Name: Amanda Shaw gets down to her musical foundations on new Cajun album
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Amanda Shaw gets down to her musical foundations on new Cajun album

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You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.xREADERSUPPORTERPATRONNew Orleans singer and fiddler Amanda Shaw performs in Slidell.Fiddler Amanda Shaw performs during the 2019 Bayou Boogaloo.New Orleans singer and fiddler Amanda Shaw felt the best way to mark 2020, a year that includes her 30th birthday on Aug. 2 and is her 20th year as a working musician, would be to celebrate the roots of her roots-based music. So spent time at Esplanade Studios last November to record an album of Cajun staples.“I knew I wanted to call it ‘Joie,’ which is French for joy,” she says. “Little did I know that 2020 was going to be an interesting time to have a record called ‘Joie.’ But I don’t regret it at all. I feel like everyone could use a little joy.”“Joie” is out July 29 on CD and streaming platforms, or as a download on July 24 for those who pre-order the album.Shaw and her band — guitarist Tim Robertson, bassist Ronnie Falgout and drummer Mike Barras — put some kick into eight songs that will be familiar to south Louisianans and Cajun music fans. Zak Loy, who produced her album, produced this new record.“Joie” opens with a pedal-to-the-floor take on “Bosco Stomp” and “Grand Mamou,” for which Shaw just released a sweet, homemade music video. The band take staples like “Ossun Two-Step” and “Johnny Can’t Dance” for uptempo spins across the hardwood, while the slower, more sentimental “Les Petits Yeux Noire,” “Jolie Blonde,” and “J’ai vu le Loup” give “Joie” a soft break. Shaw sings in both Cajun French and English on the album.Shaw has made her career in American roots and country music. She’s incorporated Cajun music into her live shows, but “Joie” is the first time she’s recorded what has been foundational music to her.When she was a kid, Shaw says, her mom would take her to places like and Michaul’s and “I fell in love with Cajun-style fiddle music. And [fiddler] Mitch Reed, I credit him. At Mulate’s he used to play on Sundays with his band, and while the band was setting up for an hour before, he would teach me Cajun songs in the little hallway between the stage and the bathroom. So my first audience really had to go.”Shaw has come to appreciate those songs even more as an adult, she says.“I’ve never done a traditional album. I’ve never considered myself a traditional artist, but I felt it was important that as someone that has carried these songs for the last 20 years … it felt important to do my job as this generation. There’s always talk of the need to preserve this music.”The songs on “Joie” are traditional, but Shaw and her band’s arrangements — along with the use of electric guitar and pedal steel — give them an upbeat, modern kick. It’s clearly an Amanda Shaw record.“The only way to make those types of songs, traditional songs, unique, is really just to be true to who you are,” Shaw says. “My sets always have been high energy, and that’s something I love doing. I didn’t want to get far away from who I am, but I did want to stay true to the core of what these songs are and where they come from.”Email Jake Clapp at&nbsp;For more upcoming events visit© 2022 GambitPowered by from .

You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.xREADERSUPPORTERPATRONNew Orleans singer and fiddler Amanda Shaw performs in Slidell.Fiddler Amanda Shaw performs during the 2019 Bayou Boogaloo.New Orleans singer and fiddler Amanda Shaw felt the best way to mark 2020, a year that includes her 30th birthday on Aug. 2 and is her 20th year as a working musician, would be to celebrate the roots of her roots-based music. So spent time at Esplanade Studios last November to record an album of Cajun staples.“I knew I wanted to call it ‘Joie,’ which is French for joy,” she...

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Amanda Shaw gets down to her musical foundations on new Cajun album

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