In this Book
- Accordion Dreams: A Journey into Cajun and Creole Music
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: University Press of Mississippi
summary
By age thirty-nine, Blair Kilpatrick had settled into life as a practicing psychologist, wife, and mother. Then a chance encounter in New Orleans turned her world upside down. She returned home to Chicago with unlikely new passions for Cajun music and its defining instrument, the accordion. Captivated by recurring dreams of playing the Cajun accordion, she set out to master it. Yet she was not a musician, was too self-conscious to dance, and didn't even sing in the shower. Kilpatrick's obsession took her from Chicago's Cajun dance scene to a folk music camp in West Virginia, back and forth to south Louisiana, and even to a Cajun festival in France. An unexpected family move brought her to the San Francisco Bay Area, home to the largest Cajun-zydeco music scene outside the Gulf Coast. There she became a protégé of renowned accordionist Danny Poullard, a Louisiana-born Creole and the guiding spirit of the local Louisiana French music community. Engaging, uplifting, and illuminating a unique patch of the American cultural landscape, Accordion Dreams is Kilpatrick's account of the possibility of passion, risk-taking, and change--at any age. Blair Kilpatrick has an independent practice in psychotherapy in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also performs and records with Sauce Piquante, a traditional Cajun-Creole band she founded in the late 1990s. Learn more at www.blairkilpatrick.com
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-xii
- Part One: Beginnings
- 1. Swamp Tour
- pp. 3-14
- 2. Accordion Dreams
- pp. 15-29
- 3. Charivari
- pp. 30-36
- 5. Les Femmes d’Enfer
- pp. 50-60
- 6. Awakening at Augusta
- pp. 61-74
- 7. After Augusta
- pp. 75-85
- 8. Return to Acadiana
- pp. 86-95
- 9. Finding My Voice
- pp. 96-104
- 10. Going Deeper
- pp. 105-123
- 11. Our Town, Good Night
- pp. 124-134
- Part Two: Danse de Poullard
- 12. First Jam at Danny’s
- pp. 137-149
- 13. Musical Chairs
- pp. 150-158
- 14. Sauce Piquante
- pp. 159-170
- 15. In the Blood
- pp. 171-178
- 16. Return to Augusta
- pp. 179-187
- 17. Singing Higher
- pp. 188-198
- 18. Orphan’s Waltz
- pp. 199-208
- 19. Mon Coeur Fait Plus Mal
- pp. 209-219
- 20. The Last Session
- pp. 220-236
- 21. Another Wednesday Night
- pp. 237-240
- Coda: Higher Ground
- pp. 241-246
- Suggestions for Listening
- pp. 247-250
Additional Information
ISBN
9781604733389
Related ISBN(s)
9781604731019
MARC Record
OCLC
646803357
Pages
224
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No