Courtesy Of: GERTRUDE C. FORD PERFORMING ARTS CENTER Feufollet will perform in the Gertrude C. Ford Performing Arts Center tonight.
The Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts will be holding its third annual Music of the South Concert Series tonight at 7 p.m.
“The concert will last about 90 minutes with no intermission,” said Becca Walton, associate director for projects at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
Performers such as musician and songwriter Randall Bramblett, Oxford’s very own Water Liars and Tyler Keith have all previously made appearances. The series is an outstanding platform for Southern performers to showcase their artistry at the theater.
“The Ford Center Studio Theater seats 150, and the audience is very close to the musicians,” Walton said. “It’s a setting that allows the musicians to talk and provide context for their music throughout the show. The atmosphere is relaxed and informal, but it also lets the music be the focal point.”
In French, one might describe this setting as “bijou.”
Speaking of French, Cajun roots, and rock bands from Lafayette, Louisiana, Feufollet, translated literally as “crazy fire,” can sing plenty of it. The Grammy-nominated music group will be featured in this year’s Music of the South Series.
This isn’t the band’s first venture to Oxford.
“A few members came to the Ford Center two years ago for a symposium on Music of the South,” said James Thomas, associate director for publications at the UM Center for the Study of Southern Culture. “They talked a lot about Cajun music and why it’s interesting and different.”
They were invited back, this time with all six members.
The group already has four studio albums on their résumé including “Cow Island Hop,” “Belle Louisiane” and “En Couleurs,” in addition to their upcoming album scheduled to be released in February of 2015, “Two Universes.”
A few fans may be unfamiliar with one of the newest members of the band, Kelli Jones-Savoy from North Carolina. She is the new leading vocalist on the album and also a fiddle player as well as guitarist.
More Cajun music has been long awaited from this band, especially considering there was an almost five year gap between their last album “En Couleurs” and their upcoming album “Two Universes.” Furthermore, the fans have officially confirmed this anticipation with their highly supportive donations of over $30,000. These generous donations were given in the efforts to get their most recent album distributed nationally and, quite frankly, they have succeeded.
For those who don’t know, Feufollet isn’t a band of middle-aged musicians despite the fact that they first formed almost twenty years ago. At the time, three of its original members, Grammy nominated guitarist Chris Stafford, drummer Michael Stafford and fiddler Chris Segura weren’t even teenagers yet. Also among the six-member band are bass guitar player Philippe Billeaudeaux and another, newer addition to the group, keyboardist Andrew Toups. They epitomize Feufollet’s new sound for Cajun music. Where fiddles and accordions were once prominent, they can now be substituted with the electrical instruments.
Although many people consider Feufollet’s genre to be primarily Cajun, they are also influenced by many other genres including creole, zydeco, rock, country and even R&B. Feufollet does not have a particularly traditional Cajun sound but holds more of a modern element that the younger generations will likely gravitate towards. Nevertheless, there is still room for two-stepping and swinging to the band’s most recent sound as well as the old. Feufollet has been recording mainly in French throughout their career, but there will also be an Americana sound for the songs on their upcoming album too.
The Ford Center is only the first of five tour stops they are scheduled to make between Sept. 17 and Oct. 11. After their concert in Nashville Saturday for the Americana Music Festival, the last three locations will all be in their very own city of Lafayette. This includes the huge three-day event Festival Acadiens et Creoles, which they will be headlining for the third year in a row.
