This and more are available at www.dancegumbo.com We now have a salsa page on the site and working on a swing page. Interested in a staff position? Guaranteed no pay and little glory.

 

Go directly to page bottom for Upcoming Events.

 

 

Our regular Fourth Saturday Dance Gumbo for April is moved to Fifth Saturday April 30 to not conflict with Shakori Festival. The April 30 dance will be a classic mix with DJ Wolfy Jack back in the catbird seat. Thanks to Lew Shiner for covering in March Gumbo whilst the Wolfy J's were off Zydecoin' to Rosie Ledet.

 

We are working on booking the Quadafi Family Band  to handle the parking, teamed up with our veteran valet Pee Wee Herman.

 

 

 

The annual Bonjour Africa Malaria Project Benefit is this coming Saturday April 16 and is always a fun event for a good cause. DJ Bouna Ndaiye, who hosts Bonjour Africa every Sunday  on WNCU 90.7 FM, spins a lot of good African tunes, and for salseros there is always some African Salsa. See Upcoming events below for details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shakori Festival is back and the Wolfy Js will be in the dance tent for three lessons: Cajun, Country Western, and Zydeco. 

 

Shakori's dance bands for this year are pretty strong with Orquesta GarDel for salsa, Pine Leaf Boys for Cajun, Skeedaddle for Swing, Preston Frank with Donna the Buffalo for Zydeco, and John Howie and the Sweethearts for Country Western, all in the dance tent.

 

 

 

 

GarDel is tops for local NYRican style Salsa Orchestra. Skeedaddle is one of the better local swing bands with an affinity for uptempo goofball vintage swing, Hawaiin swing, and jug band music in the style of Dan Hicks. Pine Leaf Boys from Louisiana ware one of the preeminent Louisiana Cajun bands. John Howie was the lead for Two Dollar Pistols and mostly plays for new alt country types who don't know how to two step any more than to Mazurks, but he is a gem of a country singer in the old honky tonk tradition of Hank or Dwight. I haven't heard the Sweethearts and couldn't find any samples but expect good things and we will be teaching two steppin' prior to the set. We will see you there.

www.shakorihills.org

 

 

There is a new Ballroom Yahoo group. If you want to keep up with all local Ballroom events, sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BasicallyBallroomTriangle . TSDS Swing Dances at Carrborro Century are off until the fall as are Shari Huggett's California Connection. Wade Ownley has started a Blues Dance event Mondays at Blue Note Grill in Durham, check Ongoing Dances. The long running Third Saturday SalsaforU Dance has moved from Fred Astaire to Triangle Dance Studios.

 

 

• Every Thursday Evening  Weaver Street Market Concerts, Carrborro www.weaverstreetmarket.coop
• Every Thursday North Hills, Raleigh, Beach Music Series www.northhillsraleigh.com
• Every Thursday Weaver Street Market, Hillsborough, Concerts www.weaverstreetmarket.coop
• Every Friday Carolina Inn Front Porch Concerts, Chapel Hill www.carolinainn.com
• Every Friday Brightleaf Square, Durham, Concerts www.historicbrightleaf.com
• First Friday City Market, Raleigh www.citymarketraleigh.com
• 2nd & 4th Friday, Seaboard Music On the Porch Concerts, Raleigh www.musicontheporch.com
• Last Friday Hillsborough Concert www.hillsboroughartscouncil.org
• Last Friday Weaver Street Market, Hillsborough Concerts www.weaverstreetmarket.coop
• Every Saturday River Mill Village, Saxapahaw, Concerts www.rivermillvillage.com
• Every Sunday Southern Village, Chapel Hill, Concerts www.southernvillage.com
• Every Sunday Weaver Street Market, Carrboro, Jazz and More Brunch www.weaverstreetmarket.coop
• Various Fridays American Tobacco Music On the Lawn, ATHD, Durham www.americantobaccohistoricdistrict.com

 

 

 

