A Cajun Christmas at the Holiday with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys

Twelve Songs of Christmas

This season has featured surf Christmas music, calypso Christmas music, Sicilian Christmas music and smooth jazz Christmas music, so it can't be too much of a surprise that we finally get to Cajun Christmas music. I think Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys are an important band as they picked up the work of maintaining endangered musical traditions that was started by a generation before him, and he influenced the generation that followed by finding contemporary ways to express those traditions.

In today's interview, we talk about Feufollet's Chris Stafford, who I wrote about shortly after he died at My Spilt Milk.

When I played "Silent Night" by Harry Fontenot, I didn't identify it. It's from the album Merry Cajun Christmas.

I also mentioned that you can find Riley's Party at the Holiday, All Night Long and other contemporary Cajun music at ValcourRecords.com.

If you're interested in taking Cajun accordion lessons from Steve, you can reach him through his Facebook page or the Contact info at MamouPlayboys.com.