Celebrate the 100th anniversary of ‘King of Zydeco’
Happy early Clifton Chenier Day! The 100th anniversary of the Grammy Hall of Famer’s birth near Opelousas isn’t official until June 25. However, a slew of music releases, tribute shows and memorabilia honoring the King of Zydeco will happen throughout June and beyond. Chenier’s music has influenced everyone from Mick Jagger to “Zydeco Boss” Keith Frank. While plans for other activities are still in the works, here’s a working list of ways to enjoy the “Year of Chenier.”
Tribute to the King of Zydeco
The long-awaited album, featuring the Rolling Stones, Taj Mahal, Lucinda Williams, Charley Crockett and other icons, comes out June 27. A 7-inch vinyl of Jagger singing “Zydeco Sont Pas Sale,” with Chenier’s original on the B-side, is out on Chenier’s birthday, June 25.
Party Fit for a King
The New Orleans Jazz Museum will host a “Year of Chenier” kickoff and fundraiser from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. June 25 at 400 Esplanade Ave., New Orleans. Just like the album sales, proceeds from the event will benefit the new Clifton Chenier Memorial Scholarship at UL-Lafayette. The Roy House, home of UL’s Center for Louisiana Studies, will also host a fundraiser on June 24. King of La. Blues & Zydeco Set for a September release, this is a four-CD/six-LP box set
ä See CHENIER, page 2G
A traveling oral history project will float down Louisiana’s waterways
Staff report
Starting mid-June the traveling oral history project,“A Secret History of American River People,” will journey by handmade shantyboat through Louisiana’s waterways.Artist Wes Modes and crew will navigate Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya Basin, interviewing Cajun and Creole residents and collecting personal stories of life on the bayou.The project documents voices often left out of the official record — stories of resilience, displacement, environmental change and cultural survival. Since 2014, the shantyboat has traveled more than 2,600 miles, gathering river histories for a public archive and hosting pop-up exhibitions along the journey. For more information, visit peoplesriverhistory.org
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After 1,326 shows, Baton Rouge’s
BY JOHN WIRT Contributing writer
Since 2002, the Red Dragon Listening Room has been Baton Rouge’s haven for singer-songwriters and their fans.
Possibly no one loves the noncommercial singer-songwriter and folk music genres more than Red Dragon founder Chris Maxwell. He’s presented 1,326 shows, beginning at the venue’s original Government Street location and later at the Florida Street address it’s occupied since 2008. The Red Dragon, by any standards, would be described as an atypical music venue — cinderblock walls, a low ceiling, twinkly lights and patrons sitting in rows of sofas, which Maxwell explained help with the acoustics. Plus, its BYOB policy made for a different vibe. People came, as the name suggests, to listen.
Maxwell and his wife, Liz, announced their retirement from the Red Dragon in February Their Songwriter Series at the Manship Theatre will continue, but Tommy Prine’s June 19 and June 20 shows are the last scheduled for the venue. Paul Thorn headlines the next Songwriter Series at Manship Theatre on June 28. He’s among the na-
RED DRAGON
but Guy was No. 1 on my list of who I had to get.”
Clark, delighted about his Red Dragon experience, encouraged Crowell, another artist high on Maxwell’s wish list, to give the tiny venue in Baton Rouge a try Clark’s pitch to Crowell, quoted on an official Red Dragon T-shirt, was: “Give them a chance they are nuts but they are harmless.”
Joan Baez, Peter Yarrow, Rosanne Cash and Jerry Jeff Walker were among other famous artists to appear on the Red Dragon stage. Baez brought her four-date “Baez on the Bayou” tour to the Red Dragon in 2013. Having previously sung at such massive, historic events as the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969 and the 1963 March on Washington, Baez and one member of her band, Breaux Bridge multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, entertained a sold-out crowd of 110 at the Red Dragon.
