Cajun Music

South Louisiana’s Bayous Cajun Music, a lonesome voice is singing of heartbreak and love in French, a fiddle adds harmony, a boisterous accordion and a rhythm guitar results is the sound of the South Louisiana bayous. The early history is a tale of endurance against outside forces bent on their destruction.

In the seventeenth century, the first European settlers left western France and sailed for the new world. Their destination was Acadia, a region of New France that is now called Nova Scotia. There, they and their descendants lived until 1755, when they were forced to leave by the British authorities. Most of them eventually ended up as subsistence farmers in South Louisiana, where there was already a French population, and where the Spanish government welcomed Catholic immigrants. In Louisiana, they reconstructed their culture and made modifications to suit their new environment. They had contact with new groups, principally Native Americans and free people of color. This environment allowed Acadians, who in their rough and ready French called themselves "Cadiens" or "Cajuns", to combine elements of French, Celtic, Spanish, Native American and African music into a new and unique musical genre.

Listen to music like swamp pop, old-style country and western, Zydeco, jazz, country, bluegrass, gospel and blues music in the world.

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