((TITLE)) FRED’S LOUNGE, THE HEART OF CAJUN MUSIC
((TRT: 11:00))
((Banner: Fred’s Lounge, The Heart of Cajun Music))
((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))
((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))
((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))
((Map: Mamou, Louisiana))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((Sub characters: 5 female; 4 male))
((Blurb: Open only on Saturday mornings, Fred’s Lounge has been hosting Cajun bands and keeping Cajun culture alive since 1946.))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Courtesy: Richard DesHotels))
((Mike Perron
92.5–KVPI-FM))
Thank you all for joining us. They’re going to be here till five o’clock. Like I said, at least this band is…they got a lot going on here at Fred’s Lounge all weekend.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Trish McGee
Owner, Fred’s Lounge))
Welcome to Fred’s Lounge in Big Mamou, Louisiana.
Fred’s Lounge was built in 1946, and it’s an icon all over the world. We have people from Germany, Australia, France, just to come and listen to our music, and dance and drink a Bloody Mary every once in a while. We’re only open on Saturdays. From 7:30 [am] till 1:30 [pm] the band plays, but if it’s packed, we stay open the rest of the day.
((Blake Whitmire
Musician))
I’m here at Fred’s Lounge because this is the place where you’re going to find the best Cajun music in Louisiana.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Donny Broussard
Musician, Donny Broussard and Louisiana Stars))
This is the third generation. My grandfather had the band, and my uncle and I played with him until he passed away, so we just kept it going. This is, like I said, this is the third generation of the band. It was always Cajun music.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Keri McGee Miller))
I feel sorry for people who aren’t Cajun. We grew up in a community that everybody’s close, you know. Everybody is just…we speak French. People look at us as weird, but I feel sorry for other people. It’s just…it’s awesome. The people, the music. I mean, I listen to this, and my hips just go to the music. It’s just…it’s awesome.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Barry Jean Ancelet
Professor Emeritus, Francophone Studies
University of Louisiana at Lafayette))
What is now Louisiana became a state in 1812, and immediately there was pressure applied to this non-English speaking place to Americanize itself. So that’s when the Renaissance started…was right after World War II. We began to see Cajun music, which had been neglected by the recording studios for a decade.
They began to be recorded again and there was this new appreciation for who we are, not to get sort of drowned out in this vast Americana.
((Courtesy: Richard DesHotels))
((Barry Jean Ancelet
Professor Emeritus, Francophone Studies
University of Louisiana at Lafayette))
They were reading the signs that were beginning to emerge at that time. You know, Fred told me when Iry LeJeune’s first record came out, the first time Cajun music was recorded in quite a while, was on their jukeboxes. And he said, if he never heard the “Evangeline Special” again in his life, that would be fine, because it was all that played all day long, every day, for months, because as soon as that record was there, people said, “Yeah, that’s what I like. That’s what it is I want.” They kept shoving nickels in the jukebox and listening. It became sort of, you know, a mantra, basically for this sense of renewed interest in ourselves.
((Barry Jean Ancelet
Professor Emeritus, Francophone Studies
University of Louisiana at Lafayette))
Fred was conscious, self-conscious of this, but, you know, of course they were all aware that something was happening and that it felt good to not have to feel bad about yourself again. They were just really great hosts. Tante Sue made everybody feel, you know, welcome, and she was always so joyous, and she was way more than a barmaid. She was like an animator, an animatrice that we call it in French.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Steve Riley
Musician
Steve Riley and Mamou Playboys))
Anyone who knows Fred’s Lounge knows Tante Sue. She was a barmaid, who would have a holster with her schnapps and her drinks, and she would serve people, and she would sing with the band. And she embodies what Mamou is, the joie de vivre [enjoyment of life] of Fred’s coming together around the music, the culture, every Saturday morning, and it’s broadcast for the world to hear.
She was there from the beginning. She saw it all come together. She saw the Cajun Renaissance happen. When people realized that what we had here was great, it started being exported outside of Louisiana, and therefore, people started coming here. Dignitaries, you know, just people who fell in love with the music and the culture.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Rachel Lafleur
Fred’s granddaughter))
About staying in Mamou.
((Tante Sue
Fred’s Lounge Bartender))
I will go all over the world with y’all’s camera without leaving Mamou.
((Rachel Lafleur
Fred’s granddaughter))
She’s going to go all over the world on film, but stay in Mamou.
((Tante Sue
Fred’s Lounge Bartender))
This is Fred. This is a portrait of Fred.
((Rachel Lafleur
Fred’s granddaughter))
I think it was in 1942. He and his twin brother bought it. It was Tate’s Bar. His twin brother went missing in the Bermuda Triangle, and then he purchased it in 1946. Fred bought it and it became Fred’s Bar.
I’ve been going to Fred’s as long as I can remember. Mom would let us. She would bring us on Saturdays, sometimes just for us to listen to the music and be with our grandparents.
((Tante Sue
Fred’s Lounge Bartender))
I was 16 years old. I graduated from high school, May the 28th, 1948. I refused to get married at 16 [years old]. So, I made my 17th birthday on June the 3rd. I got married June the 9th to Fred. I started popping “hot damn”. We couldn’t keep enough bottles in the place to sell. Once I started once, I’ll pop a drink, and I’d give everybody a drink if they wanted one. Then they’d all buy a half pint.
I was born and raised French. And it just so happened with Fred owning the bar, we were able to promote Cajun music, and Cajun language, and Cajun living. Joie de vivre, joys of life.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Wanda Verrette
Treasurer, Mamou Cajun Music Festival))
When Fred was alive, the bar was open every day. I don’t know about Sunday, but, you know, almost every day. They had people coming in during the day and drinking. And on Friday afternoons, you know, everybody would gather there after work. And when he got sick is when it started just opening on Saturdays, and we’re not sure what year that was.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Blake Whitmire
Musician))
It’s all feel to me. Like you can probably hear it in the background right now, but it’s just…it’s dance music. And I think it’s first purpose is to serve as a thing for people to dance to. And so, it’s always grooving.
((Tante Sue
Fred’s Lounge Bartender))
Dancing was my favorite thing. I was just like every other Cajun though. I’m a hard worker. Work was a challenge to me, but I love to dance.
((Rachel Lafleur
Fred’s granddaughter))
So the bands that come are strictly French music. A lot of people call it Cajun music. We call it French music. For all my children, I have three boys, they were all brought up with Cajun music. They all love Cajun music. My youngest son is actually with us in the Cajun Music Festival Association. So, I do my part in trying to keep it, get my family involved. I think that the more we promote it with our kids and our younger generations, the further it’ll go.
((Ashlee Eastin Wilson
Writer, French Teacher))
Cajun music was born here in the prairies of South Louisiana. It’s where the natives, the French, the German, the Spanish, and the Africans all met. I mean, out here, we were all kind of sharecropping, doing the same thing, and so there was a lot of cultural overlap. We had the same religion. We had the same foodways. And so there was a lot of sharing at house dances and just between neighbors. So, there was a special breed of music that was born of that. There’s the German accordion, and then, of course, the African rhythms, and the French or Acadian fiddle. So I would say when you have the rhythm, and then the fiddle and the accordion, that those are the keys to Cajun or Zydeco music.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Tante Sue
Fred’s Lounge Bartender))
Cajuns like having a good time, and bon temp is good time. They like eating. They like drinking liquor. But they like working also. They work very hard. They love working. Working is a joy. Joy of life. Cajuns are always happy. It is true. They have a very joyous outlook on life. Your Cajun people do. Hot damn!
((NATS))
