MUSIC SWAMP IN THE CITY: Jalopy Theatre’s Cajun festival will go online for the fi rst time ever
COURIER LIFE, MAY 15-21, 2020 31
OUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BOROUGH OF KINGS
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A Red Hook Cajun music festival
will launch its fi rst fully-virtual
weekend-long bash on Friday, May 15,
when Jalopy Theatre presents its fi rst
“Cyber Swamp Fest” — a series of online
performances, jam sessions, and
workshops in the francophone folk
traditions of the Bayou.
“It’s a joyous kind of music, but it’s
almost as if country music were in
French,” said Kelli Jones, a Louisianabased
Cajun singer and multi-instrumentalist.
“It’s about love, loss, and
friendship. It’s all about dancing and
community and it’s very approachable
— but also kind of exotic as well.”
Jones — a veteran performer of the
showcase — will kick off the threeday
fest with a cocktail hour, where
she will play some of her favorite records
from the swamp and give tutorials
for local mixed drinks.
The programming continues with
a lineup of several evening performances
streaming online for free on
Jalopy Theatre’s Facebook page, including
one by Jones’s three-piece
T’Monde. The group recently prerecorded
their show at a safe six feet
apart, according to the musician, who
said that, while it took some getting
used to, it was nice to play some tunes
together after weeks in quarantine.
“It was weird because I haven’t
played music with people in a couple
of months at this point and we hadn’t
left our houses,” she said. “But it was
a nice thing, even far apart from each
other.”
The Columbia Street venue organized
the event as a virtual version of
its annual Swamp in the City, which
organizers have postponed to November
in the hopes that in-person shows
will be possible again by then, according
to Lynette Wiley, Jalopy’s executive
director.
The 60-90-minute workshops will
move to the web-conferencing platform
Zoom and will cost $30 with
funds going toward supporting the
venue as it remains closed during the
pandemic.
Jones will host a Cajun rhythm
guitar workshop where she will teach
the two-step and waltz beats of the
genre, as well as some common songs
and jams. She will also lead another
session on Cajun singing, introducing
online audiences to French vocabulary
and telling the stories behind
the songs.
While moving the energetic sounds
online takes some adjusting, Jones is
glad to be able to gather Kings County’s
Cajun afi cionados despite exceptional
circumstances, and hopes that
the switch-up will grow the festival’s
reach via the web.
“It’s defi nitely some escape for all
of us being at home for quite a bit of
time, but it’s also a form of togetherness,
because it’s kind of an extended
community,” she said. “Especially
now that, even if we’re halfway across
the country, we’re all going through
the same thing.”
Swamp
sounds
Jalopy Theatre
hosts virtual
Cajun music fest
“Cyber Swamp Fest” by Jalopy Theatre
May 15-17. Online performances
at https://www.facebook.com/jalopytheatre/
live starting Friday at 7:30 pm.
Free
Workshops on Saturday 2–6:30 pm,
Sunday noon-5:30 pm, $30 per session.
To register, visit www.jalopytheatre.org.
from May 15-May 17. Photo by Colin Gould
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