Every band needs its musical heroes

June Casagrande

In a time of turmoil, when there weren’t enough heroes to go

around, Michael Doucet needed to look no farther than his own back

yard.

In the early 1970s, the Louisiana native would visit the home of

Dennis McGee, a legendary Cajun fiddle player then in his 60s.

“I would go there and listen to him play these amazing songs that

I had heard on old 78 rpm records. I went there many times throughout

my 20s. It was this truly amazing experience,” said Doucet, who went

on to become founder and fiddler for the musical group BeauSoleil.

For Doucet, New Orleans and the surrounding parts of Louisiana

were filled with musical heroes whose influence has helped make

BeauSoleil one of the most popular and enduring Cajun bands of all

time.

On New Year’s Eve, this innovative group will show crowds at the

Irvine Barclay Theater why their sound has endured for 25 years,

earning them a Grammy Award and the unusual honor of being one of the

few, if not the only French-language band to play in all 50 states.

Anchored by songwriter Doucet, the group comprises his brother

guitarist David Doucet; accordionist Jimmy Breaux, who is a grandson

of pioneering Cajun accordion player Amedee Breaux; percussionist

Billy Ware; Tommy Alesi on drums and Al Tharp on banjo, bass and

second fiddle.

While holding true to their Cajun roots, this ensemble reaches out

to draw influences like zydeco, country, blues and New Orleans jazz

into their music.

Among the songs they play are ballads that go back 200 years,

first played in the swamps by musicians who never knew how long their

art might live on. Back then, such songs were ways of passing on the

stories of the lives of people whose French and Caribbean roots were

melding in a new world.

They also play the kind of upbeat dance songs that Cajun music is

known for, like their original tune “Zydeco Gris-Gris,” which was

used in the movie “The Big Easy.”

Even as they travel the country and the world, playing France and

experimenting with surf music, BeauSoleil always comes back to its

Louisiana roots, back to the place where an aspiring young musician

could find a world of musical wonder just waiting to be explored.

“I remember some of the magic of hearing an old-timer play,”

Doucet said. “When I would go some 40 miles away to the house of

Dennis McGee and he would say, ‘Why are you so interested in this

music?’

“I would tell him about listening to the old 78 rpm recordings,

like one he recorded in 1929,” he went on. “Then he would play these

songs in sort of different style than was 40 years before. And the

way he played the music, the way he dissected time, was just amazing.

“The music could transcend anything I had experienced. In the

‘60s, we had been going through a lot of turmoil -- Vietnam, the

assassination of Kennedy,” Doucet said. “It was a time when people

were in need of heroes, and what I did was just look in my own back

yard.”