POP MUSIC REVIEW : Cajun Fest: Microwave Jambalaya

The performers on the Greek Theatre stage Sunday afternoon, part of a touring Cajun music and food festival, included some well-known names, but the closest thing to the way they do it in Breaux Bridge and Ville Platte occurred in front of the theater. There, as part of the festival’s side attractions, a peppy little band called the Basin Brothers sang in Acadian French as couples launched into a waltzing two-step and spectators nibbled on peppery crawfish etouffee direct from the Cajun center of Lafayette, La.

Inside the Greek it was another story. Lacking both the more innovative acts (e.g. Beausoleil) and the traditionalist groups (Marc Savoy), this might have been billed as the Cajun Crossover Fest. Headliner Doug Kershaw ran through the same manic, mad-fiddler routine he’s been pushing for ages. Popular country artist Eddy Raven’s main Cajun connection is on his birth certificate. Raven sings about bayou boys and zydeco ladies, but his urban country-pop arrangements rely more on synthesizers than scrub boards.

Queen Ida, despite a somewhat gentrified approach to zydeco, does sing in French, plays a mean accordion and is so feisty and engaging that you overlook her vocal limitations. Rockin’ Sidney tepidly ambled through a crowd-participation routine on his fluke hit “My Toot Toot.” The show was fitfully charged by opener Jimmy C. Newman, a Cajun bandleader in the ‘50s who later had some success in Nashville.

A pleasant afternoon, but without a single band using the traditional triangle or singing the Cajun anthem “Jolie Blonde,” this Cajun Fest was kinda like making jambalaya in a microwave instead of an iron skillet: The ingredients were familiar but it didn’t taste authentic.