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41st Annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Celebrating Louisiana’s French Cultures Welcome to the 2020 Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival! Like so many events throughout Louisiana, the Natchitoches- NSU Folk Festival was not able to be held this summer as a face -to-face event due to the ongoing pandemic. Pivoting to a virtual format, the festival is being held exclusively online featuring three components: crafts, music, and a silent crafts auction. Sad- ly, some elements of the festival, such as the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship, are not able to be held in a virtual format, but we look forward to their return in 2021. The virtual crafts marketplace provides opportunities for patrons to encounter the work of genuine folk artists. The crafts of these folk artisans are evidence not only that folklife is alive and well, but that the skills and talents of these artisans honed over a life- time of following tradition leads to the creation of beautiful art. And these crafts make wonderful gifts for a variety of occasions! Pictures of available crafts have been placed on Facebook, with each crafter’s contact information readily available to put buyers in direct contact with the sellers themselves. The marketplace is a public Facebook group named “2020 Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Crafters,” and will run through January 31, 2021. Also on sale in the marketplace is the 2020 Festival t-shirt. Designed by NSU’s Matt DeFord, the t-shirt features a fleur de lis composed of smil- ing alligators. Several crafts persons have also donated some of their favorite creations to be placed in a fully vir- tual silent auction to be held on Facebook from August 17 to September 17, 2020. Bidders can simp- ly provide their name and bid. Winning bidders will be messaged with next steps on how to pay for their item. Many of the music groups that would have played live at the festival have been filmed playing sets at their homes, performing on porches and in backyards, as well as other places significant to the art- ists. The music sets, accompanied by interviews with each of the groups, will be placed on YouTube. These groups include Blake Miller and the Old Fashioned Aces, Cane Mutiny, Hardrick Rivers and the Rivers Revue Band, the LaCour Trio, the Lee Benoit Family Band, the Pine Leaf Boys, 2019 Louisiana State Fiddle Champion Ron Yule, Rusty Metoyer & The Zydeco Krush, Soul Creole, and the Yvette Landry Trio. In addition, Wilson Savoy and Chris Segura of the Pine Leaf Boys have filmed a Cajun fiddle workshop. Many of the musicians have a French heritage, befitting the 2020 festival theme “Celebrating Louisiana’s French Cultures.” The virtual festival will also include interviews with three traditional Louisiana crafts persons: Cane River Creole John Oswald Colson, a master filé maker; carver Roy Parfait, a member of the Houma Indian tribe; and African American folk artist and memory painter Juanita Leonard. Rather than live streaming the videos, each video will be placed permanently on YouTube on the 2020 Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival channel, which is projected to be completed by October 2020. The 2020 virtual festival will serve as a kind of time capsule of Louisiana folk music, providing a film- ic archive of some of the best musicians in the state as they keep tradition alive. We are grateful to be able to highlight these tradition bearers, who carry on their cultural heritage in such an exemplary manner. 41st Annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Celebrating Louisiana’s French Cultures Without the support of our many loyal festival patrons and Northwestern State University, we would not be able to bring you this event. We want to thank C&H Precision Machining, City Bank and Trust, the City of Natchitoches, Cleco, the Natchitoches Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, and many others for their generous donations. Having financial support for the Festival has al- lowed us to focus upon many narrative and folk elements within Louisiana’s culture. Additionally, the Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc., Louisiana Division of the Arts – Shreveport Regional Arts Council, the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission, the National Endow- ment for the Arts, and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, Inc., have each generously awarded grants to support the Folk Festival. We appreciate the support of these groups more than words can express. And don’t forget to come back in 2021 for the theme “Stronger Together: The Power of Folk Tradi- tion,” which will feature Amanda Shaw & The Cute Guys, the Caddo Culture Club, Ed Huey, Flashback, Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie, Hardrick Rivers and the Rivers Revue, the LaCour Trio, Robert Lee “Lil Poochie” Watson and Hezekiah Early, and the return of the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship. See you next year! 4 41st Annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Celebrating Louisiana’s French Cultures Table of Contents In Memory…………………………………………………………………...Page 6 Henry Gray Hilton T. Lytle Honorary Festival Chair, Katrice LaCour ….