Twice a month, Cajun music lights up the faces of diners at Gina’s at the Legion.

On the first and third Wednesday of each month, excluding December, the restaurant on 114 St. Mary St. in Thibodaux hosts a Cajun music jam put on by the Cajun Music Preservation Society.

Nicholls State University Biology Professor Dr. Quenten Fontenot, one of the society’s founding members and current president, enjoys the lively environment these jams create.

On Tuesday, Dec. 3 the society traded its regular Wednesday spot at Gina’s for a jam at the Jean Lafitte National Park, but the event kept the same energy.

“We played at the Jean Lafitte Center [on Dec. 3] for the Tuesday night live music series. Thirty people attended and when we played, they were smiling, laughing and shaking their heads,” Fontenot said.

What is the Cajun Music Preservation Society?

The society’s web page on the Bayou Regional Arts Council website states its mission is “to promote, preserve and enhance awareness and appreciation of traditional Cajun music within the Southeast region of Louisiana.”

The idea came about when a few founding members realized a lack of Cajun music in the Cajun Bayou.

Fontenot and Dr. Gary LaFleur Jr hosted the 2013 Swamp Stomp Music Festival, a now discontinued bayou music festival, at Nicholls State University. At the festival, the two talked with some of the festival performers. While speaking with the performers, one band mentioned they did not get the opportunity to play in Thibodaux anymore.

The pair were shocked by the performer’s revelation.

That’s when Fontenot got to work.

“I got online and looked up 13 local music festivals for that year,” Fontenot said. “We looked at their band lists and classified each as Cajun, Zydeco, Blues or other genres and out of 84 bands there was not a single Cajun band.”

Fontenot said his personal goal is to keep the society’s work sustainable. He knows he and his fellow members can not keep it up forever. He is hoping once he hangs it up other people will continue his work.

“It’s a team effort and I just want to keep it going,” Fontenot said.

Why did the music die?

Over decades Cajun music slowly left the Bayou area leaving many locals without a major part of their culture.

While completing his dissertation at Clemson University in South Carolina, Fontenot drive over two hours to Atlanta or to Asheville, NC to hear a Cajun band. 

He assumed it would be a shorter drive to find live Cajun music when he returned home to the Bayou region. However, he was disappointed to learn he still had to make the hours-long trip to Lafayette or Lake Charles to hear it.

“What’s going on?” Fontenot asked himself. 

Fontenot said it was New Orleans music that drowned out the traditional Cajun music in Thibodaux and Houma. The bayou is close enough to the Big Easy that the city’s artists would make the hour to two-hour trip to these smaller cities and play for locals.

The influences of New Orleans music along with Blues, Rock n’ Roll and Swamp Pop diluted Cajun music in the area.

Fontenot grew to love New Orleans music, because of his mom who grew up in the city, but realizes Cajun music is much more culturally significant in the Bayou Region.

“That’s the music of our people, so I wanted to hear more of it. I wanted to have more opportunities to listen to some Cajun music,” Fontenot said,

When Fontenot, and founding members Misty Leigh McElroy and Tyson Charbonchet realized this cultural retreat, they knew it was up to them to change it.

“What are we going to do? Let’s start a jam!” Fontenot said. “[Charbonchet] started the jam and they got very popular.”

C is for Cajun jam

A Cajun music jam is a small concert open to the public.

Fontenot explains the jams are very interactive welcoming all ages.

“The kids play music with us, they bang the spoons and have a good time,” Fontenot said.

Fontenot said the moment he realized the Cajun jams started by the society he helped found were important was when he saw ar

The artist, Nichol Brinkman, the owner of Pink Cheeks Studios created a poster titled “The ABCs of Thibodaux” in 2019.

A stands for the Krewe of Ambrosia, B for BTNEP and C for Cajun jam.

When Fontenot saw the poster, a wave of shock and pride in the society’s work overcame him.

“I said, ‘Wait a minute, this person who is not even part of our jam said that a Cajun jam is part of the Thibodaux culture.’ That made me happy,” Fontenot said.

Preserving the culture and the land

During the day, three members of the Cajun Music Preservation Society work to preserve another part of Southern Louisiana, its land.

Fontenot, LaFleur and volunteer musician Tim Clay are professors in Nicholls’ Biology Department who help with coastal land restoration projects.

“I enjoy playing Cajun music because it’s a very good stress relief and it’s a very good out from teaching all day and being at school all day. Cajun music is a fun way to get away from it all,” Clay said.

The jams are a break from their day jobs, but realize it is of equal importance to their scientific work.

“Using this as a platform to preserve this cultural heritage of the area is just as important as trying to preserve the hydrology, the botany and the biology of the area,” LaFleur Jr. said

Fontenot said the declining population in South Louisiana means the preservation of culture is more important than ever.

The US Census Bureau found that between 2021 and 2022 Terrebonne Parish lost 4,227 residents, giving it the third largest population decline by percentage (-3.9%) of any county or parish in the US.

Terrebonne Parish is preceded and followed by two South Louisiana parishes. St. John the Baptist Parish was ranked second, losing 5.1% of its population and Plaquemines Parish was ranked fourth, losing 3.3% of its population.

The trend of mass migration out of the Bayou region is something that worries Dr. Fontenot.

“We can’t keep the people there if there’s no culture,” Fontenot said.

Mardi Gras Jam

Mardi Gras is an integral part of Southern Louisiana culture. 

Louisianians ring in the New Year with king cakes during the Epiphany, also known as Kings’ Day, on Jan. 6. 

The Epiphany is a Catholic holiday celebrating the manifestation of Jesus’ birth. It also marks the start of the Mardi Gras season. It is followed by two months of parades and balls until Mardi Gras day.

The Cajun Music Preservation Society wanted in on the Mardi Gras season, so they started a yearly Mardi Gras Jam. The Epiphany day event, their biggest jam of the year, is their way of becoming a part of Thibodaux Mardi Gras..

“We wanted to do something special because Thibodaux had no special thing on Kings Day,” Fontenot said.

Over 100 people attend the Mardi Gras Jam and the Krewe of Tradition in Houma comes in on a party bus and announces their yearly royalty at the event.

The Cajun Music Preservation Society’s annual Mardi Gras will take place at Gina’s at the Legion on Jan. 6, 2025, at 6 p.m.

 “Preserving Cajun music is almost a gateway to preserving other parts of Cajun culture like the language, culinary heritage, and stories of Cajuns from this area that grew up speaking in French,” LaFleur Jr. said. “The music is a good place to start.”