Lost Bayou Ramblers is a

Cajun music Cajun music (), an emblematic music of Louisiana played by the Cajuns, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Although they are two separate genres, Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based ...

band from

Pilette, Louisiana Lafayette ( , ) is the most populous city in and parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, Lafayette Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located along the Vermilion River (Louisiana), Vermilion River. It is Louisiana's List of municipaliti ...

Career

Lost Bayou Ramblers was born deep in South Louisiana performing old style, predominantly acoustic Cajun music at clubs and festivals across the US, Europe, and Canada. They were formed in 1999 by Louis Michot (

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

and vocals) and his brother Andre Michot (

cajun accordion A Cajun accordion (in Cajun French: ''accordéon''), also known as a squeezebox, is single-row diatonic button accordion used for playing Cajun and Creole music. History Many different accordions were developed in Europe throughout the 19th c ...

and

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of pla ...

) and grew to include producer Korey Richey (

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

), Jonny Campos (

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

) and Eric Heigle (

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

). With 15 years of touring, recording, and collaborating under their belt, the band has continually integrated new sonic elements to its live performances, always experimenting and growing the show to what it's become today, an eclectic mix of modern sounds and rhythms with ancient Cajun melodies and lyrics. The Lost Bayou Ramblers have toured through much of the United States and Canada, including performances at the (

Celebrate Brooklyn Celebrate Brooklyn!, sometimes called BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, is one of New York City’s longest-running, free, outdoor performing arts festival An arts festival is a festival that can encompass a wide range of art forms including music, d ...

) in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, the

Vancouver Folk Music Festival The Vancouver Folk Music Festival (VFMF), founded in 1978, is an outdoor multistage music festival, located at Jericho Beach, Jericho Beach Park on the west side of Vancouver, British Columbia. It takes place annually on the third weekend of Jul ...

, the

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of vi ...

and at the historic

Preservation Hall Preservation Hall is a jazz venue on St Peter Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. The building is associated with a house band, a record label, and a non-profit foundation. History of the jazz hall In the 1950s, art de ...

. The Ramblers had their first international performance in

Lyon, France Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in November 2004, and have since toured through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Sweden. Their debut release, ''Pilette Breakdown'' (

Swallow Records James Floyd Soileau (born November 2, 1938) is an American record producer. Biography Soileau was born in Faubourg, a small community between Ville Platte and Washington, Louisiana. He grew up speaking Cajun French and did not speak English ...

) received critical acclaim across North America and Europe. In 2008, the Ramblers was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

in the Best

Zydeco Zydeco ( ; ) is a music genre that was created in rural Southwest Louisiana by French speaking, Afro-Americans of Creole heritage. It blends African and Caribbean rhythms, blues and rhythm and blues with music indigenous to the Louisiana ...

or Cajun Music category (a new category for that year) for their album ''Live: A La Blue Moon''. Lost Bayou Ramblers have also played a series of shows with

Violent Femmes Violent Femmes are an American folk punk band from Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The band consists of founding members Gordon Gano (guitar, lead vocals) and Brian Ritchie (bass, backing vocals), joined by multi-instrumentalist Blaise Garza ( ...

vocalist and fiddle player

Gordon Gano Gordon James Gano (born June 7, 1963) is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and songwriter of American folk punk band Violent Femmes. Early life Gano was born in New York City to actor parents Norman and Faye Gano, and grew up in ...

and collaborated with him on Bastille, a song written by Louis Michot looking back 221 years from the Gulf Oil Spill in Louisiana to the Bastille. Lost Bayou Ramblers and Gordon Gano met at d.b.a. one night about five years ago, "we had been doing 'O Bye' from our first album (Pilette Breakdown). When we'd get to the breakdown part we'd do different songs, like this one White Stripes song and sometimes 'Blister in the Sun'. We were doin' that, and suddenly this guy climbs up on stage and he's like, 'You mind?' and I said, 'I guess not.' Enter Gordon Gano.

was also featured on the Lost Bayou Ramblers' 2012 release, Mammoth Waltz, along with guest artists

Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress and singer. The List of highest-paid film actors, world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has been featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100, ''F ...

and

Dr. John Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. His music combined New Orleans blues, jazz, R&B, soul and funk. Active as a session mus ...

. Besides the diverse list of guests, Mammoth Waltz was a musical breakthrough for LBR and the genre as a whole, drawing on influences from the modern soundscape beyond the genre. The result was a passport to play for audiences who may not have known Cajun music, but who appreciated Lost Bayou Ramblers for their music, not their genre. Although Mammoth Waltz is 100% in

Cajun French Louisiana French (Louisiana French: ''français louisianais''; ) includes the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisiana French is primarily use ...

