old Bobby Pellerin plays the fiddle. Claire Naquin, 63, also plays the acoustic guitar on most weeks. Occasionally, an upright bassist joins the group.
“We’re living proof that you can teach old dogs new tricks,” Moody says during the set. It rings true considering he took his first voice lesson five years ago and began practicing his instrument in earnest with 200-mile weekly round trips for one-hour lessons.
If traditional Cajun music can be symbolized with fingers grasping onto a balcony ledge, Comme C’était is one of the hands, appreciating the situation and past while fighting to preserve its existence. They’ll gladly accept assistance, allowing amateurs to play unplugged on stage while they learn the songs.
“It’s an open jam, so anybody that wants to play traditional Cajun music with either a fiddle or guitar, or if they play an accordion, I welcome anybody to come play,” Moody says. “That’s the purpose of it: to get people involved.”
Many musicians have built upon the foundation early Cajun music laid down. Zydeco, Creole and even swing music incorporated the elements with altered timing and instruments – such as the piano accordion. Today, Nonc Nu and da Wild Matous, Chubby Carrier and the Swamp Pop Band, Feufollet, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys are all experiencing varying levels of success by evolving what came before them.
But Comme C’était’s purpose is to accurately depict what came first, a pure homage to the genre with strict recitations of those deep-rooted Cajun hits.
“If we lose the music, we lose the culture. A lot of people want to play it, but they play it too fast. … There’s a border you can’t cross,” says Pellerin, who also performs at the Jolly Inn and alongside Clyde Hartman in the Lafourche Cajun Band.
(The Lafourche Cajun Band, one of the area’s popular Cajun groups, has only 16 likes on Facebook, illustrating the divide between young, modern audiences and the genre.)
It’s not that Moody shuns progressive music. He’s complimentary of Steve Riley and other progressive bands, acknowledging that the genre has transformed as it has traveled worldwide.
But the songs a musician plays always strike personal notes on some level, and for Moody, this tradition Cajun French music became ingrained within him at a young age.
Moody, who has lived around the country throughout his life, spent years in Sulphur, where two competing dance halls were in proximity to one another. One specialized in swamp pop, and the other in traditional Cajun music.
“That’s where you would find me on Saturday night,” he says. “I was about 4 or 5 years old when I first heard the accordion, and I just couldn’t keep still. I never had the opportunity to learn.”
Moody first purchased an accordion 20 years ago. However, after moving to Idaho, he never tried to learn the instrument. “It stayed in the box,” he says.
But those travel-intensive lessons began when he moved to Thibodaux just more than two years ago. Now he and his wife – whom he calls a “big asset” to his development – have collected and mastered 90 original Cajun songs.
“One of the handicaps that we have is practicing,” Moody says. “We don’t get to practice as a group, so if we do a new song, it’s on the spot.”
And now, it’s a selfless hobby meant to deliver happiness to audiences.
“Every 10 gigs that we play, we get paid for one,” Moody says. “If I was in a business to make money with this, I would be going broke.”
In addition to performing roughly 50 free concerts a year for a wanting audience, Moody offers diatonic accordion lessons to whomever desires them. When one of his students masters a song, he or she is given the chance to perform in the jam sessions’ Cajun-craving environment.
“That’s my goal: The more people that I can get involved in the music, then the opportunity for it to grow here … it’s going to happen,” Moody says.
The cultural center auditorium, located in Thibodaux, is undoubtedly fostering an environment for fans of the music. Two years after Comme C’était assumed the Monday jam session role, dozens of people come each week to listen to the music and remember their lost days.
“The regular people that come, this is their Monday night,” Moody says.
– editor@gumboguide.com
Judy Pringle, Jerry Moody, Melvin Mire and Bobby Pellerin pose after their group Comme C’était performs at the weekly Cajun Jam Session at the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux.
Jerry Moody and Judy Pringle play the accordion and acoustic guitar, respectively, at their weekly Cajun Jam Session. The duo founded the homage to “traditional Cajun” music.
