Spring festival season kicks off this week in Acadiana, and the live music calendar is packed full of opportunities to see and hear some of the best the area has to offer. Carencro’s Mercredi Show will feature the soulful Sharona Thomas on Wednesday night at Pelican Park for their weekly concert series. The Scott Boudin Festival will run Friday through Sunday, with loads of bands including Wayne Toups and Keith Frank on opening night.
That same evening, Downtown Alive returns to Parc Sans Souci in Lafayette with a new supergroup of local musicians, Les Amis de DTA!!, featuring Roddie Romero, Andre Michot, Rodrigo Munhoz, Sami Parbhoo, and others, playing a fusion of Brazilian and Louisiana sounds. Legendary Cajun singer-songwriter Zachary Richard will perform at the Grand Opera House of the South just west of Lafayette in historic downtown Crowley, LA, that same evening.
Progressive French music pioneers BeauSoleil will get the Hideaway crowd on their feet Saturday night, featuring Louisiana Humanist of the Year Michael Doucet leading the dance with his fiddle. Creole music masters Jeffery Broussard and Geno Delafose bring old school zydeco sounds to the Hub City, with Broussard at Vermilionville and Delafose at Rock n’ Bowl this Sunday.
Also on Sunday, the Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week gets started a little north of town at Lakeview Park in Eunice. Racines, the all-star ensemble led by Steve Riley, will revisit their catalog with a special reunion to start off the week-long music and culture camp. Famed fiddlers Mitch Reed and Kevin Wimmer return and will join Riley, along with guitarist Ethan Moody and drummer Burke Riley.
Listen to some of the artists that made this region famous with their music in this Lafayette Weekly Playlist. “Chez Seychelles” by BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Racines’ “Reel Perdu/Fruge’s Reel,” and “T Bleu and Nonc Joe” by Jeffery Broussard make up the funky fiddle set that starts off the mix. Tracks by Zachary Richard, Chris Ardoin, Roddie Romero, and the Old Fashioned Aces are also featured in this week’s Cajun and Creole-heavy playlist.
