root salad Sarah Savoy It wasn't certain that Sarah Savoy would get the Cajun bug but, as Elizabeth Kinder finds out, she's got it now. ajun music makes you dream of putting my feet on his, holding my hands all 'Dear beautiful little wife, you've gone i—er, gumbo and balmy Louisiana and dancing across the room." Saturdays and left me', or 'Oh my big strong man, - ghts; of wild parties and dancing would be spent in her father's shop, you've gone and left me what do I do C _nder the stars. At least it does if where she had her first job when she was now?'! Well forget that! We do songs like T -:: in fact revelling by the bayou, old enough and where jam sessions 'You didn't let me drink my beer in bed aur a—ng in the staid confines of the always took place. And it was there, dur- and smoke my cigarettes [something it «.=- : - i "heatre foyer as Sarah Savoy & ing her punk phase, that she realised its seems she's quite keen on] so I'm really ~--r :-;-:=dians belt out a rousing set of connection with Cajun music. happy since I left you!'" - songs, all sparkling in their fresh "One Saturday morning at my dad's They also perform the Hank Williams dMvery and mixed up with a dollop of store people were playing Cajun music, classics Lost Highway, Your Cheatin' Heart :.---. ;-3 some dirty rock'n'roll. picking chords out on the guitar and I and Mind Your Own Business in Cajun -T : ce s as clear and strong and thought, That's the same as punk! Well I French. Savoy, a talented linguist, enjoys •;-;- -g as Patsy Cline's. Tall and can do that!' and I just started playing. I singing in two different languages and as : :•:< ng Savoy's a vision of'50s style can't remember what the song was, but well as French and English speaks fluent - -ess .'. :n fringed hair swept up at the something just called me to it. My dad German and (having lived in Moscow for •:: = oony tail, high-heeled court was playing accordeon and he was like five years after "falling in love with Dosto- = -~a full-skirted, knee-length dress. 'You're playing Cajun music!' and all of a evsky"), Russian too. 5-e z ays both guitar and washboard sudden I realised I knew most of the The band - in which her husband plays awe. with an engaging line in humorous words to the songs too because I'd been double bass - is based in Paris, where she •-. -e .vins over the audience with her hearing them all my life. It was like I'd now resides though she hopes one day to :: _:~ern charm. It's such that passers- learnt them by osmosis!" go back and live in Louisiana: "Everything -- r i-s,-.i in to the warm circle: then- t was her brother Wilson who set her there is a party, you cannot have a night in - .-selievably given the surroundings off in the family footsteps. "I was Louisiana without food and music. No mat- -- :- = T to dance. Some perform a prac- studying at the university in Lafayette. ter who you are or where you go, there's -: • :-step whilst others attempt moves IHe'd come to my house and just play always gonna be somebody cooking a r 'e= .. should only take place in private the accordeon and I'd pick up my guitar sauce and somebody playing something :-e--=os in one of the experimental pro- and play along and we'd sing harmonies and people joking about." In fact you - --• occasionally put on upstairs. together, harmonies we'd heard my mum might find it's Savoy doing all these things: - n your head you've been sounding and dad sing when we were growing up. a talented cook, Savoy likes to combine - _--3~^e like the hotel, this is wrong. Then we started going to the Cajun music cooking demonstrations with gigs. "It's like "Ts pronounced Sav-wah," Sarah told me jam session in Lafayette every Wednesday I'm inviting people into my home." night, it was mostly people in their -: -.- =s she sat in the foyer cafe, cud- Isn't it tricky managing all this and twenties hanging out playing Cajun music : -: -;--our-month-old daughter, who looking after her baby too? "No. She's a and it just seemed cool again. But it was as -;- " st mum gently patted her nap- blast as a baby. My parents never quit play- a way to bond with my brother that it was : -::_ — My dad was in the National ing music just because they had kids. I really important to me. Wilson's really the l. = ~~ s-d they changed the French think she'll enjoy my life a lot." ^•r -9 Savoie was too French for them." one to thank for what I'm doing today." Z = : s Marc Savoy, the master Cajun Regarding the myspace.com/sarahsavoythefrancadians 33 — .sc an and accordeon maker; mum is music she said, "I want- -••: = .;_„ the acclaimed Cajun guitarist ed to keep it tradition- .: -fleetly touring the UK as a Magnolia al but give it a white -T- 3-chivist and author of Cajun Music: trashy raunchiness, a - -f - err/on Of A People. Brother Joel little more rock 'n' roll. ; =.? Cajun fiddle, produces music and has People do Cajun rock ~ -rcc'ding studio where his sister and her 'n' roll in Louisiana -*-~ -ecorded their latest album-the very with electric guitars --•e "'ezSavoy; whilst her other brother and saxophone. That's ;:- s the accordeon player in Cajun not my style. I want to -;•: ~-e Pine Leaf Boys (see fR307/8 and keep it rootsy and ^:c3 32 CD). You might argue that Cajun along with the rock 'n' —us* is in her blood, but she doesn't agree roll give a rockabilly or - .-.as inevitable she'd end up singing it. country flavour to the 'I rejected it. It was the eighties, I was old Cajun songs. Texas ste-mg to Madonna when I was a isn't that far from -r-E-ager. Cajun just wasn't cool. Then I Louisiana; Jerry Lee ::: nto the punk thing. The reason I Lewis is from Louisiana, :-r<ed up the guitar was because I really Elvis got his start play- . =-ted to play punk." ing the Hayride." ft was some rebellion, given that her The white trash — dhood was filled with Cajun music, its raunchiness is not just : ?gest stars frequent guests and family confined to the music. •'-lends. "Dewey Balfa taught me how to "My mum plays this ".•. :-step when I was just a little older really nice jazzy Cajun -• 2" her [she nods to her daughter], by style, but the lyrics a re.