Hé toi! This Saturday, January 29 marks the 20th Anniversary of Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI’s “A Night of Louisiana.” CMU always has a Cajun and a zydeco band to celebrate the “night.” This year they’ve got C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band (zydeco) and the Lost Bayou Ramblers (Cajun) to play for your dancing pleasure.
It’s $20 admission, doors open at 6 pm, show starts at 7 pm, and tickets are available at the door. You can pre-order a Cajun dinner for $9.95. The event is in Finch Fieldhouse on the CMU campus. BTW, there is a large dance floor! (Obviously, it’s in the fieldhouse!)
In case you don’t know, C.J. Chenier (extra points for anyone who knows what the “C.J.” stands for without having to look it up) is one of the top zydeco performers of the modern time. He’s following in the footsteps of his father, Clifton, who was known as the “King of Zydeco.” C.J. started playing saxophone in his father’s band in the early 1980s, then took over on the accordion when Clifton’s health started to fail.
The Lost Bayou Ramblers are a bunch of young guys from Louisiana who sound like an old-timey Cajun band from 50 or more years ago. They play straight, traditional Cajun music.
The bottom line is, if you can’t dance to either of these bands, you’re either really, really drunk, or really, really dead!