Each week, American Routes brings you Shortcuts, a sneak peek at our upcoming show. This week we speak with Kristi Guillory and Christine Balfa, the founding members of Cajun super group Bonsoir Catin. Christine is the daughter of fiddler Dewey Balfa, who created a national audience for Cajun music during the 1960s folk revival.
Christine Balfa: My father always played around the house. Either my uncles were around the house playing music – they’d have a supper and they’d come over and play – and then once he started traveling to these folk festivals in the late 60s and 70s, he’d meet people all over and daddy would say, y’all come visit us in Louisiana, and come stay with us. So they would. People would come stay at our house for weeks at a time. A lot of people who were open and interested in Cajun music on the outside – not everybody, but a lot of them – were sort of like hippies. In Basile, we didn’t have too many hippies [laughter]. So here I was out in Tepetate, with my daddy playing this old Cajun music from the old people, but you had all these cool hippies come and hanging out at my house listening to music. So it was kind of an interesting combination. That’s just how I grew up.
Nick Spitzer: Kristi, tell me about music in your family and how you decided to become somebody that would carry on Cajun music.
Kristi Guillory: My grandfather, Jesse Duhon he played music professionally in the 1930s. Grandpa always raised his family to be proud of their music and the language. So, in turn, I was raised like that from my mom, and started learning how to sing French songs when I was three or four. I would entertain all my old aunts. I saw an accordion one day, I was about ten years old, and I was hooked. Hooked from the get-go.
NS: Christine, did anyone ever say anything to your dad or mom when you were growing up – or to you – about who would play music in the family?
CB: At home, like I said, it never was really talked about all that much, but I could sort of see my dad giving more attention to Peter or Steve or Dirk, whenever he would come over. I saw the way that he encouraged men and it was different, just more seriously as a musician, you know. But I was playing a dance at Whiskey River and I was pregnant with my oldest daughter Amelia. This was about ten years ago. We had just been playing a four-hour dance, no breaks, and I walk out on the porch, and there’s this old Cajun man there. He said, “Hey Christine, you know what you’re gonna have? And I said, “Yeah, we’re gonna have a little girl.” And he said, “Oh, well maybe the next one can be a musician.” I was just like that mentality of “Oh, too bad it’s a girl, she won’t be able to be a musician.” I couldn’t believe that
KG: You know, I don’t think people ever look at us, or to our faces, and say, you know, “Y’all some girls doing that.” [Laughter] There are some people in the industry that still look at BonSoir, Catin as a novelty band. Which kind of still floors me, in some ways, because we gig just as hard as the young boys. Maybe we don’t put down as much whiskey. We used to, though! We can if we want to.
KG: Sharing music together is really what Bonsoir Catin is all about. We’re just having a great time.
CB: It’s really such a gift to have such good friends that you can hang out and play music with.
NS: Well, Kristi Guillory and Christine Balfour, bien merci pour le conversation, and what should I say, bon après-midi. Thank you, good afternoon.
KG: Merci!
CB: Merci, Nick.
To hear the full program tune into WWNO Saturday at 7 or Sunday at 6, or listen at Americanroutes.org
