Joyeux Noël, Bon Chrismeusse: Have A Cajun/Creole Christmas With New EP

This holiday season South Louisiana offers up a musical treat with the new EP Joyeux Noël, Bon Chrismeusse. The release will be available on December 4th for Bandcamp Friday. The region has long been home to a resilient, dynamic culture. Two centuries after the territory was purchased by the United States, there are still young Louisianians speaking their grandparents’ language, learning traditional music, and navigating the line between the past and the future.

The six-track release reinterprets Christmas classics through a Cajun and Creole lens, translating the songs into Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole, songs like “J’ai vu Mam après becquer Papa Noël” (“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”) and “Papa Nwèl ap vini o vilaj” (“Santa Claus is coming to town”).

It features musicians from the South Louisiana music scene, including the Daiquiri Queens, the Old Fashioned Aces, and Sweet Crude. While linguistically the project stays close to its Acadiana roots, musically the artists take a broader view of Louisiana’s sound. Cajun and Zydeco lovers will find the twin fiddles, accordion, and rubboard they love on some tracks, but Bluesy horns fill Courtney Granger’s “Joyeux Noel, catin” (“Merry Christmas, Baby”), and “Je reviens chez nous pour Chrismeusse” (“I’ll be home for Christmas,” sung by Megan Constantin and Kelli Jones) is played like the nostalgic Jazz standard it is, not like a classic Cajun ballad.

The house band includes Chas Justus, bassist Trey Boudreaux, drummer Matt Meyer, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Stafford, who also engineered the record. Joyeux Noël, Bon Chrismeusse received an Artspark Grant, an individual artist stipend supported by the Lafayette Economic Development Authority and administered by the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Financial support was also provided by the West Baton Rouge Museum and La Fondation Louisiane.