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Cajun Women to Honky-tonk
with Sassiness
By Dominick Cross
The Advocate, May 2005
Can you say “Bonsoir Catin.”
Good. Do you know what it means? Roughly translated, it means
“sassy little girl.” I have to admit, the name does
have sass.
And once you know who’s in the band, you’ll know
it’ll have class: Kristi Guillory, accordion; Christine
Balfa, guitar; Anya Schoenegge, fiddle; and Yvette Landry, bass.
Then again, they’ll probably swap instruments during a
gig.
The idea for the group had a couple of inspirational moments.
One of the more-genteel ones happened at the Dewey Balfa Cajun
and Creole heritage Week at Chicot State Park.
“We got together at Chicot—it was one of those by-the-bonfire
moments—we were sitting around there talking,” Guillory
said.
You can also throw in a serious case of performance envy.
“It’s been almost eight years since I’ve really
picked up an accordion and took off with it,” said Guillory,
who played accordion in her bend Reveille until school, a child
and a job took prominence in her life.
And Balfa, who know has two children, has spent more time with
them than her band, Balfa Toujours.
“We were talking about how much fun it would be to get
together and have some girlfriends and play some music,”
Guillory said. “Actually, play it in a style that rocks
out.”
By “rocks out,” Guillory means honky-tonk.
“It’ll be a little bit more honky-tonk. It’ll
be Cajun music, but sort of with that driving beat that Christine
and I like to play,” she said. “A real strong dance
beat.”
But a primary source of their inspiration to form the all-woman
band lies in an experience Balfa had at a store.
“Somebody had introduced (Balfa) as Dewey Balfa’s
daughter,” Guillory said. “And the guy said something
like ‘Since he didn’t have a son, Christine had
to take up the music.’
That coupled with another time when Balfa was pregnant, and
Balfa Toujours was playing at Whiskey River. Somebody asked
if she was having a boy or a girl; Balfa told the inquiring
mind it would be a girl.
“And the guy said something like, ‘Maybe the next
one will be a musician,’” Guillory said.
Welcome to the 19th century, eh?
“It’s that same attitude of a bunch of girls playing
music and we’re not gong to be as good or as well-versed
as the men,” she said.
So with that for fodder as well, the women decided that, since
both Balfa and Guillory have girls, “we kind of want to
let our little girls see us play music, and, you know, see that
it’s cool,” Guillory said.
“All of our generation are having kids now. And a lot
of musicians we know have daughters.
“So, it’s sort of a quasi-feminist movement, you
know,” she said with a laugh.
“On the other hand, we’re all good friends and want
to have something to do together and hang out and play some
tunes.”
Guillory did emphasize that the group wants people to come out
to hear the band, not because they’re women, but because
they can play.
Sheryl Cormier had one of, if not the first, female Cajun bands
in the 1980s, and another women’s group making the rounds
is the Magnolia Sisters, who, Guillory noted, “rock, too.
They’re just as good as any other band.”
Bonsoir, Catin has a July 23 gig at the Blue Moon.
Be there, but keep your male chauvinism at home—if you
know what’s good for ya… |
|
Hello,
Goodnight
By Nick Pittman
The Times of Acadiana, November 2005
When Christine Balfa was pregnant with her daughter, Amelia,
she stepped off the Whiskey River stage and a man asked if she
was having a boy or a girl. When she answered, “a girl,”
he replied, “Oh well, maybe the next one will be a musician.”
It’s pretty much given that Cajun music is male driven
and dominated. Members of Bonsoir, Catin know that, and each
has her own stories of being a woman in the face of the Cajun’s
boys club. Yet the all-female group seems less focused on its
status as vanguards as it is on dynamite musicianship and camaraderie.
Bonsoir, Catin began after April’s Louisiana Folkroots
Heritage Week. At the week’s last bonfire, Balfa (guitar,
Balfa Toujours), Yvette Landry (bass, Lafayette Rhythm Devils)
and Kristi Guillory (accordion, Lafayette Rhythm Devils) were
talking: “Our talk, probably a little wine-induced, started
moving towards forming a band together, not because we were
all women, but because we all admire each other for our musical
ability and we all have the same vision when it comes to style,”
writes Guillory. Adding Anya Schoenegge (fiddle, Magnolia Sisters
and Celjun), the group has clicked and started a vibe Guillory
describes as high-energy, a touch honky-tonk, a bit raunchy,
a little sad but a lot of fun. “We all have the same idea
that the music needs to be driven by a lot of feeling in order
for it to be real. I mean, Christine is the only Cajun signer
and guitar player that I’ve ever seen actually cry while
singing a song.” Just as they stand out as an all-female
group, they are turning heads and bending rules. Guillory notes,
“Women in Cajun music aren’t supposed to sing about
getting drunk or cheating, but we do.”
A mix of influences—tough, independent country women like
Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and June Cash—with
obscure Cajun and Creole songs—Sheryl Cormier, Joe Warren
Cormier—gleamed from Guillory’s work at the University
of Louisiana archive collides to form a unique sound that will
be well received by any gender. Noting her band mates love the
way each other plays, Guillory adds, “It just works.” |
