A Tribute to Dennis McGee, Festival International, April 30, 2011

Louisiana Folk Roots and Valcour Records presented a “Tribute to Dennis McGee” Saturday afternoon, April 30, 2011, at Festival International de Louisiana in downtown Lafayette. Organized and moderated by David Greely, the session also included Jane Vidrine, Edward Poullard, Linzay Young, Kevin Wimmer, and Steve Riley. In addition, Lucius Fontenot of Valcour Records was on the panel to describe the recently released collection of Dennis McGee recordings from Gérard Dôle, which can be ordered from the Valcour Records web site.

As the participants made clear, Dennis McGee’s influence on the development of French music in Louisiana is immense, both on musicians who had an opportunity to play with him or hear him when he was alive and on those who still learn from recordings.

Some of the participants like Jane Vidrine knew Dennis McGee. On his first visit to the Savoy Music Center jam session, David Greely not only met Steve Riley but also Dennis McGee. Ed Poullard has been less directly influenced by McGee’s fiddling, but he said that he found out that his grandfather at one point played with Dennis, whose pairing with another Creole musician, Amédé Ardoin, was an especially important collaboration in the early history of recorded Louisiana French music.

Steve Riley revealed two surprising encounters with Dennis McGee. When Steve was about five years old, Dennis McGee somehow wound up as his babysitter for an afternoon, during which they visited bars in Mamou. “I’ve never been the same since,” he added, smiling. He also described one of the Savoy jam sessions that concluded with everyone saying goodbye to Dennis McGee as they left. At the time, Steve’s hair was long, and he was rather colorfully dressed. Dennis McGee’s eyesight was starting to fail by then but not his interest in women, so, seeing a long-haired, colorfully dressed figure approaching him, Dennis McGee kissed Steve Riley on the lips.

Mostly, though, the session offered the crowd examples of Dennis McGee’s music, played by some of the best contemporary musicians around.

For a listing of Cajun and Zydeco bands and Mardi Gras photos included on these Flickr pages, go to www.cajunzydecophotos.com