“Bless your hearts,” the folk music star said at the show’s conclusion. “It’s been a lovely night.” Cash and her husband and musical collaborator John Leventhal, played the Red Dragon in 2012, the night before they performed for an audience 10 times larger at Tipitina’s in New Orleans.
“Wow,” Cash said when she stepped in front of concertgoers lounging in the Dragon’s rows of couches. “This is a first.” Maxwell’s programming strategy matched national headliners with local talent as opening acts. He gave Baton Rouge area singersongwriters an opportunity to perform their original material for an appreciative, attentive audience. Some locals rose to headliner status, and scores more volunteered for the Red Dragon Listening Room’s annual fundraising events.
“The Red Dragon has meant everything to me,” singer-songwriter Eric Schmitt said. “It’s where I heard some of the greats of the folk/Americana world — Guy Clark, Robbie Fulks, Mary Gauthier in a listening environment where you can hear lyrics and mu-
sical nuance. It’s where I’ve met most of my music colleagues and formed relationships.”
“Minus the cape and tights, Chris Maxwell is a superhero,” said Jodi James, who performs in a touring duo with Clay Parker “His superpower is being armed with an unfailing willingness to do whatever it takes to get people to a show, to get people to fall in love with songs and songwriters, to die on the hill that says this stuff matters.”
Maxwell’s inspiration for the Red Dragon included the 2002 closing of M’s Fine and Mellow Café. Marian Pickett booked singer-songwriters and jazz at her Third Street restaurant and music venue. After growing weary of driving to Houston for music, Maxwell instead brought the music to Baton Rouge.
“I made every mistake that you can make,” he said of his early
CHENIER
Continued from page 1G
of familiar and rare live recordings compiled by Smithsonian Folkways. Essays by yours truly American Route’s host Nick Spitzer and Grammy-winning writer Adam Machado are included, with moving remembrances by Clifton’s son, C.J. D.C. Zydeco
To celebrate the box set a tribute concert takes place in November at Wolf Trap National Park, a pavilion-style venue near Washington, D.C. C.J. Chenier will entertain backed by Louisiana stalwarts Sonny Landreth, Roddie Romero and Joel Savoy Camp Clifton
“Accordion Dragon” Corey Ledet will help teach Chenier’s music, history and dance as part of Louisiana Folk Roots’ kids summer camp at Le Vieux Village in Opelousas. The June 23-27 camp ends with young musicians performing at Toby’s Lounge and Reception Center
Chubby and Lil Jeff jam
Grammy winner Chubby Carrier and zydeco veteran Lil Jeff Boutte will lead a Chenier tribute and jam at 1 p.m June 28 at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center in Opelousas. Music and conversation with C.J Chenier is the focus of the center’s monthly Zydeco Capitol Jam event on June 14. Funky mural
A mural celebrating Clifton Chenier and his rubboardpioneering brother Cleveland continues in the St. Landry Parish arts town of Sunset, also
known as the Rubboard Capital of the World. The art will reside on the wall of the Funky Flea, an antiques and collectibles store at 829 Napoleon Ave., Sunset.
Centennial pins
Tourism officials in Opelousas and the parish will unveil and distribute new commemorative pins at events throughout June.
More than 2,000 of the all-color, lapel pins have been produced.
Zydeco Unplugged
Accordion masters Andre Thierry, Corey Ledet and Lil Jeff Boutte salute Chenier at Zydeco Unplugged, a daylong, Creole cultural celebration Aug. 16 at Le Vieux Village in Opelousas.
Zydeco Unplugged routinely shares performances and interviews on its Facebook page.
Horses & Harmony
Chenier will be posthumously honored as Musician of the Year at Horses & Harmony the St. Landry Chamber of Commerce’s annual awards ceremony A zydeco band will perform at the Sept. 17 event at the Yambilee Building in Opelousas.
One Hundred Years
C.J. Chenier leads musical guests and friends in a special edition of the Louisiana Crossroads series Sept. 18 at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in downtown Lafayette at 101 W. Vermilion St.