For the CajZydequarians, Shakori Festival is a must this year with Preston Frank as well as the Pine Leaf Boys. The PLBs were a top of the line high kickin' Cajun band when they had Cedric Watson on fiddle, before he went off and formed his own band Bijou Creole. With Bijou, Cedric has definitely plumbed the vintage tradition of creole fiddle music and the old La La styles. It works for the ehnomusicologists amongst us, just not very dancable, and the PLBs suffered from Cedric's leaving, so we are hoping that they can regain their former heights. Preston with Donna the Buffalo is always a great show. www.shakorihills.org

 

Since our last newsletter a new CajunZydeco Meetup Group has formed and can be accessed at http://www.meetup.com/Triangle-Zydeco-and-Cajun-Dance/

 

Rosie Ledet will be at Papa Mojo's Roadhouse on May 13th. If you have not had Mel's excellent Cajun cuisine, check it out before the show. Unfortunately, many of us will be away at Leaf Festival, so dance one for me. We caught Rosie at the Shakori Benefit in March. By this Zydequarian's taste, Rosie is just a killer accordion player, vocalist, and songwriter, unparellelled. My complaint about the band, as heard at the benefit, and many of our local dancers agreed, is that the lead guitar, Rosie's beau, drowns out Rosie, and though he plays decent lead blues rock style, there are 2000 guitarists around of equal ability, but only one Rosie Ledet. Jordan was mixing the sound and said that he turned down the lead guitar to max but the stage amp which the musician controls was turned up to the max and really drowned out Rosie. I plan to mention this to Rosie who is a friend, always a delicate proposition, but I am well known for putting feet in mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys will be in town June 1 at Duke Gardens. This will be the first time Steve is without his longtime fiddler and cofounder of the group some 23 years ago, David Greely, who has left because of going half deaf from years of stage work. They could not have found a better replacement in Steve Wimmer, one of the top fiddlers in the country. Steve is from the Cajun heartland of New York City and studied at Juilliard but in his youth teamed up with Dewey Balfa and caught the Cajun bug, before being part of Balfa Toujours, as well as the lead for many years with the Red Stick Ramblers who combined Cajun and Texas Swing.

 

The musicality is definitely there with Steve and we just hope that he can fill the shoes of David Greely who had a great chemistry with Steve and the Playboys. BTW why are there so many different Playboy groups in Caj/Zyd, like the Lawtell Playboys, Benzie Playboys, Eunice Playboys, Opelousas Playboys. Are all Louisiana musicians chasing girls in bunny outfits or is Hugh Hefner at work. No groups like the Platte Ville Faithful Husbands.

 

LEAF Festival this year has Sunpie Barnes, who is a journeyman Zydeco musician. www.theleaf.org

 

We are looking foward to the Bayou Boogaloo in Norfolk, VA, June 25. The schedule is not yet up at www.festeventsva.org  but they always have great bands, both Cajun Zydeco as well as Louisiana of all stripes. We have heard Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Subdudes, Little Feat, Marcia Ball as well as Cajun/Zydeco of Steve Riley, Lil' Brian, Clifoton Chenier. So save the weekend and think about a road trip.

 

Strawberry Camp this June 11 ( http://www.strawberrypark.net/cajun-zydeco-festival/ ), always has had great bands and was worth the trip to Preston, CT, if you were a Caj/Zyd nut, but this year it is weaker than usual. Bien Sur, Geno Delafose will be there and almost worth it alone, but absent this year are the likes of Chris Ardoin, Steve Riley, Beausoleil, or Keith Frank. On the bill are Savoy Family Band, Cedric Watson, and a bunch of lesser known bands. They have cut back on their talent, presumably financial in origin.

 

I think me and the missus will pass on that Connecticut but are thinking about Rhythm and Roots in Ninnegret, RI this coming labor Day weekend which has a killer lineup with Steve Riley, Marcia Ball, Corey Ledet, Mitch Woods,Raul Malo, and others. They always have a strong Cajun Zydeco showing but also lots of swing, occasional Latin, folk, etc. http://www.rhythmandroots.com/general/home.php 

 

 

 

 

I am having problem's pasting this in from the website. It is humongous so just take this link below:

 

www.dancegumbo/upcoming-dances