Le tour d’Evangeline

While Cajun music was blaring over the jukebox speakers on a sun splashed Monday afternoon, a small group of French enthusiasts from the 2018 Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week at Chicot State Park enjoyed Bloody Mary drinks at the iconic Fred’s Lounge in Mamou and shared their impressions of Cajun culture.
These people were on a tour of different locations across the parish over two days last week and got to hear the stories of the places from the people who wrote them. The tour on both days ended with a stop at Fred’s Lounge.
Some have been to Fred’s and South Louisiana before, but, for some, like Andy Rogers and Natalie Premu from the United Kingdom, it was their first time to both locations.
Rogers is a chef from the Isle of Man, which is a small island in the United Kingdom. He wanted to come to Balfa Week to experience the music and the food. “I used to play Cajun music in London in a little pub for a long time with a friend,” he said. “She just asked me if I wanted to come, and I said ‘yea.’”
“I know about the culture because I’m a chef,” he continued, “and I’ve always wanted to come here for the food.”
Rogers added that Cajun culture is not “massively popular” in the United Kingdom because “it’s England, and anything that’s not English isn’t popular.”
Like Rogers, Premu, who is from London, was already familiar with Cajun music before coming to Balfa Week. “My mom plays in an all-female British Cajun band,” she stated. “I grew up listening to her play a lot of the time, and I just think the culture is really interesting.”
She then shared her thoughts on Fred’s Lounge while sitting down on a stool at the bar where countless of other international tourists have sat down before her. “It’s amazing because the Cajun music has so much history behind it,” she stated. “I’ve grown up hearing the music from my mom but never seen or felt the culture. It’s really great seeing all of this over here.”
While being from the continental United States, last week was also Joshua Savoie’s first time to South Louisiana and to Fred’s Lounge. “I’ve been into Cajun music for a long time, and I got a scholarship to come,” said the Minnesota native. “They paid for me to come to Balfa Week and another Cajun camp that I went to a few weeks back. I’ve always wanted to come, but that scholarship gave me the opportunity because I could never afford it on my own. I have a lot of Acadian heritage in me, so to be able to be around a place where that’s also a thing is pretty cool.”
Michael Pappas from Cambridge, Mass., has been to Fred’s before, but last week was his first time to Ville Platte. “I’ve been to Louisiana many times and to Lafayette many times,” he shared. “Every time I come down here, it is more interesting because I take a particular interest in exploring the lay of the land.”
“It’s always special to see a place (like here at Fred’s) that has a historical value to Cajun music and to music in general, and it’s also special to find another fun place in Louisiana,” he continued.
For two others from Balfa Week, Monday was a return appearance to the famed bar on 6th Street in Mamou. Chris Miller was at the Balfa Camp teaching and playing with The Revelers. “I’ve been to Fred’s at Mardi Gras before, and I come down every year to play with the band. Teaching at the Balfa Week Camp brings me back every year, because it’s like nothing else in the world.”
“My band plays around the country,” he continued. “Every time we play ‘The Mamou Two-Step,’ we ask who has been to Fred’s Lounge. Everywhere we go is one or two hands from people who’ve come here before to pay homage.”
It was a similar return trip for Maggie Perkins from Lafayette. “I don’t come that much, but, every once in a while, some of my friends and I will get up on a Saturday morning and stop to get boudin and cracklins on our way here,” she stated.
“Then we come and sit here, and, on our way back, we get drive-thru daiquiris. We just have to refresh our Fred’s buttons.”
Before going to Fred’s, the tour started last Monday at Flat Town Music Company in Ville Platte and heard from Floyd Soileau as he shared his memorable stories of Cajun, Swamp Pop, and Zydeco music.
“It’s a great little shop,” said Premu. “The guy had loads of amazing stories that were interesting to hear. He’s met tons of people.”
Savoie said about the music store, “I bought a bunch of records that I had been searching for. I was finding people who were selling them for $20.00 a record, but he was selling them for a quarter because he just had them there.”
After leaving Flat Town Music Company, the bus went to tour J.D. Soileau’s mud house on the banks of Bayou Des Cannes in Point Blue. “That was amazing,” said Premu. “He still has those glass jars with fruit in them. It was so great, and it really looked like a slice of history.”
The tour also included a stop at the Hotel Cazan in Mamou.
A day later, a similar tour of five Balfa campers departed Chicot Park for Jack Miller’s BBQ Sauce before going to Paul’s Meat Market in Ville Platte and back to J.D. Soileau’s mud house and then to Mamou. One was from Germany, another was from Chicago, a third was from Oregon, and two members of the tour were from just across the bayou.
Lorraine Shelton Gaines from Mire, while enjoying meatballs soaked in Jack Miller’s BBQ sauce, said, “I’ve been to Balfa Camp here many times. It’s a local flavor that is just fantastic, and Ville Platte is a neat place to come visit because you got a lot of outdoor activities that you can do especially at Chicot.”
She added, “Jack Miller’s is a staple of Louisiana cooking. Everybody should go out and get some, especially the new things that they have like the cocktail sauce, which is great.”
The Lafayette native Susan Hamilton said at Jack Miller’s, “I only live about an hour away, and I’ve never been here to the BBQ sauce factory. I’ve been to Chicot but never to any of the legendary places in Ville Platte.”
She concluded, “It’s just a treat to be on a little tour of the places that Ville Platte is proud of.”