Herman Fuselier is executive director of the St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission. A longtime journalist covering Louisiana music and culture, he lives in Opelousas. His “Zydeco Stomp” show airs at noon Saturdays on KRVS 88.7 FM.
days as an impresario.
A confluence of events led to the Red Dragon’s closure, including the departure of sound engineer Eric DiSanto and counter person Leigh Ward-Broussard, plus Liz Maxwell devoting much of her time to the couple’s grandchildren.
“We’ve been at this for 24 years,” Chris Maxwell said. “We knew this day was coming, and it doesn’t hold as much fun as it did when my wife and I were together for the shows.”
Talks to sell the Red Dragon Listening Room yielded no credible offers, he added, but there is the possibly that an LLC will revive the venue.
“Whether I’m just attending shows or promoting or helping friends do it, I’ll still have my toe in the music,” he said.
Email John Wirt at j_wirt@msn. com.
CURIOUS
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where she established Catholic schools for Black children. The schools were later consolidated into Our Lady of Assumption Catholic School.
And it was this story that prompted Carencro resident Clara Arceneaux’s question about the school.
“Do you have information on St. Katharine Drexel being escorted by Sosthene Arceneaux in a buggy to locate property to build a school for Black children in Carencro?” Clara Arceneaux asked.
Born into considerable fortune
Drexel was born Catherine Marie Drexel on Nov 26, 1858, in Philadelphia, to a family with a considerable banking fortune. She lived on a 90-acre estate in the city’s Torresdale neighborhood.
Her family was devoutly religious. Drexel’s mother died only five weeks after her birth, and her stepmother often opened up the family mansion to distribute food and clothing to the poor Drexel was awakened to the plight of indigenous Americans while on a family trip to the western states, which inspired her desire to help poor communities. She began extensively traveling both domestically and abroad, and in 1886 met Pope Leo XIII, who encouraged her to pursue her passion for a ministry to help Native American and Black children.
Drexel entered the convent of the Sisters of Mercy two years later, and two years after that, founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People in Ben Salem, Pennsylvania, of which she served as Superior General.
After her father’s death in 1885, Drexel inherited a large fortune, which she used to fund the schools and churches.
Transported by buggy?
The search for the answer in Clara Arceneaux’s buggy question begins with a photo of Drexel snapped during her 1924 visit to the southwest Louisiana community, but local historian and author Kathy Higginbotham points out that Sosthene Arceneaux isn’t in it. Sosthene Arceneaux was a Carencro-area farmer and carpenter who donated part of his land for construction of a one-room school house for which Drexel donated funds.
The post included a photo of an undated local newspaper story of Sosthene Arceneaux’s memories of a meeting between him and Drexel, which was arranged by Bishop Jemnal. The post also included a photo of Sosthene and his wife standing on either side of Drexel. Still, there’s no documentation of a horse-drawn buggy ride.
Sosthene Arceneaux’s school eventually was consolidated into Drexel’s Our Lady of Assumption Catholic School, which was merged with Carencro’s St. Pierre Catholic School in 1971. The empty Assumption building has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
“Katharine Drexel established two schools in Carencro: one in the Prairie Basse community and another on Sosthene Arceneaux’s property,” Higginbotham said.
“The only photograph of St. Katharine Drexel visiting donated land is in Prairie Basse.”
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean the buggy ride didn’t take place
“While it is not to suggest that she never visited Arceneaux’s property I have no evidence to confirm such a visit,” Higginbotham said.
The historian included a copy of the photograph in her correspondence, in which Drexel holds an umbrella while conversing with two men in suits identified as Washington Gordon and Clearville Leblanc. Bishop Jules Jemnard, in full cassock, stands a few yards away, and another nun, Sister M. Mercedes, stands on the periphery
The only other figures in the photo are a woman named Andrea Gordon and a priest identified only as Father Wrenn.
All stand along a thin path cutting through a grassy field where an old farmhouse stands. The photo’s caption indicates that this was the spot in the Prairie Basse community where Drexel built St. Elizabeth’s Catholic School.
