Jackie Caillier and the Cajun Cousins

Jackie Caillier

Tony Thibodeaux and Benny Mueller

Danny Cormier

Austin Broussard

CFMA Le Cajun Awards Received
by the Cajun Cousins as of 2005

Best Recording of the Year: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005

Band of the Year: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005

Male Vocalist of the Year (Ivy Dugas): 1996, 1997, 1998, 2003, 2005

Accordionist of the Year (Jackie Caillier): 1999, 2003, 2005

Fiddler of the Year (Tony Thibodeaux): 2003

Song of the Year: 1997, 1998, 2003, 2005
(all written by Ivy Dugas except "Little Short Pants" in 1998, sung by Ivy Dugas and written by Vin Bruce and Lee Lavergne)

Ivy Dugas

In 2004, Jackie Caillier, Ivy Dugas and the Cajun Cousins moved to the Swallow label.

Their first release, Greatest Hits and More, features newly recorded versions of their most popular songs that were originally released on the Lanor label, including, of course, "The Gravel Road," "Blacktop the Gravel Road," and "La Valse Heritage"–plus other classics. The CD also has nine first-time recordings, including the CFMA 2005 "Song of the Year" titled "Biggest Fool in the World," in which Ivy voices the complaint of man who knows his woman is unfaithful but can't give her up. Other new songs like "Can't Change the Past" and "Five Minutes with You" also describe the pain of lost love. In the sentimental song "Mama's Waltz," Ivy asks the accordionist to play his mother's favorite dance number. The CD has a total of 16 cuts.

A Bit of Two Worlds, also released in 2004 by Swallow, includes several songs with at least some lyrics in English. "I Need a Slow Song to Dance To" is entirely in English, and "Bébé You'll Be Too Late," "She Changed Her Mind," and "I Thank You So Much" have English lyrics followed by a French version–a bit of two worlds in one song, just as many Cajuns have moved linguistically and in other ways back and forth between their own French culture and the world of les Américains.

Ivy offers more songs in French about abandoned or frustrated love in "It's Too Late for Him and Her," "In the Middle of Nowhere," and "Nobody Wants Me." In "Send Me a Letter," a soldier overseas longs to get a letter from the woman he loves and wants to know that she is waiting for him. "Dan Mes Bras" is another expression of love, and "Nonc Edward" and "Lost Memory Two-Step" are two upbeat, humorous songs.

The two CDs display Ivy Dugas' unequalled powers as a song writer in Cajun French who can also compose excellent lyrics in English.

In the liner notes to the Greatest Hits CD, Jackie gives a brief history of the band, beginning with their first gig for a 25th anniversary party in the mid-1970s at a chemical plant in Nederland, Texas (the band's name was supplied by a secretary at the plant). The band was little known for some 20 years until their recording of the "Gravel Road" became a hit and the band gained widespread popularity that continues just as strong more than a decade later. As the 2005 CFMA awards demonstrate, Jackie Caillier, Ivy Dugas and the Cajun Cousins remain the best Cajun dancehall band in the world.

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