Archive Files of Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco Musicians
Posted between 1999 and 2008

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 Zydeco/Cajun Grammy

  Celebration
  June 13, 2007

 

 
 

Cynthia and Terrance Simien are shown in the top photos addressing the crowd and recognizing the many supporters of the successful effort to add a Zydeco/Cajun Grammy category. The Cajun musicians who performed first in the program are, from left (third thumbnail), Louis Michot, Chris Stafford, Steve Riley, and Anna Laura Edmiston. Leon Chavis and the Zydeco Flames played after the recognition portion of the program, which was held June 13, 2007, at Grant Street Dance Hall in Lafayette.

 

Click for high res photos on Flickr. 

For six-and-one-half years, Cynthia Simien worked tirelessly to get the Recording Academy to add a Zydeco-Cajun Category to the annual Grammy awards. She and her husband, zydeco star Terrance Simien, contacted, cajoled, buttonholed, and persuaded anyone and everyone involved in music, media, government, business, or tourism to join the effort. They got enough zydeco and Cajun musicians to support the award to convince the Recording Academy that the genres produce far more than enough recordings each year to merit a separate category—there were 41 zydeco and Cajun recordings submitted in 2006 when the minimum is 25. The announcement from the Recording Academy came June 7, 2007.

Cynthia and Terrance celebrated the achievement with a gathering at Grant Street Music Hall in Lafayette June 13, 2007. Present were various leaders in government, the music industry, cultural organizations, and the media who had participated in the effort.

Perhaps even more importantly for the future success of the award category, many musicians were also in attendance. Those who haven’t already done so will need to become voting members in the Academy to assure that the award is given to musicians whom their peers truly believe deserve the honor in the zydeco/Cajun category.

Along with the expressions of thanks, congratulation, and encouragement to become involved as voting members of the Recording Academy, the evening, of course, included some great music. Cajun music was provided by Chris Stafford and Anna Laura Edmiston of Feufollet, joined by Louis Michot and, on several numbers, Steve Riley. The evening ended with zydeco played by Leon Chavis and the Zydeco Flames.

Click here to go to the Official Terrance Simien Web Site.

Click here to go to the Recording Academy membership page (the Simiens have been participating in the Memphis chapter).

Click here to go to LSUE page on Terrance Simien and on a 2004 fundraiser to benefit the Grammy effort.

Note: Terrance Simien won the first Zydeco/Cajun Grammy awarded in 2008. Go to Terrance's Official Web Site for details.
 
Posted 6-22-07.

All photographs and text by David Simpson.

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