Story
of Raamsdonksveer
2008 Pictures from Derk Habers en Jan Ghuijs !! |
Again it was a wonderful
festival in Raamsdonksveer.
A completely different tent had been put up and ,you know, where I come from
this is called a Pagoda tent.
Just like last year the space inside was divided into a big hall and a smaller
one "The House of Blues".
Moreover it was remarkable that not a bit of light entered through the white
tent.
The artists were great all along the festival. The interchange between Zydeco
and cajun was excellent and also the fans of quite heavy stuff came into their
own. The cajun music was in good hands with Little Cailloux, Aedon, Sarah Savoy
and the Francadians and Zydecane.
I was happy to see that the violinplayer in the Belgian band had joined the
group again after she had a nasty accident with her hand and wasn't able to
play for quite some time.
Wim Nagtegaal was also back with his new band Aedon and I really liked them.Sarah
Savoy and her band were outstanding. She has a voice that suits her songs perfectly
and you can very well see that she is enjoying herself while playing. Her French
band did very well too, the more remarkable because there were 2 substitutes
in the band..
To me Zydecane was a revelation because with stand-in accordeon player Chris
Miller they played solid cajun and also zydeco during which Chris changed from
fiddle to one row accordeon and chromatic accordeon. The drummer in action was
a marvel to look at and it was a miracle that the drums were still in one piece
after the performance. To play the zydeco part therewere the Zydeco Playboys,
The River Zydeco Houseband and Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers.
As I said before Zydecane also played zydeco, but they were the only ones to
use the one row accordeon. For the rest they used the chromatic instruments
and Dwayne Dopsie did a combination of diatonic and chromatic, because the 3
row accordeon that Dopsie uses has a bass-side which is normal on a chromatic
accordeon.
So much for comparing it to an accordeon, because the white 3 row accordeon
sounded like a jet-plane and that is something you have to appreciate. He knows
how to play his instrument and he doesn't hide it for a moment. His fellow musicians
played very well and I was especially impressed by the bass-player and the washboard
player. Those who love the element of show on stage were at the right address
with Dwayne Dopsie and on Saturday night the audience in the big tent was one
undulating mass. On Sunday it was perfect all day long, for after one dance
you were soaking wet and that seems to be the habit in Louisiana as well.
It was fun to be in a bit of jamming on the camping-site where the atmosphere
is always wonderful.
On Saturday the European Awards for Cajun and Zydeco were presented also. Our
country did well with prizes for The Cajun Company, Les Chats Cadiens and Jo
van Strien. All in all each visitor to the festival has seen and heard things
that were very much worth their while.
There is one minor setback though and that is the fact that other ladies are
now taking care of the coffee distribution and that should not have happened.
Let me say thank you very much to the people many of whom sacrifice a day off
or even holidays every year and who work very hard for months at a time to make
this all happen.
It looks like fun at the festival !!!
Last change on
19-6-08
.