Have you seen or heard this? It looks pretty good.



"Louisiana Cajun & Creole Music – The Newport Field Recordings 1964 to 1967 "

TRACK LIST
1. Danse de Mardi Gras 2:51
2. Lacassine Special 3:11
3. La valse du bambocheur 5:37
4. Hackberry Hop 3:02
5. La valse des platains 3:47
6. Lake Arthur Stomp 2:16
7. Parlez-nous a boire 3:42
8. La valse d'orphelin 3:46
9. Les flammes d'Enfer 3:38
10. T'as fini de me voir 1:44
11. Hack a 'tit Moreau 1:44
12. Si j'aurais des ailes 1:38
13. La Ville de Mantoue 2:43
14. Ou t'etais Mercredi passe 1:54
15. Bonsoir, Moreau 3:41
16. Untitled Dance Tune :58
17. Eunice Two-Step 2:20
18. Quo Faire 2:21
19. Jogue au plombeau 2:31
20. La betaille dans le tit arbre 2:42
21. Le vieux boeuf et le vieux chariot 2:50
22. La robe a Rosalie 3:12
23. La Prairie Ronde 3:01
24. La talle d'eronces 1:48
25. Les pinieres 3:02
26. Treville t'es pas pecheur 1:43
27. Danse de limonade 2:01

PERSONNEL
The Balfa Freres - #1-7
Austin Pitre & The Evangeline - #8-10
Edius Naquin - #11-14
Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin and Canray Fontenot - #15-19
Isom Fontenot, Aubrey Deville, Preston Manuel - #20-21
Adam and Cyprien Landreneau - #22-27

NOTES:
The collection features 27 tracks on a single disc, recordings spanning 1964-67, recorded by by Ralph Rinzler, working under tthe Newport Folk Foundation and at the suggestion of board member, legendary folk music archivist Alan Lomax.
Rinzler, who later headed the Festival of American Folklife at the Smithsonian Institution, came to Louisina in “Cajun country” in Louisiana when the music was actually seen as a threat by some tp English-language culture pressed in upon the Cajun people.
The recordings, first released by Rounder in the mid-1970s, are believed to help save Cajun music by exposing the sounds to people elsewhere in the U.S. and around the world. Performers on the anthology include the Balfa Brothers, Bois-Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot, Austin Pitre, and Adam and Cyprien Landreneau. Today, you'll find many of them on Amazon, as well as in record stores all over the country (though not the Targets or Wall-Marts of the world. Well, maybe some in Lousiana, one would have to check). Balfa and Ardoin eventually received National Heritage Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
This release contains many never before published photographs and extensive liner notes by various writer, more than 80 pages in the PDF embedded in the disc.Louisiana Cajun and Creole Music: The Newport Field Recordings is rich with the joy and sometimes, bittersweet sorrow one can find in Cajun music, too. The sounds are among the most organic in American history and certainly among the most distinctive as well.
“These recordings are among the most important in the history of Cajun and Creole music," said Barry Jean Ancelet of the University of Louisiana. "Much of what is happening now in this rich music can trace its energy directly to the days when Ralph Rinzler’s fielder work in the 1960s produced these recordings. "These performances brought Cajun and Creole music to the attention of the national folk music community, and inspired.”

Hadn't seen this. But it looks like it's right up my alley. Several of those artist I 've been wanting to acquire their music for a long time.

Only one of those artists I've ever heard of is Austin Pitre.

I've never heard recordings by any of the artists but know that the Ardoin and Balfa Families are huge names in Zydeco. I've seen Chris and Sean Ardoin, Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin's grandsons, many times at Jazzfest. One year in the late 90's, Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin sat in with them for a song or two. He was already in his mid 80's so it was mostly for show, but it was pretty clear the esteem in which the crowd held him. I've seen Balfa Tojours many times at Jazzfest as well. They are the daughters of Dewey Balfa who I assume is one of the Balfa Brothers. I've always meant to dig further into both families but have never got around to doing so.

Now that you mention it, Dewey Balfa is one I've heard of. Hell, I may have even seen him at a festival in Metarie in about 1984 or so; the memories are foggy.

And, as for Dewey vis a vis the Balfa Brothers:

The Balfa Brothers (or Les Frères Balfa) were an American cajun music ensemble. Its members were five brothers; Dewey on fiddle, Will on fiddle, Rodney on guitar, harmonica, and vocals, Burkeman on triangle and spoons, and Harry on Cajun accordion.