The Revelers will be performing at the Grey Eagle on Saturday, March 16th at 9:00 pm. Tickets cost $10 in advance and $12 the day of the show.
The Revelers lead Cajun cultural renaissance with HBO’s Treme, No Reservations & Their Annual Black Pot Festival & Cook-off in Lafayette, Louisiana. Their new self-titled album is now available.
“If this album doesn’t teach you something about life, then you must certainly be very wise already. And if it does not, at any point, bring a tear to your eye? Then you must have either a malfunctioning tear duct or a heart of stone… I give this my highest possible recommendation.” – Blake Lehy, Music Supervisor, Treme
The Revelers from Southwest Louisiana will release their first album on February 12th, a self-titled collection of original and traditional Cajun, blues and swing. These days, with so much self-consciousness and hype, one might be skeptical of a band representing a “movement” or a “cultural renaissance,” but the Revelers, simply by being themselves, cannot help but represent these things and more.
Founded in Lafayette, Louisiana by members of the Red Stick Ramblers and the Pine Leaf Boys, the Revelers are ambassadors of the dance hall tradition from that mythical region of the US, where music is a function within a larger picture of community. The band has been honoring its roots by founding the annual, widely successful South Louisiana Black Pot Festival & Cook-off; a two-day gathering with music, dancing, camping and old-fashioned black pot cook-offs.
“You can dance, you can play your fiddle, or you can cut onions and mince garlic – just get in where you fit in,” says guitarist and songwriter Chas Justus. “Each has a role in this social organism that continues to grow and change.”
Handpicked by David Simon, the Revelers are the featured band in the 3rd season of HBO’s Treme; they were sought out by Anthony Bourdain for the season finale of ‘No Reservations’, where the host helped the Revelers in a what is know as a boucherie, a tradition handed down through several generations in which the members of the community each take a special role in the butchering and rendering of an animal. (In the days before refrigeration and modernity it was out of necessity that everyone lent a helping hand in the process, once done simply out of necessity this activity is repeated today just as much for the communal spirit it invokes as for the practical need for a shared purpose.)
The Revelers also play an active part in the Cajun Mardi Gras, an event often associated with New Orleans that takes on a completely different feel in Acadiana. There are no beads, no parades, just a down home country feel in a ritual that stretches back to 15-century France. In the days of Mardi Gras before the coming repentance and fasting of lent, the beast and the devil within are unleashed for one last round of trickery, good times and revelry in which The Revelers are renowned experts.
Lafayette has traditionally been the center of what is called “Acadiana” or “French-speaking Louisiana”. In the mid-18th century, the British forced the French to either swear allegiance to the king, return to France, or get on boats and head to the Spanish-controlled land that would be Louisiana. The Acadians retained much of their culture in the language, music and farming, and combined with Germans, Irish, Africans and Spanish to form what is now Cajun.
The Revelers are Daniel Coolik (fiddle, guitar, vocals), Glenn Fields (drums, vocals), Blake Miller (Accordion, fiddle, guitar, vocals), Chas Justus (guitar vocals), Eric Frey (bass, vocals). As individuals, they are each in high demand, having performed, recorded or written with Natalie Merchant, Linda Rondstadt, Preston Frank, Walter Moution, Mamadou Diabate, Cedric Watson and Tim O’Brien.
9pm. $10 advance / $12 day of show.
Advance tickets available online and at our local outlets beginning FRI 2/1/13.
DANCING ROOM ONLY!