Feufollet

Cajuns anxious over the erosion of their linguistic and cultural traditions may discover renewed optimism through the youthful sextet Feufollet. Assembled in the closing years of the 1990s, the ensemble originally consisted of six performers ranging in age from eleven to seventeen. Multiple participants acquired fluent French via immersion schooling, enabling the group to deliver both longstanding Cajun pieces and newly composed material in that language during appearances throughout the United States and overseas. Their catalog incorporates twin-fiddle tunes transmitted across generations since the nineteenth century. In 1999 the musicians appeared in Canada before an audience that counted among its members the president of France. The same year brought the release of their debut recording, a self-titled album issued by Swallow Records and produced by Steve Riley, which earned a nomination for Best First Album from the Cajun French Music Association. The prefix “la bande” denotes a fraternal collective rather than a musical outfit, while “feufollet” designates the luminous orbs of swamp gas occasionally observed in marshlands. The lineup comprises Christopher Stafford, Chris Segura, Ashley Hayes, Brittany Polaski, Matt Cormier, and Michael Stafford, the last of whom is Christopher’s sibling.

Christopher Stafford composes songs and performs on fiddle, guitar, accordion, bass, trumpet, and piano while also teaching fiddle technique. He adopted the accordion in 1995 as a member of Les Petits Amis, an outfit that later became les Acadiens Cajun before evolving into Feufollet. His competition record includes first-place finishes in accordion events at the 1997 Frog Festival and Buggy Festival, followed by a repeat victory at the Buggy Festival in 1998. Segura began playing fiddle at age four and captured the fiddle title at the 1997 Eunice Folklife Festival, the 1998 Rayne Frog Festival, the 1998 Crowley Rice Festival, and again in 2000, when he additionally claimed top honors in his age division at the Louisiana State Fiddling Championship. He descends from the Segura Brothers, early figures in Cajun recording. Hayes entered music at ten, initially focusing on country material before entering la Bande Feufollet in early 1998. Polaski joined late that year and performed the National Anthem at Festival International in both 1998 and 1999. Michael Stafford handles drumming duties and had previously belonged to les Acadiens.