St. Elizabeth’s Catholic School was later moved into the school next to Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church. Wood from the deconstruction of St. Elizabeth’s was used to build the church hall. No buggy, but a meeting
A Facebook search turned up a 2018 post by Wynne ZacharieCluse, who wrote that her husband, John Cluse, is Sosthene Arceneaux’s great-grandson.
“Katharine Drexel also started St. Anne’s Convent School in Carencro, and the three schools — St. Pierre, Our Lady of Assumption and St. Anne’s — merged and now operate as one as Carencro Catholic School,” said Sonya Louviere, the school’s principal. Carencro Catholic School stands at 200 W. St. Peter St.
‘She is an important part’ As for Drexel, she was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2001 — the first person who was born a United States citizen to be canonized.
Drexel’s name can be found on schools, churches and streets throughout the United States. She is highly revered in Louisiana for having founded Xavier University in New Orleans, the nation’s only historically Black and Catholic university She also founded schools in Marksville and New Iberia.
Drexel died in 1955 at age 96 in Pennsylvania. She was entombed in the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, where a shrine to her has been established.
The saint’s feast day is celebrated on March 3, which is prominent at Carencro’s Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church because of her involvement and work in the community
“I went to the celebration at Our Lady of Assumption, and I met a lady who said when she was a baby St. Katharine held her,” Louviere said. “I read everything about her that I can get my hands on, and I have a scrapbook on her St. Katharine’s sisters taught at our schools, and she is an important part of our school today.”
Do you have a question about something in Louisiana that’s got you curious? Email your question to curiouslouisiana@ theadvocate.com. Include your name, phone number and the city where you live.
FILE PHOTO BY ROBIN MAY
Lil Jeff Boutte, above along with Chubby Carrier, will lead a Chenier tribute and jam at 1 p.m June 28 at the St. Landry Parish Visitor Center in Opelousas.
STAFF FILE PHOTO BY MICHAEL JOHNSON
Audience members listen to opening act Grayson Jenkins perform while relaxing on couches at the Red Dragon Listing Room in 2024.
STAFF PHOTO BY JAVIER GALLEGOS
Musician Ryan Harris plays guitar in the green room before performing on stage at the Red Dragon on May 30.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY KATHY HIGGINBOTHAM Katharine Drexel holds an umbrella while surveying the land for her school in the Prairie Basse community at Carencro in an undated photo.
Trials, triumph in recreating tasty jambon sandwich
Ham, cheese and figs make for a special treat
BY CATHERINE S COMEAUX Contributing writer
I
first tasted the salty sweetness of the jambon sandwich more than 20 years ago when artist George Marks was serving the hot ham, fig and Asiago cheese deliciousness at an art show in Arnaudville.
Having just moved back after establishing himself as a fine artist in Baton Rouge, Marks was intent on growing an arts community in his small hometown. He started by connecting people with fig sandwiches and great art. Over the ensuing decades, Marks and an eclectic group of creatives have coalesced into a vibrant arts community that has attracted national and global attention NUNU Arts and Culture Collective on the Courtableau Highway is its hub.
NUNU occupies a large old warehouse with ever-changing interiors — designed to morph into an art gallery music venue, workshop or some combination of all these. The space also houses a small bookshop, a maker’s space and a professional kitchen. People gather within to create and connect — they dance, quilt, parler français and host potlucks.
I recently attended one of their community potluck dinners, boldly attempting to recreate the NUNU-famous jambon sandwich as my contribution. Over the years, I have made the bougie grilled cheese at home, riffing off the basics — switching up the bread, the figs and the ham. I’ve used Langlinais’ pistolets, Poupart’s ciabatta and various bagged rolls from grocery store bakeries. I’ve experimented with whole figs, strawberry figs and a lemon zesty version, relying on the creativity and generosity of my fig-canning family and friends (thanks, Stephan Mom Uncle Fred and Ms. DeValcourt) I’ve moved from thick to thin-shaved deli ham. One of the great joys of cooking is following your creative impulses as you try to recreate a taste without a recipe (and without losing an hour to YouTube searches.)
