SAVOY
FAMILY BAND
"Musically,
they surely ain’t no stuffy preservationists;
whether a bitter lament or an earthy hard-driving
breakdown, with Marc’s squeezebox, Ann’s
guitar, and their highly capable sons Joel and Wilson
on fiddle and keyboards, the Savoys cover the Cajun
spectrum with a dazzling mixture of spiritual joy
and virtuoso voltage."
-Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA
“Startlingly ageless
music.”
- Sing Out! Magazine
The Savoy Family Cajun Band
plays honed down, hard-core Cajun music laced with
an earthy sensuality. Though the old tunes have
been revived and returned to new life intensity
in their hands, the Savoy Family Cajun band doesn’t
play from a studied angle. The musicians in the
band, Marc and Ann Savoy and their sons Joel and
Wilson, each hold their own as strong individual
group members, making up a tight, intense sound.
Marc and Ann, as the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, have
been performing and recording together since 1977,
recording five CDs on the Arhoolie label. They have
traveled all over the world, appearing in all the
most prestigious venues, such as the Newport Folk
Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Festival
at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic
Concert Series, even the Queen Elizabeth Hall in
London, England, to name a few. The Getty Museum
in Los Angeles featured the Savoy Family Band in
a special concert presentation. Ann and son Joel
recently appeared in the film “Divine Secrets
of the Ya Ya Sisterhood” and they perform
three songs on the Warner Brothers Soundtrack. The
Savoy Family Band performed at the premiere of the
film in Los Angeles. Ann is the associate music
producer of the upcoming film “All The King’s
Men” (Sony Pictures) and her sons Joel and
Wilson appear with Sean Penn as musicians in the
film. Ann’s most recent project is a CD with
Linda Ronstadt, the friends appear as the Zozo Sisters
and do many types of regional acoustic music.
Marc
Savoy has been rewarded the highest honor in the
country for traditional artists, the honorable National
Heritage Fellowship Award. Marc and Ann recently
appeared on the PBS series “American Roots”,
and Ann wrote the chapter on Cajun music in the
book that accompanied the series, which was published
by Rolling Stone Press. Ann was awarded the Botkin
Book Award for her definitive book on the history
of Cajun and Zydeco music.
Although
the Savoy Family Cajun Band insists upon maintaining
a more acoustic approach to Cajun music the band
can hold its own amongst Cajun music lovers everywhere.
In fact, the band loves seeing how much power and
sound they can get out of just four instruments.
Sometimes the group demonstrates the way Cajun music
has evolved by demonstrating the early double fiddle
- triangle sound or the solo accordion - fiddle
sound. Early French ballads are added to the program
to show other historic elements prevalent in early
southwest Louisiana.
Between the songs the Cajun French Ann often briefly
translates poetry of the songs so that the feeling
can be better understood. Their repertoire is chosen
carefully, popular dancehall tunes interspersed
with soulful ballads, fiddle or vocal duets, or
blues. The songs show the spectrum of Cajun life
from sorrow and lost love to nonsense and the joy
of dance. The Savoy Family Cajun Band brings the
raw energy of the dancehalls of southwest Louisiana
to the stage, peppered with humorous and informative
anecdotes about life on the Louisiana prairies.
Savoy Family press kit 1
Savoy Family press kit 2
Savoy Family press kit 3
Savoy Family press kit 4
Savoy Family bio pdf
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