|
Archive Files of Cajun, Creole, and Zydeco Musicians |
|
Kevin Naquin& the Ossun Playboys |
Click here to go to the Official Site of Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys.
Click here to go to the first page on Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys.
Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys once again walked away with top honors at the Cajun
French Music Association's 2002 Le Cajun award ceremony, winning the award as Band of the
Year, with Naquin being named Accordionist of the Year, and also receiving Best Album of
the Year for Au coup d'éclair (At the Strike of Lightning). The CD is
the band's second, released in early 2001, coming on the heels of their victory
march through the 2000 Le Cajun Awards Ceremony during which the band received five awards
recognizing the excellence of their first recording, Pour la première fois.
The title of the second CD is derived from the lyrics of two original songs, one happy and
one sad.
John Gary is both the writer and vocalist for "Un homme chanceux," one of the comparatively few Cajun songs to celebrate the happiness of a lucky man "avec un amour aussi fort qu'un coup d'éclair." In the other original song on the CD, "La valse du mûrier" ("The Waltz of the Mulberry Tree"), written by Richard Meaux and Freddie Pate, the story is familiar: "Tu m'as quitté encore / Pour la dernière fois." The singer says that he first glimpsed the woman whom he loves while he was standing under a mulberry tree, but, after she leaves him, the song ends with a description of "un coup d'éclair" that strikes the tree so that both their love and the tree are dead. The song continues the association of the mulberry tree with lost love found in Iry LeJeune's "La branche du mûrier."
Other songs on the album cover Cajun standards like "Cadien de Church Point," "La Pointe au Pins," "O.S.T. Special" (O.S.T. refers to Old Spanish Trail or Highway 90, and was the name of a nightclub on Highway 90 in Rayne), "Bayou Noir" combined with "Back of Town," and the much-recorded but always popular "Petite ou la grosse."
Also included are Johnnie Allan's "T'es la mienne pour tout le temps," sung by steel guitarist Randall Foreman; Clifton Chenier's "Tante Na Na"; and "Hee Haw Breakdown" combined with Aldus Roger's "Shamrock Two-Step." Roddie Romero plays slide guitar on "La valse des Cadiens," a song by Rick Lagneaux and Steve Cohen. Young Kira Viator plays triangle.
Louis Dronet's fiddle is featured on the instrumental "Lovers' Waltz," a tune by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason that has found its way into the Cajun repertoire. The only English song on the CD is Chuck Berry's "Promised Land," which includes Al Berard on electric guitar and Eric Adcock on piano.
The CD was produced by Kevin Naquin's own Bayou Groove Productions. For more information, go to the Ossun Playboy's web site.
Kevin Naquin is pictured above on accordion.At left is Ashley Hayes, who was introduced as the newest member of the band during a performance at the Liberty Theater November 24, 2001. Louis Dronet is on fiddle. Beneath him is John Gary guitarist and vocalist on both of the band's recordings. Other members of the band are Randall Foreman on steel guitar, Jody Viator on bass, and Dwayne Lavergne on drums. Except for the picture of Ashley Hayes, the pictures on this page were taken during performances at the Liberty Theater during the first half of 2001.
|
All photographs and text by David Simpson.