Honoring zydeco's rubboard in Sunset, Louisiana

People outside Louisiana may use rubboards for cleaning clothes, but within the Bayou State it serves another purpose, that of making music. It started with Creole music at the beginning of the 20th century, a musical genre that later became zydeco. Known in French as a “frottoir,” the rubboard providing a rousing addition to the accordions, guitars and drums. The rubboard later evolved for musicians by Willie Landry and “King of Zydeco” Clifton Chenier when the two created the first wearable rubboard, a true American invention.

Willie Landry’s son, Tee-Don Landry, today carries on the tradition with his company, Key of Z Rubboards, some of which are on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. He’s made so many rubboards out of his Sunset, Louisiana, home that the Louisiana State Legislature dubbed the town the “Rubboard Capital of the World.”

On Tuesday, May 22, the town of Sunset unveils its first public art piece, the Zydeco Rubboard, on the corner of Duffy and Napoleon avenues. The 4 by 6 sculpture was created by local welder Pat Miller. 

“I’m just so thankful for everything going on in my life,” Tee-Don Landry said in a press release. “Sunset is a great little city. I know that this project will put Sunset on the map and hopefully it will bring prosperity to the city and the tourism industry,”

Following the unveiling, Tee-Don and his group, The Wayne Blue Burns Band, will play for a reception at the Sunset Community Center located on Leo Richard Lane.

For more information about Sunset, Louisiana, or tourism in St. Landry Parish, visit CajunTravel.com.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by food and travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen.

Fiddling my life away — and that’s OK

            Southerners have a love affair with the fiddle that hails back, no doubt, to the population’s origins in the British Isles. The majority of the original free settlers were of Scotch-Irish descent so naturally much of our roots music includes a heavy dose of fiddle.

Suroit

            My personal background includes a Southern migration from Georgia to New Orleans on my mother’s side but also Creole on my father’s side, a mixture of French, Spanish, German and Irish immigrants who arrived in Louisiana to create a new home for themselves, mixed with Cajun. So I’m especially partial to the fiddle, loving American roots music as well as Cajun and zydeco.

            Not that this is weird, mind you, but I do tend to veer to the fiddle performances when I attend music festivals.

            Take Festival International de Louisiane, for instance, the largest free Francophone festival in North America and one of the greatest weekends to be had in America. There are several stages scattered throughout downtown Lafayette, Louisiana, the heart of Cajun and Creole Country, plus arts and crafts, performances, great food, lectures and so much more happening the last weekend in April. And it’s all free!

            This past weekend I was fortunate enough to hear Suroit perform from the Madeleine Isles of the Canadian Maritime Provinces, with Felix Leblanc dancing a jig sitting down while pounding out his Acadian fiddle. The International Fiddle Summit — sponsored by Festivals Acadiens et Creole that happens in October in Lafayette, also free — blended the remarkable talents of, from left below, Leblanc, David Greeley, Joel Savoy, Chad Justice, Amelia Powell and Dirk Powell. Dominique Dupuis of New Brunswick, who I saw perform as a child at Festival International in 1999, returned to stir up the crowd with a passionate performance on her own as well as accompanying the legendary Zachary Richard on opening night.

            It’s now Monday after Festival and I have lots of company in Lafayette today experiencing Festival withdrawal. But I also have my latest CD of Suroit to keep me company. Time to listen to Leblanc’s beautiful lilting “Rosalie,” written to his daughter.

International Fiddle Summit