I think I found my club or something.
My wife and I are going to ZoukFest next week, because I’m the Webmaster and everything is free, and because it’s cool. Last year’s ZoukFest World Music Camp at the College of Santa Fe was the best one yet, and this year’s should be even better. They’ve branched out from strictly Celtic and Middle Eastern to include a lot more musical styles this time, and I’m taking two classes: Cajun Ensemble and Jump-Start Bouzouki. The bouzouki class will tell me all I’ve ever wanted to know about my G.D. Armstrong resophonic bouzouki, which up till now I’ve only played in open GDGD tuning. That’s probably the best sound in the world, anyway. And then there’s the Cajun Ensemble class. I’m really getting excited.
We’re going to form a traditional Cajun dance band for a week. I’ve been listening to recordings of Cajun music from the 1920s and playing along on my Guild 12-string and the bouzouki. Sure, I heard Cajun music all the time back in Texas. It was always in the background somewhere, at least from Austin east, and I always loved the passion and the sound, for all the little I knew or understood about it. But I never really played any Cajun-style music, which makes sense, because unless you play an accordion, you can’t create that sound all by yourself. That’s what’s so cool about the class, that I’ll finally get to be in a group. The instructor, Doug Goodhart, is extremely versatile and a killer musician. It’s going to be an interesting ride.
The amazing thing is, I’m going to have some fun. I already play the guitar, etc. in my crazy self-taught way, I’m as musical as laziness allows, and these guys play just TWO CHORDS, mostly in the keys of C and D. Two chords! I’ve listened to some of the early recordings. They sound like accordion punk, just a bunch of guys with squeezeboxes, whooping and hollering and whumping along on TWO CHORDS!!! Well, sometimes three, but rarely. Being an intergalactic master of two-chord guitar, I’ll be in heaven. I’ll be able to relax, let go and cut loose.
Two chords! And I know right where they belong.
Related posts:
