Jam Session Music Starts Mardi Gras

BOBBY ARDOIN

Editor/Consulting Writer

It was standing room only Saturday morning as a chorus of fiddles, guitars and accordions saluted the start of Mardi Gras weekend with Cajun music classics for a somewhat imported crowd that snuggled into the weekly jam session inside the Savoy Music Center west of Swords.

License plates on vehicles parked alongside the dark-paneled cozy music venue on La. 190 indicated that during the next four days, areas adjoining the Eunice Cajun Prairie will entertain many of the visitors from Ontario, Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Ohio and Texas who showed up for the Saturday music..

Accordionist Marc Savoy, now 84, was seated and faced the fiddlers section as he played one of his handmade instruments, while daughter Sarah played an upright piano, sang and acted as maestro for nearly all the songs performed during the four hours of traditional Cajun French music.

Many of the regulars that have attended and played at the Savoy jam sessions for decades were back again, intermingling with out-of-staters who tried the boundin, cracklins and other snacks along with their a dose of the South Louisiana culture.

The music event signaled the beginning of several St. Landry Parish Mardi Gras events that will occur under the anticipated warm and sunny weekend weather until after dark on Tuesday.

On Monday morning at the Northwest Community Center in Eunice, an elderly Mardi Gras dance event precedes the Lil Mardi Gras parade beginning at 3 pm in the downtown area of the city.

Just a few miles north of Eunice at Lakeview Beach Park, an annual Lundi Gras boucherie will highlight a daylong schedule of music.

In Cankton on Tuesday, the town will host the annual Cankton Mardi Courier that will feature Mardi Gras dressed revelers and a trail ride-chicken run at the Landon Pike Park.

Opelousas will provide its own brand of Mardi Gras on Tuesday starting at 11 am with the annual Imperial Mardi Gras parade down Landry Street.

Then for others who want to socialize further, there will be the Keith Frank Street Dance starting in front of the St. Landry Parish Courthouse at approximately 2 pm.