Poor Man’s Fortune
Bayou Curious
Poor Man’s Fortune

www.poormansfortune.com
 

What an intriguing album! I should have expected this from the album title, Bayou Curious, but the new album from Texas-based ensemble Poor Man’s Fortune is a truly unique combination of Breton and Cajun trad styles. Though separated by the Atlantic Ocean and thousands of miles, Brittany and Louisiana certainly have strong historic ties. The Acadians came from areas around Brittany and returned to the West of France on the first leg of the grand journey following British mass deportations from Canada in the mid 18th century. There are songs and tunes still in common between today’s Cajuns (descendants of the Acadians) and Breton traditions, the most famous being the grand song “J’ai vu le loup, le renard, et la belette,” so this cultural experiment makes a lot of sense on paper. But in reality, the two musics couldn’t be more different. Breton retains a strong Gaelic flavor, not in terms of the Irish and Scottish traditions (though both have had huge influences on Breton culture and music) but more in terms of Welsh and Cornish, the two language branches closest to the Breton language. The songs are in French and Breton and supremely eerie and the modes of the music are very dark and minor. There’s a great album with master Breton singer Erik Marchand and French oud player Thierry Robin that explores the medieval modes of Breton music and their similarities and historical ties to medieval Arab music.

Cajun music, on the other hand, owes much more to country and western music and blues than it does to medieval European music. The Cajun music of today is primarily based on country tropes, though it’s sung in an archaic form of French. Still, if you go back far enough, you can certainly find the links between the two, and Poor Man’s Fortune have had a lot of fun with this kind of research and outreach. A song like “Aux Natchitoches,” taken from the singing of Cajun traditional singer Bee Deshotel, is a great example. The song is part of a large family of songs of longing in French tradition, with a young man pining for a woman he can’t get to, and the song itself is slow, long and very minor-key oriented. It’s a song that can be found in Canada and France, and here it’s paired with a lovely Breton an dro (type of dance tune). You’d be hard pressed to the Cajun influence, even though the song references the town of Natchitoches in Louisiana. It helps that each member of Poor Man’s Fortune are well versed in Breton music, with Serge Lainé turning in a beautiful version of “En revenant des noces” and Larry Rone just killing it on the bombarde (a very powerful type of shawm that few folks in the US can properly play). Singer Beth Patterson, herself a Louisana Cajun, shines on “Aux Natchitoches,” and piper Richard Kean is excellent as well, including on the biniou, the traditional, very high-pitched Breton bagpipe that goes hand in hand with the bombarde. Of course, it helps that Poor Man’s Fortune have brought in some seriously heavy hitters from both sides of their interests: Michael Doucet of Beausoleil joins on Cajun fiddle and Breton fluter/whistle player Jean-Michel Veillon (Kornog, Pennou Skoulm) joins for a number of tracks and actually produced the album as well. Still, all credit goes to Poor Man’s Fortune for forging ahead uniting these historically linked but very different traditions in new and creative ways. Great stuff!

— Devon Leger