Cajun Music Quotes

What's New Orleans without music? And what's music without dancing?

I don't know what America would be without New Orleans and the music.

The French-Cajun culture is similar to mine - they're Catholic, they play accordions, and they eat hot chiles.

Over the years, Cajun music has always calmed me down, or if I'm feeling real sick or feeling real unsettled, I can put that music on and try to get focused again.

I am fascinated by the places that music comes from, like fife-and-drum blues from southern Mississippi or Cajun music out of Lafayette, Louisiana, shape-note singing, old harp singing from the mountains - I love that stuff. It's like the beginning of rock and roll: something comes down from the hills, and something comes up from the delta.

I grew up listening to the Neville Brothers and the Rebirth Brass Band.

I keep up the tradition, the zydeco.

In South Louisiana, every single thing we do is jazz or zydeco.

In New Orleans, music is part of the culture. You're raised with it, from the cradle to the grave, and all in-between.

Music and dance is part of everything in New Orleans. So I grew up appreciating it all.

Being from South Louisiana, we're just kind of rootsy.

Cajun culture is dying.

My first instrument was an accordion. Growing up in Louisiana, my grandmother gave me an accordion because of our Cajun heritage.

I always have a little bit of Brazil and New Orleans in my band.

I listen to Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, U2, and it becomes part of me, comes out in my music. Wherever it goes, there will always be the fabric of New Orleans in it.

I'm from Louisiana, and that's where I got my start, in Cajun music. There's a huge music scene down there centered around our culture. Those are people that are not making music for a living. They are making music for the fun of it. And I think that's the best way I could have been introduced to music.

My wife is from Laurel, Mississippi, and she has a lot of relatives down in Louisiana, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport, Louisiana. We go down there a lot. We got married in New Orleans. She has a cousin who introduced me to swamp pop, which is sort of zydeco/Cajun music with a little uptempo pop swing. Now I'm a big zydeco fan, I'm a big swamp-music fan.

Growing up in Louisiana, my grandmother gave me an accordion because of our Cajun heritage. What ended up happening was I started learning about more instruments, so I just kind of went that route. Music's really all I've ever done.