Discovering a song about the town of my birth

[thatcrazycajun]

I was born and (mostly) raised in Lafayette, LA, the unofficial capital of Cajun country. When I left, I had a lot of reasons to leave, many of them having to do with being an oddball geek of a kid with gender issues in a solidly, stolidly Southern red-state family in what seemed to me then, at best, a farm-country small town with delusions of being a big city.

But as my Songbird has been at some pains to point out to me when we have visited there each Christmas the last five years, the place has changed. A lot. (My family has also changed at least in some ways, as she also reminds me, but that's another rant story.) ADDENDUM: Politically speaking, Lafayette hasn't really changed all that much; its Wikipedia entry cites it as being the ninth most conservative city in the US. And it has more restaurants per capita than any other US city, even New York. That shouldn't shock anyone who knows Lafayette or Cajuns at all—most places, folks just eat to live; us Cajuns, cher, we live to eat!)

And now comes this song, originated by Lucinda Williams and covered by John "Don't Call Me 'Cougar' Anymore" Mellencamp (AKA the poor man's Bruce Springsteen—and that's not meant as a putdown in the least) on his 2003 all-covers album, Trouble No More. Hearing it, with its echoes of the waltz-time rhythms and accordion stylings I grew up hearing via French-speaking local DJs on my daddy's kitchen and workshop radios every weekend, almost makes me want to go back. Almost.

Comments

[filkferengi]

When you're that homesick, you should play your copy of Michael Longcor & Emrys Atkinson's "Field of Fire" cd, especially the song "Planet Zydeco." If you don't have it, let me know; I can upload it for you.