…………….……………… Page 8 Hall of Master Folk Artists………..……………………………………….. Page 8 Katrice LaCour The Pine Leaf Boys Noms de Bayou: French Place Names in North Louisiana……………..Page 10 Kelby Ouchley “Hé toi!” The Challenges of Conveying a Message in Contemporary Cajun and Creole Music Lyrics…………………………………………………….......Page 12 Marie-Laure Boudreau Festival Music……………………………………………………………….Page 16 Festival Crafts……………………………………………………………….Page 20 Grantors……………………………………………………………………...Page 25 Contributors…………………………………………….……………………Page 26 Many Thanks………………………………………………….……………..Page 27 Festival Steering Committee 5 41st Annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Celebrating Louisiana’s French Cultures In Memory Henry Gray 1925-2020 By Carrie Booher, published on WWOZ, February 18, 2020. Used by permission. Blues pianist Henry Gray has passed away at the age of 95. He is credited with helping create both the distinctive Chicago blues piano sound and the Louisiana swamp blues sound. Gray was born on January 19, 1925. He spent his early childhood on a farm in Alsen, Louisiana, where he took piano lessons from a local neigh- borhood woman starting at the age of eight. He began playing professionally at 16. His blues ca- reer was sidetracked when he joined the U.S. Army in 1943 and was sent to the South Pacific. He continued playing in the Army, and was dis- charged in early 1945. In 1946, he returned to the U.S., landing in Chicago. It was in Chicago that Gray’s career really took off. The Chicago blues scene was hopping, and Gray took a series of small gigs. In 1956, Howlin’ Wolf asked him to join his band. They would per- form together until 1968. In addition to Wolf, Gray played as a session man on many Chess Records releases of the 1950s and 1960s, in- cluding with Muddy Waters. He also recorded or toured with Taj Mahal, B.B. King, Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Lazy Lester, Otis Rush, Buddy Photo by Michele Goldfarb Guy, Elmore James, James Cotton, Jimmy Reed, Koko Taylor, and Guitar Slim. In 1968, Gray returned to Louisiana to help with his ailing father and the family business. He didn’t put music aside, though, and his sound became a part of the Louisiana “swamp blues” style as he performed with Slim Harpo. Gray was a frequent performer at WWOZ’s annual Piano Night, and he performed at nearly every Jazz Fest starting in 1974. In 1988, Blind Pig Records released Henry’s first U.S. LP, Lucky Man. In 1998, he received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album for A Tribute to Howlin’ Wolf. That same year, he played at Mick Jagger’s 55th birthday bash in Paris (and alongside Mick, who jumped up for a few songs). In 1999, he joined Marva Wright and her band for a 30-day Louisiana music European tour produced by Blue House Records. Gray’s career remained active into his final years. In 2017, Gray suffered a mild heart attack and a collapsed lung. A nonagenarian by then, his resolve to continue to play became even stronger, and he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame just two months later and went on to perform at Jazz Fest that May. By the end of his career, Gray was credited on more than 75 albums. Henry Gray was a performer at the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival and was inducted into the Hall of Master Folk Artists in 2012. He will be greatly missed by the blues communities and fans in Louisiana, Chicago, and worldwide. 6 41st Annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival Celebrating Louisiana’s French Cultures In Memory Hilton T. Lytle 1922-2020 Published in Southern Funeral Homes Obituaries Permission to use from Melissa Rutledge and Barbara Cordell. Hilton was a retired counselor and educator in Tex- as and Louisiana Public School Systems and he had 35 years of service. Hilton was born in Zenoria, La in 1922. He gradu- ated from Jena High School in 1940 and immedi- ately enlisted in the Army. He served 5 years in WWII and received a battlefield commission. He was awarded two bronze stars and the combat in- fantry medal. He returned home and attended LSU on the GI bill. He married Nancy Clegg of Dallas, TX. who was a Graduate assistant teaching Eng- lish at LSU to Freshman students in 1946. He transferred to Texas A&M in 1946 and earned His Master’s of Science degree in 1950. Hilton was recalled to military active duty in 1951 and served 16 months in the Korean Conflict. He was awarded a Congressional Scholarship to Gal- laudet Washington, D.C. and received his Master’s of Education Degree in 1954. Hilton and his beloved wife Nancy, moved to Winnsboro, LA in 1960, where he was the first counselor at Winnsboro High School.

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