Pine Leaf Boys and Me…

For us, we’ve always loved music. My parents are musicians; all of our friends are musicians. We grew up in a very musical place here, and it’s something we started as young people, and as we got older, we began to meet other young musicians that were into it, and we just decided to start a band ten years ago. And what happened with us is we were playing on the campus … at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, just playing on the street, trying to entertain the students. And one day, a cop came and said, “You guys have got to get out of here. Y’all are disturbing the peace,” and I left, and I was pretty upset about that. I wrote a letter saying, you know these guys call themselves the Ragin’ Cajun campus. I think they should allow … young people to play music. The students love it, you know, and so everybody in Lafayette — all these bars and different venues and dance halls got really upset about this and said, “Hey, if UL won’t have you, come play for us.” And within a year, we took it from just being like a street busking band to playing in bars and dance halls. And within a year, we had an agent and a record and we were doing our first European tour. So it just kind of blew up that way. ... And we’re very fortunate for that, and so we just kept kind of doing what we were doing. We just took it to a bigger audience ... and made it all the way to England and then over to Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. State Department found out about it, and so the government started to invite us out on different tours.
Wilson Savoy, 2016 interview

It’s that the scene here in Louisiana is conducive to that — young people dancing with old people. There’s not really those weird generational differences like there are in the rest of the world. I think we bring that with us. Here, the young people will dance with the old people just like any other spot in Louisiana with any other music, and I think that’s a special thing about Louisiana. ... I think the music is kind of tailored to both generations. In other words, we play music that the old people grew up with. For example, 1950s rock 'n’ roll like Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and Little Richard, we play that style of music with Cajun music, which is old music, and then we also play Louisiana-flavored music the young people identify with. The young people like coming out and dancing because they meet new boyfriends or new girlfriends that way. ... It’s just the glue that connects these two very different generations together and just makes everyone equal, you know.
Wilson Savoy

***La Musique (2006) signed by Wilson***

Well, we pick tunes that have been around since, some of them, the 1920s or '30s. And we keep the same lyrics and the same melody but we introduce different, more pumping rhythms to them that people are doing already in Zydeco and heavy drums, heavy bass, even bring in a piano sometimes and kind of just add rock 'n’ roll influences. … If you like country music, then we’ll bring in a little bit of country twang into that tune, or if you like rock 'n’ roll, bring some rock 'n’ roll twang to it. ... and it’s all Louisiana and Texas-based; it’s already here, but for so long, people didn’t want to combine the two, they just thought, “Oh, let’s keep this thing Cajun. Let’s keep this thing rock 'n’ roll, keep this thing country.” It was only a matter of time till finally we said, “Well, let’s kind of allow them to flow into one another.” And I think that’s how we do it by bringing in this new life into these old tunes.
Wilson Savoy, master music alchemist
Everybody in our band has a very distinct personality, and each of us brings our own particular strengths. Marc’s is authenticity. He played the dancehalls for years as a young man; he defines the Cajun sound. He’s our source, we’re his band. Joel listens to a lot of archival material, so he’ll bring elements from the Swing Era in Louisiana, like Harry Choates and some old, rare gems. Wilson has this vintage rock ’n’ roll feel—at ten years old, he was really into Louisiana piano styles. He could barely talk, but he could play Jerry Lee Lewis-style piano, and play so hard he broke the strings. The kids grew up coloring at the feet of (Cajun legends) Dennis McGee, Dewey Balfa, and Wayne Fruge, absorbing these sounds into their brain cells. It was the music of their lives, it was what they heard, and by the time they had instruments in their hands, around ten or twelve, they could tear it up.
Ann Savoy on her husband Marc, sons Wilson and Joel - The Savoy Family Band
We didn’t teach them anything. They learned by osmosis, by watching and listening. I remember once, I tried to show Joel a little bit of Cajun fiddle when he was young, and in about five minutes, he was better than me. After that, we played together a while, and then he just took off on his own. That was it.
Ann Savoy, matriarch of Savoy Family Band, on her talented sons

***Blues de Musicien (2007) signed by Wilson***

I saw the Pine Leaf Boys for the first time in 2006 at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (HSB) festival in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. HSB was founded and wholly supported by financier Warren Hellman, a rabid music fan and erstwhile banjo picker. From a rather humble start as a one day concert in 2000, HSB has evolved into a three to five day musical extravaganza across five stages with hundreds of thousands of fans taking residence in Golden Gate Park and enjoying the glorious music.Totally free, thanks to the largesse of Warren Hellman, a private equity billionaire and hardcore bluegrass aficionado. As unlikely and incongruous as that combination might seem, Warren was a modern day Medici, an unrivaled music benefactor minus the corruption, the killings, the potentates and the Popes that marred the Medici clan. When he died in 2011, Warren stipulated in his will that funds would be earmarked to continue the festival beyond his earthly presence (which it does!). I was blessed to attend HSB twice in the early days (2005-2006), and it remains one of my all time live musical experiences. Thank you Warren!

The hardest thing about attending HSB was deciding which show to watch: you had to make difficult choices and sacrifices. It's simply impossible to see five concerts at once, even though Warren and his staff staggered the starting times of each act. So, who do I see? Bob Weir and The Waybacks or the Drive By Truckers or Richard Thompson? The Avett Brothers or the Songwriter's Circle with Billy Bragg, Guy Clark and Steve Earle? Hot Tuna (acoustic) or Earl Scruggs? These are impossible, existential choices which can only leave devastating and scarring impressions. Thanks again Warren!