, it acted as an invitation for all music lovers to tune in to the hypnotic Cajun rhythms Lost Bayou Ramblers have been known for since their inception in 1999. 2014 presented Lost Bayou Ramblers with the chance to play on their biggest bill to date, opening for

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Jeremy Gara. The band's touring line-up includes former core ...

on two dates of their Reflektor tour. The invitation came after the Montreal-based band saw Lost Bayou Ramblers perform to 30,000 fans at the

Montreal Jazz Festival The Festival international de Jazz de Montréal is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz festival. Every year it features roughly 3,000 ar ...

in 2013, at a rare performance in which most of the audience understood the depth of the Cajun French lyrics which make up almost their entire repertoire. The release of the Ramblers' second live album also came in 2014, with Gasa Gasa Live, which was recorded at the club on Freret St in New Orleans, and released in September and accompanied by a tour from New York to Chicago.

Cinematic musical work

In 2012 the Ramblers' embraced a musical collaboration with the film ''

Beasts of the Southern Wild ''Beasts of the Southern Wild'' is a 2012 American fantasy-drama film directed, co-written, and co-scored by Benh Zeitlin. It was adapted by Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar from Alibar's one-act play ''Juicy and Delicious''. The film stars Quvenzhan� ...

'' in which the band laid down the base track to "Bathtub" and other parts of the score. The film went on to win the

Caméra d'Or The Caméra d'Or ("''Golden Camera''") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes selections (Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight or Critics' Week). The prize was created in 1978 Ca ...

at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

and the

Grand Jury Prize A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent date and depe ...

at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

. Lost Bayou Ramblers have been performing the score to live screenings of the film with Wordless Music Orchestra. The band continued to explore new ground in 2017 when singer/fiddler Louis Michot composed an all original score performed by Lost Bayou Ramblers for the independent

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

documentary '' Rodents of Unusual Size''. The offbeat environmental film takes an up-close look into a large region south of New Orleans that survived

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

and is now facing its latest threat-hordes of monstrous 20 pound rodents known as the

nutria The nutria () or coypu () (''Myocastor coypus'') is a herbivore, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent from South America. Classified for a long time as the only member of the family Myocastoridae, ''Myocastor'' has since been included within Echimy ...

. All the music that appears in the film Rodents of Unusual Size was created especially for it with Michot composing 22 pieces, 21 new originals, primarily instrumentals, while a "Cajun Bounce" track was written by Bryan Webre. All selections were performed by the Lost Bayou Ramblers, and the score was engineered by Kirkland Middleton at WixMix productions in New Orleans, with additional engineering by Mark Bingham at Nina Highway in Henderson, and by Tony Daigle at Electric Comoland in Lafayette, Louisiana. "As we began to consider potential musical collaborators for the film, Lost Bayou Ramblers was always at the top of the list given their reputation for pushing boundaries," say the filmmakers Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler and

Jeff Springer Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

. "In telling a story about Louisiana we wanted the score to reflect the tradition and culture of the place, but also create its own unique soundscape as befitting a story about the invasion of these mysterious giant rodents. We went in with the desire to really experiment and create music with a distinct sound that matched the offbeat style of the film. The result was a unique soundtrack that was distinctly Cajun, but otherworldly." The band appeared in the documentary film ''

The American Epic Sessions ''The American Epic Sessions'' is a documentary film in which an engineer restores the fabled long-lost first electrical sound recording system from 1925, and twenty contemporary artists pay tribute to the momentous machine by attempting to recor ...

'' (2017), directed by Bernard MacMahon. They recorded

Joe Falcon Joseph Falcón (September 28, 1900 – November 19, 1965) was an accordion player from southwest Louisiana, best known for producing the first recording of a Cajun song, " Allons à Lafayette," in 1928. He and his wife Cléoma Breaux left ...

and Cleoma Breaux's 1928 song "

Allons à Lafayette "Allons à Lafayette" is the B-side of a 78rpm single recorded by Joe Falcon and Cléoma Breaux in 1928. The song is based on an older traditional tune called "Jeunes gens campagnard". While there is some mystery on the reason Okeh Records did ...