Feeling a bit audacious having volunteered to make Marks’ specialty sandwich as my contribution to the potluck, I asked him for the recipe. He graciously shared what he called a “tricked out” version from his mother Rita Dautreuil Marks’ recipe, replacing her sliced white Evangeline Made with a soft, fat French loaf and tweaking a few other ingredients
Having the recipe was quite helpful. I finally achieved the delightful toasted cheesy outer crust. But in following the recipe, I ignored
my instincts and something wasn’t right I had brushed the bread with olive oil when my hands were telling me to slather generously Marks clarified his version of “brushing the bread,” which involves one of his food-use-only paint brushes loaded with olive oil. We laughed, I mentally edited the recipe and we enjoyed the delicious but slightly dry sandwiches.
Potluck goers recognized the platter of sandwiches on the table and would exclaim, “The jambon!” as if they’d just seen an old friend. Some newcomers mistook it for a Cuban. It’s more closely related to a croque monsieur, a fancy French sandwich made with butter, Dijon, ham and broiled Gruyere on top. Served with salsa on top, it becomes a croque senor Slide in a slice of pineapple and it’s a croque Hawaiian. Smear both sides with Louisiana fig preserves and it’s a croque Nunu, better known as the jambon among the creatives of Arnaudville.
Toward the end of the evening, a vibrant woman with dark-rimmed glasses and short white hair walked through the doors like she owned the place and was promptly served a selection from the table spread. It was Marks’ mother, the originator of the recipe. As she bit into the sandwich, I thought to hide behind a small tribe of artists at a nearby table but went over and chatted instead. She kindly said it was good. I know it needed a more thorough slathering of olive oil but it was good, and the jambon sandwich platter was empty when the tables were cleared.
Try the recipe for yourself at home, but be generous with the olive oil. Or head to Arnaudville. According to Marks, the jambon will be a featured item on the menu when NUNU hosts “Le Petit Brunch” starting this fall on the third Saturday of each month. Proceeds will help fund the programming at NUNU.
The Jambon Sandwich
6-8.
tablespoons olive oil, divided 1/2-plus cup fresh grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese, divided
1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Slice the French bread in half horizontally
3. Slather both sides of each half generously with olive oil using a pastry brush (or an unused paint brush).
4. Place bread pieces, cut side down, on a lightly oiled baking pan.
5. Sprinkle 3-4 tablespoons cheese on the outer sides of the bread slices.
6 Toast for 4 minutes until golden and crisp.
7. If using baked ham, slice into sandwich-sized portions and lightly pan-fry in a skillet over medium heat for 1-2 minutes on each side until just crispy
8. In a small bowl, mash and mix the fig preserves with 1 tablespoon olive oil until smooth and spreadable Add more olive oil if necessary
9. Spread the fig and olive oil mixture on both of the inner sides of the toasted bread.
10. Layer the ham on top of the fig mixture and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
11. Close the sandwich and choose your grilling method: panini press, oven, stovetop skillet or griddle Cut sandwich loaf as necessary to fit your chosen grilling method.
12. For oven, stovetop or griddle, place and press a heavy black iron skillet on top to compress the sandwich, then heat for about 2-3 minutes on each side Slice diagonally and serve warm.
Recipe notes:
n Butter or mayo can be substituted for the olive oil.
n If using thin-sliced deli ham, you might omit pan-frying it (Step 7).
n A few clean bricks wrapped in aluminum foil will also work to press the sandwich as it is grilled.
Serves
Recipe is by George Marks, adapted from a recipe created by his mother, Rita Dautreuil Marks.
PHOTOS BY CATHERINE S COMEAUX
The Jambon Sandwich with side salad and fruit
George Marks, originator of the Jambon Sandwich, and his mother Rita Dautreuil Marks, attend a potluck at NUNU in Arnaudville.