BOBBY ARDOIN
Editor/Consulting Writer
Horace Trahan has played his accordion and sung in bigger venues, but intimacy of the setting Saturday left the Acadiana-area musician with a continued appreciation of the Cajun and Creole music that he has embraced since adolescence.
Trahan was the featured performer at the monthly Capital City Cajun jam session, but he often deferred the spotlight and watched the other musicians that effortlessly entertained an audience who filled nearly every chair at the St. Landry Parish Tourist Center.
“For me it has always been about the chance for spreading the music and this concert was one of those times. It’s a special time when it feels like you’re playing for family, like what you saw today. When that happens there is always that good vibe ,” Trahan said following the two-hour event.
His musical career that began at 15, has always been immersed in the local French culture, Trahan said.
The concert that spilled onto the floor of the Tourist Center as he and other local musicians who sang in colloquial Cajun dialect, without benefit of amplifiers and microphones, was a cathartic experience, Trahan added.
“My career has always been about the culture and putting it out there and promoting it. I felt that’s what we were doing out there (Saturday). Just sitting back and playing songs we like to do and people who also expressed and appreciated that,” Trahan said after packing up his accordion.
The jam session at the Tourist Center was his first in several years, said Trahan.
His agreement to appear Trahan admitted, had a lot to do with an invitation from parish tourist director Herman Fuselier as well as the chance to play many of the songs he heard growing up in the rural Carencro area.
“I hadn’t done one of these in something like maybe four or five years. Herman called and asked me to do it. I knew it would be a chance to play in front of a crowd that was appreciative of the type of music we have been accustomed to hearing all our lives,” Trahan said.
There was plenty of supporting talent for Trahan.
A Cajun fiddle, unamplified guitar, triangle percussion and several young accordionists provided multi-generational accompaniment for Trahan, who performed vocal solos like his iconic “Keep Walking,” and Clifton Chenier’s classic “I’m Coming Home,Mama.”
The audience provided appreciative applause after Trahan sang the Cajun Classic, “Louisiana Waltz.”
Mark Ardoin, the truck driving accordionist from Reeves, sang a couple of Amede songs that have entertained crowds for decades.
Guitarist Don Fontenot, whose rhythmic chords supported the percussion triangle played by Joe Citizen, told the crowd that his grandmother had played the fiddle. Citizen said the triangle he plays was first introduced to his family several generations ago.
Like those who played alongside him on Saturday, Trahan grew up hearing the Cajun songs that were reintroduced at the Tourist Center.
During a concert interlude, Trahan said he often references music as a coping mechanism when times are not always that good.
“It’s always been like therapy. You sit down, maybe have a cold beer, pick up a guitar and that works for me when I’m having that bad day,” Trahan said.
