When “60 Minutes” came to the Lafayette area last fall to film a segment on Cajun and zydeco music, they were confronted with the energy of a thriving cultural scene.

CBS correspondent Jon Wertheim remarked that the sounds of southwest Louisiana were experiencing a “most unlikely renaissance,” in the 60 Minutes episode that aired on Sunday, May 18. Seeing acts like Jourdan Thibodeaux, Chubby Carrier and Lil’ Nate Williams attract crowds of eager fans to local watering holes, Wertheim noted that Acadiana feels like a place apart, where Cajun and zydeco music sets the rhythm of life — instead of being relegated to the history bin. 

That immediacy, and the vibrancy with which fans and artists continue to engage with the region’s folk traditions, is largely thanks to how Cajun and zydeco music and performance have evolved through the years — in addition to a multi-decade effort to promote the region’s music in Louisiana and beyond, according to experts. 

“We live for moments like this, when we see our culture represented anywhere — nationally and internationally. It’s what we all work so hard for,” said Cynthia Simien, wife of zydeco star and Grammy winner Terrance Simien.

Cynthia Simien is also an agent and booking manager who has long worked with her husband to promote Louisiana music worldwide. She was largely responsible for the campaign to include a Cajun/zydeco category in the Grammy Awards, which was inaugurated in 2008 but collapsed a few years later into the “Regional Roots Music” category.

And the Simiens were instrumental in bringing zydeco to Disney through their work on the 2009 “The Princess and the Frog” movie. Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience appear on the soundtrack, and in music for the popular Disney ride, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

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“We’ve been exporting this music for 40 years now, so we know how many people are experiencing it for the first time — but in Louisiana, not so much,” she said. “I mean, when you hit Disney you’ve turned a corner, but around here, it can be out of sight, out of mind.

“Roots music has become more mainstream, but from the ‘80s, ‘90s and mid ‘00s to where we are today, it’s no accident. It’s taken a lot of hard work, a village, a consciousness about American roots music. We are in performing arts centers and schools across the country that don’t get a lot of American roots music, they don’t see that much from Louisiana. That’s what Terrance and Buckwheat Zydeco did a lot of — touring, educating. It’s all part of the evolution, every piece is an important part of it.”

The Cajun and zydeco evolution, come to life

Lafayette resident Dustin Cravins said that he watched the episode with “mixed feelings.” He is the second-generation organizer of the Zydeco Extravaganza, founded by his father as a radio show in the 1980s to promote the music of Creole country. 

That program, which still broadcasts weekly on Z105.9, developed into a television show-turned-festival held annually over Memorial Day weekend at Blackham Coliseum. The festival is a keystone of the zydeco community; and stands alongside other long-running events like Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, which started a few years earlier for the same reason — to promote the evolving sounds of Cajun and Creole music to bigger and bigger audiences. 

“Watching the episode did give me mixed feelings about this interpretation of the renaissance,” said Cravins. “That renaissance was in the ’80s. It may have slowed, but never went away. In large part, it’s thanks to that that our Creole culture is very much lived now. It’s not something you experience in a museum.” 

He said that when his father and uncle started their radio show, very few young people were listening to zydeco. Today, there’s been a noticeable shift. “There’s more young bands out now than older bands,” according to Cravins.

That youthful energy is reflected on dance floors, and in Lil’ Nate Williams’ streaming numbers. The zydeco artist, who played at the Zydeco Extravaganza this year with his band, Lil’ Nathan and the Zydeco Big Timers, told 60 Minutes that his streaming audience grew by over 3000% last year. 

Cravins said, “There’s a vibrant ecosystem here, and while there are challenges, there was no lightening rod recently that really changed the trajectory of where the music and culture are headed. It’s been a concerted effort by a number of people for many years to preserve and promote the sounds.” 

Festivals made a difference

Barry Ancelet was one of the people engaged in that work with Cajun French music, more than 50 years ago. In 1974, Ancelet worked with Louisiana French artists like Clifton Chenier, Marc Savoy, Bois Sec Ardoin and the Balfa Brothers to create “Hommage a la Musique Acadienne.” That concert brought 12,000 people to Blackham Coliseum, and has been held outdoors every year since as Festivals Acadiens et Créoles. 

The concert grew from the idea that it would create an entirely new experience to feature Cajun and Creole musicians on stage, instead of a dance hall, to an audience of listeners instead of dancers. 

“Cajun music and zydeco was really dance hall stuff,” said Ancelet, a Cajun folklorist and historian in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “It wasn’t considered cool. It was old people’s music.

“The real story is how festivals changed it, bringing it out of the dance halls and making it available to the whole family. That change of context changed the way people played and listened.” 

Ancelet says that emerging cycles of “raw” and “refined” sound have come into play through the years, also influenced by how bands and venues evolved to meet audience expectations. Cajun and Creole music largely evolved from raw, unrefined country players to tight, rollicking dance hall ensembles — and the rise of music festivals developed seasoned stage performers that play more like arena bands — faster, tighter and louder, with even more audience-focused energy. 

“That’s the kind of ongoing evolution that’s been happening that they missed,” Ancelet said. “It’s an evolution, not a renaissance.

“History is constantly evolving. There’s continuity, but that continuity is creating something new. When this is working at its best, when it’s really good, it produces things that both surprise and reassure us. You see where it came from, but you recognize it as something new and exciting — and if Cajun music hadn’t done that, nobody would be listening to it anymore.”

Cajun artist Jourdan Thibodeaux, who was featured on the “60 Minutes” episode alongside Chubby Carrier, the Savoy Family Band and Lil’ Nathan Williams, says that he doesn’t know much about a renaissance. He’s always played this music, he said — “just doing the same thing.”

He does think that the current crop of young musicians are more engaged, and talented, than ever. “Young bands out there are coming out like savants,” he said. “They are absolutely incredible, coming out at 18 and 19 and they can play 9 instruments.” 

They are also incorporating new influences, reaching new audiences and continually pushing the Cajun and zydeco genres in ways that bring new attention to Louisiana roots music, thanks to the foundational efforts of musicians, historians, archivists, language teachers and others who have helped entrench a modern interpretation of the region’s sound. 

Chubby Carrier has been part of that movement since he was a young man. He learned accordion playing in his father’s band, and later drummed for Terrance Simien. Carrier said that his father always made him understand that he should follow his own path, even while representing his family and culture. 

He said, “I grew up in the ’70s, and daddy said, ‘this is your job — listen to R&B, blues, rock n’ roll, funk. Be yourself. Don’t try to be me or your grandfather. You grew up in this genre, so incorporate it, but do your own thing.’”