Michael Doucet
Age: 73
Michael Doucet (b. Feb 14, 1951) is an American Cajun fiddler, singer and songwriter who founded the Cajun band BeauSoleil from Lafayette, Louisiana.
In 2005 Doucet was one of 12 recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA award, which recognizes artistic excellence, cultural authenticity and an artist's contributions, is the highest honor in U.S. folk and traditional arts. Doucet received Grammy Awards in both 1998 and 2009 for work with Beausoleil.
He was named a 2007 USA Collins Family Foundation Fellow and awarded a $50,000 grant by United States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists. In 2008, he released From Now On, his solo cajun fiddle album, on Smithsonian Folkways.
He learned the banjo by age six, the guitar by his eighth year, and was researching Cajun music as a college student. In his youth he performed as part of a duo at a music festival in France. At the festival he was exposed to centuries-old French music, which he identified with the Cajun music of French Louisiana. He played mandolin on his old Rounder album, Le Hoogie Boogie.
In 1975, Doucet received an NEA Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant to study Cajun fiddle styles from masters such as Varise Conner, Hector Duhon, Canray Fontenot, Lionel LeLeux, and Dennis McGee.
Doucet's individual style incorporated elements of Western swing, 1930’s string band and Creole music, into traditional Cajun music. Doucet learned late 19th century and 20th century tunes passed on by McGee. He revived many the old Cajun songs that had not been recorded and whose musicians of that era were gone.
In 1977, Doucet started educating public school children about Cajun music. Later as an adjunct professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, he designed and taught the first university course on Cajun music.
Doucet was originally a member of the mid-1970s Cajun/rock band called Coteau. During that same time some of his friends and he formed his current band, BeauSoleil, which was purer to Cajun musical tradition. He also performs with the bands Fiddlers 4 and The Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band (with Ann and Marc Savoy).
Discography (partial)
- 1989 J'ai Ete au Bal: I Went to the Dance various artists, Arhoolie Records
- 1989 J'ai Ete au Bal: I Went to the Dance video (DVD); various artists, Arhoolie Records
- 1987 Michael Doucet & Cajun Brew Rounder Records
- 1992 Le Hoogie Boogie: Louisiana French Music For Children Rounder Records
- 1993 Beau Solo Arhoolie Records
- 1994 Christmas Bayou Swallow Records
- 1994 The Mad Reel Arhoolie Records
- 1997 Highly Seasoned Cajun Music Coteau, Rounder Records
- 2004 Fiddlers 4 Fiddlers 4, Compass Records
- 2008 From Now On Smithsonian Folkways
See also
- BeauSoleil
- Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band