Basin Brothers

 

Click the CD Cover to visit the Band's mySpace site...

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Al Berard and

The Cajun Mandolin Band

Driving dance hall Cajun two-steps combine with soft, soul-melting waltzes on the lush instrumentation of the mandolin family of instruments; a sound that has never before been captured in the Cajun music idiom - a first, for combining the haunting melodies of the Cajun people with the striking string-based ensemble of mandolin, mandola, octave mandolin, and bass.  There is a timeless quality to the instrumentation, yet a rootsy feel to the songs and tunes executed from the history of a resilient people.  Familiar and enduring melody lines come to you in soothing, yet pulsing waves of striking clarity from a group of performers that are in sync with each other through the subtlest nuance. Cajun melodies travel a new route through and occasionally beyond places that seem familiar but are born of the moment; making each concert special and unique.

             The musical director and mandolinist, Al Berard, joins forces with Kyle Hebert, former bassist with Grammy nominated Steve Riley Band, and full time touring musicians Mark Trichka (mandolin, mandola) and Lisa Brande (octave mandolin) from Vermont/ Florida/Louisiana to complete the lineup for a group that joins technical skill with the Heart of Cajun music in this new and exciting format.

The Traiteurs

 

From the audience's reaction to  their set, you would have thought you were at a rock concert... people were cheering and screaming in appreciation after every song.     The Traiteurs were formed to raise money for a musical endowment at ULL in memory of local musician/physician Tommy Comeaux, who died in a tragic bicycling accident (Comeaux was a member of such seminal South Louisiana bands as Beausoleil, Basin Brothers, Clickin' Chickens and Coteau).  With Sonny Landreth, Al Berard, Errol Verret, Kyle Hebert, Tony Latiolais, Gary Newman, Danny Kimble (all major players in the Acadiana music scene), the Traiteurs don't rehearse, haven't recorded, and basically just jam and groove on traditional Cajun numbers with all their profits going towards the endowment fund.   Most of the music is heads down jamming.

Someone from the audience's reaction to one of their sets,

"You would have thought you were at a rock concert..."