During a recent trip to visit my son Dennis, his wife Jacquie, and their two children, Rollie and Zoe, we had the good fortune to attend an authentic Plantation Cajun Party, thrown by friends of theirs  at an 8-acre estate, with an 1800’s mansion of Acadian architecture in the process of restoration, with multiple picturesque cabins on the property.
My least favorite event was the crawfish feast, but the gumbo and jumbalaya  were

delicious. Vats of 100 pounds of crawfish were boiling with sacks of cayenne pepper, and most of the guests consumed 100’s of these poor critters each! Ernie and I managed a dozen between us! An enormous bonfire showered embers, fireworks went off, and mounds of fire ants populated the lawns, so that we had to do a fancy two-step to avoid being attacked! (Perhaps that two-step was the origin of Zaedeco dancing?)

For me, the best part was listening and foot-stamping to a quartet of Cajun musicians, as happy as any players in any genre—-a violinist sawing away in cheapo

Cajun Band

tonic chords, an accordionist, and two guitarists, playing and singing in Creole French, extremely engaging rhythms, with an infectious spirit that even the snobbiest of classical pianists could not resist responding to!