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Blogs / Lounge Act / January 2010 / American Routes

American Routes

The highlight of the day so far?

Seeing a cowboy shaving in the Elko Convention Center men's room.

But a close second was the Humantities Lecture for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering delivered by Nick Spitzer, a professor at Tulane and the University of New Orleans and host of NPR's American Routes program (pronounced "roots." Get it?) The aforementioned and now clean-shaven cowboy showed up at Spitzer's talk as well.
 

The title of Spitzer's talk was Zydeco Trail Ride: Creole Cowboys at Work and Play, but the hour was basically a music--infused look at southwest Louisiana creole culture, and a quick education on the differences between Cajun and zydeco ("a country cousin of jazz")  music as well as the cultures that produce them. Great stuff.

Couple of tidbits worth remembering: If you want to hear some of the roots of zydeco music, track down some tunes by a fellow named Boozoo Chavis. And if you want to hear the new generation that's keeping the form going, find one Cedric Watson.

That's what I'm going to do.