COVID-19 Hits Hard For South Louisiana’s Cajun Musicians

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Musicians gather for the Saturday morning jam session at the Savoy Music Center in Eunice, La.

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Marc Savoy, a patriarch of Cajun music, is still building accordions, playing them, and hosting weekly jams sessions at 80 years old.

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Fiddle player and producer Joel Savoy is an ambassador and virtuoso of Cajun music, like his father, Marc.

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Flannery Denny (left) and Joel Savoy play fiddle outside the Savoy Music Center.

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Zydeco musician Corey Ledet holds his piano accordion before a rare live show in Lafayette, La.

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Steve and Katie Riley with their sons Burke, 11, and Dolsy, 8, are quarantining at their home in Scott, La. Riley says the lack of music is famishing Cajun culture—which is all about people coming together.

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Steve and Katie Riley with their sons Burke, 11, and Dolsy, 8, are quarantining at their home in Scott, La. Riley says the lack of music is famishing Cajun culture—which is all about people coming together.

Lily Brooks for NPR

Sitting in his backyard, Riley says the lack of music is famishing Cajun culture, which is all about people coming together.

«This music that we play is played at weddings, at funerals, at dancehalls on the weekends. I mean, we are a people who like to be together. And I miss seeing those couples waltzing, jitterbugging around the dance floor. It’s a beautiful thing that you can’t see anywhere else. And I tell you, sometimes it gets to me, man, it’s hard,» he says, choking up.

With the Mamou Playboys out of action, Riley and his sons have formed the Riley Family Band. They play every Sunday afternoon on Facebook Live.

«The response at the beginning was just incredible,» he says. «The fact that we could reach not only our neighbors and our family, but people around the country and around the world were tuning in.»

Music—like seafood and family—are the nuclei of Cajun culture. It’s not going away. It’s just gone virtual.