Isles inspire
Cajun guitaristA slack-key style suits
David Doucet for solos
Is the weather nice out there?" Guitarist David Doucet asked on the phone in New Orleans, one short day away from a trip to Hawaii. From what he said, the weather in Louisiana sounded even hotter and more humid than it's been here of late. Besides the weather, Doucet talked about his music, sharing experiences and cultural connections between Hawaii and the Gulf Coast state.
Doucet (pronounced du-say) is a Cajun, a descendent of the French settlers who were forced out of Nova Scotia by the English in an 18th Century episode of "ethnic cleansing" who ended up living in Louisiana. Although the Cajuns flourished over the next two centuries, they gradually succumbed to the practical allure of the greater American melting pot. By the time Doucet was growing up in the '60s, relatively few people younger than his grandparents spoke Cajun French: His father was bilingual and his mother had been raised speaking English.
"(The language) was just about dead except for the old people, and the same went for the music. That was just for the old people and no one was interested in preserving this culture," he said.
Fortunately, attitudes started to change. Concerned individuals and the local government took an active interest in preserving Cajun culture. Doucet began learning his ancestral language in the fifth grade and continued through his junior year in college. Interest in Cajun music rebounded as well, and Cajun music festivals now draw people of all ages.
And, in another parallel with Hawaii and Hawaiian music, there has been increased interest in Cajun musical traditions that extend beyond the contemporary dance-oriented music of Cajun bands such as Beausoleil, for whom Doucet has played rhythm guitar for "27 or so years."
Most people these days seem to think of Cajun music as synonymous to dance music, but Doucet has recorded two albums of solo acoustic guitar music that some might describe as "Cajun-style slack-key." He's been here twice in concert with Beausoleil but performs tonight at Orvis Auditorium as a solo artist, exploring a more quiet and intimate side of Cajun music.
"When I focus on those (old) ballads which nobody plays, that's continuing tradition, but the manner that I'm playing them in is different. It's something old and new at the same time."
DOUCET BECAME interested in playing Cajun music on acoustic guitar as a way of fighting the boredom that is part of touring.
COURTESY OF CORDELIA A. CALE
David Doucet exposes another side of Cajun music with his solo acoustic work.
"What do you do if you're a rhythm guitar player and you're sitting in a guitar room three months a year in between gigs? You don't sit there playing rhythm guitar," Doucet said.
"We tour a lot, and we started touring very heavily in the mid-'80s ... and when you play these songs enough, even with different musicians, you do learn the melodies. One day I was listening to a John Fahey record and I started messing around with open tunings, and I found the tunings that I thought were most suitable to a lot of Cajun songs."
Doucet's search for tunings was heightened by his exposure to the slack key recordings of Gabby Pahinui and Leonard Kwan. The rhythms were different but he saw similarities as well. Although Doucet makes it clear that he is not a Hawaiian slack key guitarist, he loves the music. Sonny Chillingworth and Led Kaapana are two of his other favorite ki ho'alu masters.
"(Slack key music) is not dance music in the sense of two-steps and waltzes, but it gave me the idea (of playing in opening tunings), and after having been a rhythm guitar player for so many years, I think that I understood that I was not listening to all the variations and embellishments of the melodies which the Hawaiian guitar players know quite well. That's what I've been working on. It's not to be innovative as much as trying to work out an understanding of the relationship with the instrument. It's something I've been working on for a long time that may parallel (slack key) ... and listening to them as much as I did was incredibly influential to me."
It's no surprise then that one of the things Doucet wants to do while he's here is to enjoy some slack key guitar.
"The last time we were there, I was very lucky to go see Ledward Kaapana play at a little local bar, which reminded me of one of my local bars. I still talk about that, so do the guys who came with me. He's just an amazing musician."
Roots music
Featuring David DoucetWhere: Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawaii at Manoa
When: 8 p.m. today
Tickets: $20, with a $5 discount for students, seniors, military personnel, and UH faculty and staff
Call: 956-3836
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