***Friends and Family passes, 2005, 2006 Thanks Warren!!!***

My friends knew Warren (thanks Bill H.and Jonathan K.!) and secured the coveted Friends & Family passes which gave us greater mobility to the five stages sprawled across the spacious Golden Gate park. We didn't have Warren's tricked out golf cart which shuttled him from stage to stage, but we did have access to the backstage catering and bathrooms, a phenomenal perk. After the Songwriter's Circle at the Banjo Stage, my friend suggested that we go see the Pine Leaf Boys at the Arrow Stage. "They're a young Cajun band, really fun and uptempo," he said. 'All right, let's go check them out,' I replied, a little unsure of what we were about to see.

We hustled over to the Arrow Stage just as the Pine Leaf Boys went on. They had so much energy, it was as if Joe Strummer and Mick Jones of The Clash had been born in the Louisiana bayou and given fiddles and accordions instead of loud, thrashy guitars. The boys sang in their native tongue, an infectious Cajun patois, part French, part Acadian which gave depth and dimension to their driving rhythm and sound. Their energy was infectious, I was blown away and I wasn't the only one. What was supposed to be a fifteen minute cursory sampling, became the entire riveting set. I don't remember who we blew off to watch them, nor did I care, The Pine Leaf Boys were revelatory.

Wilson Savoy, the co-founder, accordionist, fiddler, pianist and principal singer, descends from Cajun royalty. His mother, Ann Savoy, is a noted singer and guitarist, his father, Marc Savoy, is a virtuoso accordion player and the greatest craftsman of Cajun button accordions, and his brother, Joel, leads the Red Stick Ramblers and owns a record label, Valcour Records. Underachievers all, Marc recalled their beginnings, "When the kids were coming up, we had a bunch of instruments in a ring around the house: fiddles, accordions, guitars. The first time Joel and Wilson expressed an interest, I said, 'You can play my fiddle, but don't ever ask me to show you anything, because I won't.' And I did that for one simple reason. When I was a kid, I had such desire, such a passion for this music and these people that played it. I would have figured out how to play if someone put me in a straightjacket, and I wanted the kids to have the same passion for it, because you'll never amount to a hill of beans if you don't." Thankfully, the kids found the same passion for music and live performances as their parents.

Throughout the years, The Pine Leaf Boys have exposed their rocking Cajun music to forty-seven states and more than twenty countries on U.S. State Department sponsored tours, including Dubai where they played two segregated shows, one for nine-hundred men, and a different show for nine-hundred women. Wilson remembered the trip fondly, "If I would have been in The Beatles, that must have been what it felt like. It was nine-hundred beautiful women and you can only see their eyes because of the robes they wear. It got so wild. They were going insane." That’s the mystery and magic of music: it cuts through to your soul, whether you live in Dubai, Croatia, Slovenia or Ridgefield, Connecticut, all tour stops on the Pine Leaf Boys peripatetic itinerary.

***Hommage Au Passé (2009) signed by Wilson***

Since HSB in 2006, Erin and I have seen the Pine Leaf Boys several times and we have always marveled at their talents. We saw them again on August 29, 2019 at Ballard Park in Ridgefield, Connecticut. For nearly twenty years, the nonprofit CHIRP (Concert Happenings in Ridgefield's Parks) has provided free concerts during the summer and we have seen some incredible acts: The Holmes Brothers, Jimmy LaFave, and The Low Anthem among them.

The Pine Leaf Boys’ show, as always, was energetic and fun, fun, fun. Nominated for four Grammys, their music is so infectious that, invariably, the dance floor gets crowded, much to the delight of Wilson and the other band members who implore the audience to cut loose and have fun. They played some of their older songs, “Pine Leaf Boy Two-Step,” “Blues de Bosco,” “Les Barres de Prison,” mixed in an old George Jones weeper “A Picture Of Me Without You“ as well as a tribute to the recently passed Merle Haggard, a stirring rendition of “Mama Tried” sung entirely in French.

***Pine Leaf Boys, Ridgefield, CT 2019***

After the show, I had a visit with Wilson as he was hanging out near the merch stand. Sadly, there was no Pine Leaf Boys vinyl for sale. I asked him about the origin of the band's name, He laughed, “Yeah, I was driving to the dump to get rid of some stuff and we'd been working in the studio on our first recording, and I thought of the name. Little did I know, it would last all these years later.” I mentioned how impressive their performance was at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass all those years ago. "Wow, I'm glad you were there and enjoyed it. We had a great time. We were the first and, I think, only Cajun band ever invited. I'd love to be invited back." What about new music? "We're in the studio next month and we'll be working on our next album. It's high time, it's been too long," he admitted, acknowledging the lengthy time since their last release in 2013. I handed him a couple of CDs to sign, “Oh man, you have all our early recordings. I think most of these are out of print." I said that I especially loved their debut album La Musique, "Thanks, it was really special. You know they still play that CD in the airport in New Orleans. I live in Lafayette, so we drive about two hours to fly out of New Orleans. It was playing in the airport when we left, and that was just a couple of days ago!" It was released on Arhoolie Records, a really cool label, what was that experience like? "My Uncle Chris (Strachwitz, founder of Arhoolie), well I call him my uncle, I've known him all my life, he's a part of our family. It was great recording with them. Lately, I've been working on my brother's label, Valcour, so we're keeping it in the family." I told Wilson that I had an old Arhoolie t-shirt that I bought years ago when I saw them at HSB that now was all tattered and torn. "Yes, I know the shirt, that's a great shirt. I had an old Arhoolie truckers hat, I think that's gone too." As engaging as Wilson was on stage, he was equally affable off. I thanked him again for his time and his great music.

Wilson Savoy and the Pine Leaf Boys are keeping the Cajun tradition alive, injecting much needed passion and vitality. Master music alchemists, they keep the flow going. As Wilson once said, “If we weren’t playing it on stage, we’d be at home on our porch playing for ourselves and friends.” And that porch would be rocking! Now if only they would release some vinyl?!