Talisman Sounds - Great Music, Great Artists

This internationally known festival returns for it 17th year on the 22nd - 24th January 2010.

We have introduced a slightly different format and taken on board many of the comments and suggestions from loyal fans and festivals attendees to bring you what we hope will be one of the best festivals yet.

Many of you will know that the festival was under threat and a distinct possibility existed that 2009 would have been the last year. We hope that the new format, less complex pricing structure and more sociable hours will attract back some of the crowd that we have not seen for a few years. If the number of sales of Early Bird tickets are anything to go by we may be sold out by Christmas. This should ensure the survival of the festival into 2011 and beyond.

Further details are availble gloucestercajunfestival.co.uk and more details will be added soon.

There will also be workshops, films and a selection of mouthwatering authentic cajun food on offer. 

Friday (doors 7.30pm)
9.00pm – 11.00pm  Whiskey River Zydeco Twisters

Saturday
11.00am – 12.30pm  Cajun dance workshop
1pm – 2.30pm Zydeco dance workshop
3pm – 4.30pm The Boat Band
5pm – 6.30pm The Doughboys
9pm – 11pm  Sarah Savoy and the Francadians

 

Sunday

1pm – 2.30pm Zydeco dance workshop
2.30pm – 3.30pm Instrumental Workshop

3.30pm – 5pm Cajun dance workshop
5.15pm - 6.45pm Kingdom of Zydeco - Film

8pm – 10pm  Cajun Company

 

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Friday 22nd

The Whiskey River Zydeco Twisters

are back again at the GCZF for the first time in three years and happy to be there.

Stand by for some suitably TWISTED ZYDECO with the Whiskey River Zydeco Twisters! Aidan, Martin, Andy, Pedro, Dennis and Ted will have the joint jumping!  whiskeyriver.co.uk

Saturday 23rd  Sarah Savoy and the Francadians  are a group of dedicated musicians based in Paris, France, led by Louisiana-born and raised Sarah Savoy. Brought up by two of the most influential names in Cajun music (Ann and Marc Savoy), Sarah fronts this band of French musicians David Rolland (Stompin’ Crawfish, Daisy Belle, Villaine Maniere), Vincent Blin, and Manolo Gonzales as if it were any group of similarly young musicians playing in the Cajun heartland of Lafayette, Louisiana, where Sarah got her start. With the Francadians, Sarah performs traditional Cajun and Zydeco music, reaching back as far as the earliest roots of Louisiana music with covers of Amedee Ardoin, Joe and Cleoma Falcon, and Iry LeJeune, among others myspace.com/sarahsavoythefrancadians

The Boat Band
After playing for many years, trawling the venues of Britain and beyond, THE BOAT BAND have picked up a huge and varied catch of tunes: Creole, Caribbean, gospel, Cajun, Irish, zydeco and blues-not much slips through the net.If it can be played on accordion and fiddle (or trombone, washboard, trumpet, banjo etc), if it touches the heart and moves the feet, it`s in the repertoire.  harbourtownrecords.com/boatband

The Doughboys
Since their debut appearance at The Ellesmere Port Festival in the early 90s the Doughboys have played at virtually every major cajun festival and cajun dance club in the country including clubs in Bolton, Brighton, Chester, Derby, Hinckley, London, Manchester, Peterborough, Portsmouth and Jersey to name just a few and regular appearances at the File Gumbo nights and festivals in London.
With half of the band being of Latvian origin it comes as no surprise that the band have toured the Baltic Republic of Latvia where they astonished audiences with performances of Cajun, English and Latvian roots music.  ockndough.co.uk

Delta Maid

Delta’s own songs are mainly influenced by the Blues, but they also have Country and Folk labels attached to them. As a white girl from Liverpool, a far cry from early rural Mississippi, it’s hard to draw any parallels but as she sees it, being from Liverpool, roots music is genetically bred. What the music means, where it’s from and the believability in the way it’s performed is paramount to her, this she feels must be encapsulated in her own music and performance.  myspace.com/deltamaid

Sunday 24th

Cajun Company
The Cajun Company has been playing traditional Cajun music for over 14 years. They play this music the old timey way, in the spirit of early Cajun tradition, with all the raw edges and emotions right up front. They maintain the basic instrumental setup of the 20's and 30's: accordion, fiddle, acoustic guitar and 'tit fer. They're digging for the roots of Cajun music and as such they delve back through dancehall classics, rare fiddle tunes and old Creole songs.
Led by Bas van der Poll, one of the most acclaimed accordion players outside of Louisiana, the Cajun Company's solid acoustic sound has earned them a place at the top of the European Cajun scene. Over the years they have performed at every Cajun festival in Europe, toured in Louisiana many times to perform at the Cajun Awards festival in the Blackham Coliseum, Lafayette, in the Liberty Theatre in Eunice and at the Festivals Acadiens, Lafayette.  cajuncompany.net

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The Kingdom of Zydeco (18)
Dir: Robert Mugge (UK 1994) 71mins

We are privileged to present this classic documentary by acclaimed director Robert Mugge. The film looks at the black Creole music scene of Southwest Louisiana and at an attempt there in the mid-90s to name a new 'King of Zydeco'. The original self-proclaimed king was the great Clifton Chenier (actually, he claimed to have been crowned by the Queen of England), who did more than anyone to develop Zydeco's musical form and to promote it around the world.

After Chenier's death, his good friend Rockin' Dopsie was crowned king by the Mayor of Lafayette under somewhat questionable circumstances. When Dopsie, too, died not long thereafter, a struggle ensued over whether to crown veteran accordion player Boozoo Chavis or the much younger Beau Jocque. The core of this film is a joint concert appearance by both contenders, billed as the event that would determine Zydeco's future king, along with efforts by the Louisiana Hall of Fame to crown Boozoo Chavis in accordance with the supposed last wishes of Rockin' Dopsie. Also  shown performing are the respected band leader John Delafose and talented younger artist Nathan Williams. But the film is as much about storytelling as it is about performance, and the tall tales come not only from musicians but from competing night club owners.

Kerman Richard and Sid Williams (brother of Nathan), from DJ Lester Thibeaux, from record store owner Irene Hebert (sister of Lester), from Zydeco Association heads Wilbert Guillory and Paul Scott, and from Louisiana Hall of Fame founder Lou Gabus. The film's climax documents the actual crowning of the new king, which many fans never accepted. The music throughout is hot - and the controversy even hotter.

"THE KINGDOM OF ZYDECO is both a cunning little comedy of manners and a sweet-tempered celebration of roots music. The Chavis-Jocque tussle is prototypical American status buffoonery painted in folk-miniature. Both these men kick out the jams in thrilling performances filmed with blissful authority by Mugge, a specialist in roots music documentaries such as 1991's DEEP BLUES. It's Chenier's legacy - and Mugge's observational skills - that triumph in the end." - Gene Seymour, New York Newsday

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