" (the first commercial Cajun recording) on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s - the same machine that would have originally recorded the Falcon and Breaux performance. Louis Michot said: "It's such a significant part of music that it gets a place in this documentary. These artists were traveling as far as

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

to record and interact with other musicians. They were all singing into that one same mic. It's amazing how creative people get when they put that limitation on them." They also recorded their own composition for the film ''Tous les Matins'' which was released on film's soundtrack, ''Music from'' ''The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' on June 9, 2017. Louis Michot also appeared in the '' American Epic'' documentary series, relating the story of the Breaux family and performing "

Jole Blon Jole Blon or Jolie Blonde is a traditional Cajun waltz, often called "the Cajun national anthem" because of the popularity it has in Cajun culture. The song was popularized on a nationwide scale by a series of renditions and references in late 194 ...

" with the grandchildren of

Amédée Breaux Breaux Frères or Breaux Brothers (Amédé on accordion, Ophé on guitar, and Cléopha on the fiddle), were Cajun musicians. They were the earliest to record the song "Jolie Blonde", under the title of "Ma Blonde Est Partie". Amédé Breaux wa ...

using the very same instruments the Breaux Brothers recorded it with in 1929.

Musical style

Blue Moon Lost Bayou Ramblers Lafleur HRoe 2010

The band typically plays traditional

but draws stylistically from

Western swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

, and

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

. They have remained a traditional Cajun band, reviving forgotten classics of the genre, singing almost entirely in

, and maintaining smooth, moderate tempos suitable for dancing two-steps and waltzes. Their high energy live shows include antics more common to rock or punk bands, such as fiddler Michot climbing atop the upright bass of LaFleur as both musicians continue to play or the sporting of hipster Mohawks and prominent tattoos.

Guest artists

Lost Bayou Ramblers have attracted a number of musical guests to both their live shows and their recorded albums. Their 2012 ''Mammoth Waltz'' featured cameos by

(

Nora Arnezeder Nora Arnezeder (born 8 May 1989) is a French actress. She is known for her roles in the science fiction thriller film ''Tides'' (2021), the zombie heist film ''Army of the Dead'' (2021) and IFC's assassin thriller '' American Star''. She is a r ...

, members of Givers, and more. Gordon Gano often appears as a guest at their live shows.

Awards and honors

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

'' OffBeat'''s Best of The Beat Awards

Discography

* ''Pilette Breakdown'' (2001)

* ''Bayou Perdu'' (2005) Swallow Records * ''Mellow Joy Boys: Une Tasse Cafe'' (2006) Swallow Records * ''Live: A La Blue Moon'' (2007) Swallow Records * ''Vermilionaire'' (2008) Bayou Perdu Records * ''Bastille'' EP (2011) Bayou Perdu Records * ''Mammoth Waltz'' (2012) Bayou Perdu Records * ''Gasa Gasa Live'' (2014) Bayou Perdu Records * ''Kalenda'' (2017) Rice Pump Records - Winner of

Best Regional Roots Music Album The Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 as the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the regionally based traditional Ameri ...

at the

60th Annual Grammy Awards The 60th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on January 28, 2018. The CBS network broadcast the show live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show was moved to January to avoid coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongch ...

* ''Rodents of Unusual Size: Music from the Motion Picture'' (2019), score for the film of the same name * ''Asteur'' (2019) Lost Bayou Records * ''Live: Orpheum Theater NOLA'' (2023) with the

Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is an American orchestra based in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only full-time, professional orchestra in the Gulf South. The orchestra performs at the Orpheum Theater. The Louisiana Philharmonic ...

- Winner of

at the

66th Annual Grammy Awards The 66th Annual Grammy Awards honored the best recordings, compositions, and artists from October 1, 2022, to September 15, 2023, as chosen by the members of The Recording Academy, on February 4, 2024. In its 21st year at the Crypto.com Arena ...

Compilations

* ''Allons Boire un Coup: A Collection of Cajun and Creole Drinking Songs'' - Various artists (2006) Valcour Records * ''En Francais: Cajun 'n' Creole Rock 'n' Roll'' Various, produced by Louis Michot of Lost Bayou Ramblers (2011) Bayou Teche Brewers/

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is a Portland, Oregon based online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. It was established in 1998 and offered distribution fo ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Wald, Elijah & McGourty, Allison & MacMahon, Bernard. '' American Epic: The First Time America Heard Itself''. New York: Touchstone, 2017. .

External links

Official website

Rolling Stone feature on ''Mammoth Waltz'' Guest Artists

Blues de Bernadette Live - Spring 2012

Interview on BTR Now - Summer 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Bayou Ramblers Musical groups from Louisiana Acadiana Musicians from Lafayette, Louisiana Cajun musicians Grammy Award winners

Career

Cinematic musical work

Musical style

Guest artists

Awards and honors

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

'' OffBeat'''s Best of The Beat Awards

Discography

Compilations

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links