Professor introduces Madison to Cajun music

Before Rita, before Katrina, there was Evangeline.

And before Longfellow introduced the Acadian culture to mainstream America through his famous narrative poem in 1847, more than a century of vibrant Acadian French culture had been thriving in the Louisiana bayous. Exiled in 1755 by the English from Acadia (modern-day Nova Scotia), the Cajuns came to Louisiana, a former colony of France. Prosperous farmers in old Acadia, the Cajuns settled in the swamps and bayous of southwestern Louisiana, specifically across the Achafalaya Basin. It proved difficult farming and profoundly isolated, although many credit the seclusion with preserving the culture.

Five years ago, Cajun culture – “Cajun” is a corruption of “Acadian” – grabbed hold of Karen Holden. A professor of consumer science and public affairs at UW–Madison and associate director of its La Follette School of Public Affairs, she is a nationally known expert on Social Security, pensions and their relationship to the timing of retirement. She also does a great deal of work on the financial well being of widows.

Somehow she also manages to find time to rehearse and perform with the Madison band Cajun Strangers.

“Academic life can surround you,” she says. “Public policy issues and the work they require are endless. My involvement with the band is one way I keep from being totally consumed.”

In the band Holden plays the t’fer: “Cajun contraction of ‘little triangle,'” she says. “It’s a traditional rhythm instrument in Cajun music, and it’s very important. Rhythm is crucial to Cajun music. When I asked a Louisiana musician what made a good Cajun song he said, ‘One that is good to dance to,’ and that means rhythm.”

In addition to the t’fer, Cajun bands always have a fiddler and button accordionist as the lead instruments and may include a standup bass and drums. Holden also plays guitar in jams and practice sessions. And she sings – “One of our songs, coincidentally, is ‘The Widows of the Gully.’ I hope someday soon to start a women’s band of aspiring Cajun musicians!”

Meanwhile, she is teaching an undergraduate class in household risk management.

“The hurricanes that have done so much damage on the Gulf Coast presented some good risk and insurance examples. I definitely will discuss in class personal financial consequences of natural disasters,” she says.

Another entrée for her students into Holden’s “secret Cajun life” could come via a fund-raiser for families relocated to Madison from the Gulf Coast. Sponsored by the La Follette School of Public Affairs’ student association, the event starts at 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 30, at Cafe Montmarte, 127 E. Mifflin St. The Cajun Strangers strike up at about 6:15 p.m., Holden says. A $15 donation covers a mess of red beans, rice and beer. The Strangers also will appear at a fund-raiser at 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 2, at the Harmony Bar. The $10 minimum donation will cover a feast of jambalaya, red beans and rice.

Music and food: What better vehicles to introduce a culture? And Holden says there is so much to explore.

“Cajun music was and is an important part of retaining the culture,” she says. “It kept the people together through ‘house dances.’ Cajun songs are almost always sung in French, by the way – that’s an important difference between Cajun music and zydeco. Zydeco is a relatively new form, barely a generation old. It grew out of Cajun music, but also was influenced by jazz, blues and Caribbean rhythms. Zydeco is sung primarily in English.

“I was struck – shocked, actually – that this was a native French-speaking population that had existed in the United States for 250 years!” she adds. “I had never known about it. I wondered how we could be having this debate about whether or not we are an English-speaking country when right in our midst there is a population whose members’ families predate most of ours and who still speak French?”

Holden also will be teaching Cajun and zydeco dance in a Union mini-course, Wednesday, Oct. 26-Wednesday, Nov. 16.