During the nineteenth century and the first quarter or so of the twentieth,
it was the custom among rural Cajuns and Creoles to go visit in the
evenings to share the latest news, jokes, stories, and to sing songs.
In South Louisiana these evenings were called veillées and they continued
until the fascination for radio programs, and later TV, changed the way
people entertained themselves. The songs, which many today call home music,
have never been as commercialized as the Cajun and zydeco dance music
so popular today. Traditionally sung unaccompanied, the lyrics may tell
a story which is carried by the beautiful melodies or explode into hilarious
percussive lines which twist the tongue.

Marce took great care to learn and preserve these fragile old songs.
Apprenticeship grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and
the Louisiana Folklife Commission enabled her to study home music
in the traditional way, spending lots of time with master artists
Lula Landry {pictured above} and Inez Catalon in their homes, sharing the things of daily life.
While doing this she fell in love with her teachers who taught her
not only the songs, but also the social and cultural realities they represent.

In performance, Marce leads you lovingly and humorously into another age
when there was time for all things. Concerts and workshops may include
ballads, drinking songs, tongue twisters, children's songs,
danses rondes (sung round dances), lullabies, stories, folk tales and
history of Louisiana French people. Introductions, stories and history
are spoken in English and French and the songs
are sung in Louisiana French.

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