|
Click
here for high resolution photos of Balfa Toujours on Flickr.
|
|
For the latest
information, go to the Balfa
Toujours MySpace page, including music clips (among them, Dirk's 2008
Obama campaign song, "Oui on peut," also posted on YouTube). Folklore
Productions has tour dates and additional biographical details.
Also check out Christine
Balfa Powell’s absolutely unique solo CD, Christine Balfa Plays the Triangle, which was reviewed in the
New York Times and featured in a segment on National Public Radio’s “All
Things Considered.” The Times praised the percussion instrument’s “nuances;
damped and open, the triangle can clank or ping or ring, with shifting
overtones,” and adds, “these rigorous, hypnotic tracks could build
admiration for the selfless, essential toil of rhythm sections everywhere.” The CD was released by Valcour Records.
Balfa Toujours is shown performing October 15, 2006, in the late afternoon
on a rainy day. The backdrop on the Heritage Stage featured Phillip Gould's
photographs, including a photo of Dewey Balfa, Christine Balfa Powell's
father, and Will Bolfa, one of her uncles in the Balfa Brothers band. In
the first row below, the second photo from left was taken October 14 when
Christine and other members of Bonsoir, Catin were performing with Sheryl
Cormier. Click on the thumbnails for larger photos. Click
here to see 2004 and 2005 photos. Scroll down the page for more
information about Balfa Toujours and links to more photos.
   
   
|
|
Shown at Lafayette's Downtown Alive! in September
2004 are Dirk Powell and Christine Balfa, with Mitch Reed behind them on
bass.
|
With the birth of their
second child, Sophie Jo Powell, born February 12, 2004, Christine Balfa and
Dirk Powell and Balfa Toujours have not been touring as much lately, but
the group is still making appearances at select venues around the country,
including a performance before a crowd of some 5,000 in El Paso, Texas,
in June 2005. Meanwhile Dirk Powell has been busy with a variety of
projects, including performing on Loretta Lynn's Grammy-winning album and
in 2008 playing fiddle on tour with Joan Baez. Click
here for more 2004 photos.
|
|
|
Pictured are Christine
Balfa (at the 1999 Festival International de Louisiane in the top photo),
Dirk Powell, and Kevin Wimmer and Courtney Granger. Granger left the band for
a while to continue his education but then rejoined the group in summer 2000
playing bass. In the photo immediately above, taken at the Mamou Cajun Music
Festival, Christine sings the passionately intense lyrics of "La Valse
des Balfas": "Je voudrais mourir dedans tes bras" (the song is
recorded on the group's first CD, "Pop, tu me parles
toujours"). Below the band is shown performing at the Liberty
Theater in Eunice and at the Cajun Music Festival in Mamou in 1999.
|
Visit Balfa Toujour's Official Web Site.
Get
information on the Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week.
Balfa Toujours is one of the top Cajun
bands performing today. Led by Christine Balfa, youngest daughter of the
legendary Dewey Balfa, the group plays traditional Cajun music, offering
fresh interpretations of old favorites and also performing new songs written
by the band. The band first performed in 1993, a year after Dewey
Balfa's death. Beyond their technical skills as musicians, the members
of Balfa Toujours succeed in conveying the spirit of the music played
by Dewey and his brothers, giving voice to the deep emotions of happiness and
sorrow that contribute to Cajun music's universal appeal. Their performance
on stage is an expression of the joie de vivre that is at the center of Cajun
culture.
|
Dewey Balfa is
shown in April 1979 when he performed in the LSUE Acadian
Center.
|
The membership of the group is itself a
tribute to Dewey Balfa's efforts as an ambassador of Cajun music on the
national scene. When Dirk Powell, Christine's husband, first saw her perform
with her father at the national folklife festival in Washington, D.C.,
in 1985, he was immediately impressed, but did not actually meet her until
six years later. While they were dating, Powell would drive from Maryland to Louisiana,
steering with his knees so that he could practice the accordion, extending
his remarkable musical talent to yet another instrument beside those he plays
as part of his Appalachian heritage. Kevin Wimmer, who was raised in New York City, learned
to play the classical violin as a child, but once he attended a workshop at
the Newport Festival led by Dewey Balfa, he knew he wanted to spend his life
playing the Cajun fiddle. Eventually, he traveled to Basile, where he lived
for several months learning from Dewey firsthand. Dewey Balfa's legacy now
extends to a new generation. Courtney Granger, the newest member of Balfa
Toujours, dreamed that his grand uncle, Dewey Balfa, placed his hand on
Courtney's heart the night before Courtney recorded his own CD when he was 16
years old.
Balfa Toujours has five CDs out. The first
CD, Pop, tu me parles toujours,
released a year after Dewey Balfa's death, features a touching tribute to
Dewey in the title song, plus a mixture of traditional and original material.
A similar combination of old and new songs is included on the group's other
CDs: à Vieille Terre Haute
(1995), Deux Voyages (1996),
and La Pointe (1998), which
features some great original songs like "Restez, Mom et Pop,
restez" and the humorous "Les tracas de Todd Balfa" as well as
an especially evocative version of "Pa Janvier" and the
band's interpretations of other traditional songs. In Allons Danser, released in 1998, Balfa
Toujours plays traditional music with Alphonse "Bois
Sec" Ardoin, a legendary Creole accordion player from Duralde with
whom Dewey Balfa performed many times. The recording was Bois Sec Ardoin's
first in twenty years. Christine Balfa and Dirk Powell are among the
musicians performing with Courtney Granger (lead fiddle and vocals) on his
1999 Rounder CD, Un Bal Chez Balfa.
Balfa Toujours' August 2000 release, Live at Whiskey River Landing, offers
listeners the excitement, energy, and freedom of a performance at a famous
Cajun club located on the levee of the Atchafalaya
Basin east of Lafayette. By closing time, the crowd is
still clapping for more great music from one of the best traditional Cajun
bands around today, a band that keeps getting better on every recording.
The CD opens with a wonderful new tribute to the tenacity of the Cajun
spirit, "La chandelle est allumée," and includes other great new
songs, "Whiskey River Special," "Le Two-Step de Bon
Café," and the instrumental "Chez Geno" (Geno Delafose, whose
Double D Ranch is near Eunice, plays drums on three songs including this
one). There are also live versions of two original songs from the group's
first CD, an old time Dennis McGee fiddle number, "Le Reel Frugé,"
and classic songs from the Balfa Brothers' repertoire, including one
instrumental by accordionist Hadley Fontenot that has never been recorded
before. Pete Bergeron, host of the morning Cajun music show on KRVS public
radio, has praised the quality of the live recording, which he described as similar
to studio quality. Christine Balfa was presented a Le Cajun Award as Female
Vocalist of the Year for 2000, given by the Cajun French Music Association at
the annual awards ceremony Aug. 17, 2001. The album and the band received Le
Cajun nominations.
The cover story of the September 2000
issue of Offbeat, a New Orleans and Louisiana
music magazine, was an article on Balfa Toujours by Dan Willging (no longer
availabe online). The August-September 2001 Issue No. 95 of Dirty Linen
also has a cover story on Balfa Toujours.
|
