Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Search this
Type:
YouTube Videos
Uploaded:
2010-04-22T16:32:31.000Z
Views:
8,018
Video Title:
Dewey Balfa Performance & Conversation (Live at Smithsonian Folklife Festival 1976)
Description:
Cajun music evolved in Louisiana from the 18th and 19th-century blends of French, Spanish, Celtic, Native American, and African origins. Despite its long history and popularity, by the 1950s Cajun music, as well as Cajun culture in general, was in serious decline. In the post-WWII era, Americans were urged to discard regional cultures for a more modern, albeit homogenized, national one. Many Cajuns were embarrassed by the regional French they spoke and the "old-fashioned" music still being played in their communities. Dewey Balfa, a musician responsible for the reinvigoration of Cajun music in the 1960s, performs a fiddle tune and speaks to the importance of regional culture. This video was filmed in 1976 at the special, summer-long Smithsonian Folklife Festival celebrating America's Bicentennial. Featuring Lionel LeLeux. Learn more: https://folkways.si.edu/dewey-balfa-master-cajun/music/article/smithsonian Smithsonian Folkways: https://folkways.si.edu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smithsonianfolkwaysrecordings Twitter: https://twitter.com/Folkways Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smithsonianfolkways The content and comments posted here are subject to the Smithsonian Institution copyright and privacy policy (www.si.edu/copyright). Smithsonian reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove any content at any time.
Video Duration:
2 min 48 sec
YouTube Keywords:
music folk "Woody Guthrie" "Pete Seeger" Smithsonian Folkways old-time non-profit
