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instantly hear that versus if somebody white was playing it. Not to say that it’s good or bad; it’s

just a different feel.

BiTS: Yes, that’s what I meant.

CL: It’s a different feel, that’s all.

BiTS: Okay, now let’s talk about the records specifically. You’ve got a tribute to your grandfather,
‘Buchanan Ledet Special’. Obviously, your own work, I would guess.

CL: Yes.

BiTS: How did you go about writing that?

CL: This information has been handed down to me about my grandfather all my life and it’s
amongst just our family and I felt that it was time for me to share my family’s history with
everybody and what better way to do it than through song and
to really get it out there. There’s a lot of history that a lot of

people don’t know about and I think it’s time to share
different stories and let it all out because it is an interesting
story and just like history, everything is interesting, and I felt
that I would like to share that and just let everybody know
where I come from and the area and the region where my
family is from. It’s time to talk about that and just let
everybody know where we come from.

BiTS: Most of the many, not most, many of the songs on your
album and lots of other zydeco albums are rendered with a
French alternative for the title, but it’s not actually French
that is spoken, is it?

CL: No, it’s not exactly French. It’s its own language. It’s
more than just a dialect. It’s its own language and it’s the
language that my family has been speaking for hundreds of years and it’s called Kouri-Vini. It’s its
own language and that’s the language that I’ve incorporated on this project right here. I actually
fell into the generation of kids where the parents didn’t teach the kids the language because when
they wanted to talk about different stuff, they could switch on the Kouri and we wouldn’t

understand what they were saying.

BiTS: [Laughing] I love that. I guess eventually you learned to speak it, and of course, to sing in it
as well.

CL: Right. Like I say, a lot of people that are my age now that are probably in their 30s, mid-late
30s, we can’t speak it, but we probably know a few words here and there but the whole
conversation we probably can’t. I’ve been actually trying to get fluent. I’ve been doing a lot of
studying. I’ve heard it all my life, so I understand it. I can get with the point, but I can’t respond