Join us as we sit down with Louis Michot (best known as the fiddle player and lead-singer for the Grammy award winning Lost Bayou Ramblers, but blowing minds on the sonic masterpiece that is his solo record “Rêve du Troubadour”) and discuss all things Cajun, Zydeco, Old Timey Music, Race Music, the birds of the air and the beauty of precise Louisiana French. “Rêve du Troubadour” was objectively without a doubt one of the finest album releases of the last 10 years and so it was a delight to talk with this humble genius.
Michot’s passion for Louisiana French and local folklore, and sustainability in the fastest disappearing landmass in the world are what fuels his career as a musician. With over 20 LPs under his belt, his music career continues to push the boundaries of the Louisiana French music traditions. Rêve du Troubadour, the first solo album from Louis Michot, is out now and will be the best thing your ears have heard in moons. Special guests on these recordings include Nigerian Tuareg guitar wizard Bombino, and critically acclaimed singer / cellist Leyla McCalla among others. Known as a fiddle player, Michot primarily performed on guitar, bass, T’fer (triangle), samplers, percussions, and accordion. Some of finished tracks feature him playing every part, while others find him backed with bassist where Bryan Webre and drummer Kirkland Middleton of the Ramblers and Louis’ other regular band, Michot’s Melody Makers as well as guests like Bombino, McCalla, Quintron, guitarist Langhorn Slim, Shardé Thomas with and without her Rising Stars Drum and Fife group, Grammy-nominated accordion player Corey Ledet, and Dickie Landry on sax. Kirkland Middleton of the Ramblers engineered and mixed the album at Nina Highway Studios in Arnaudville, Louisiana with various musicians building on basic tracks Louis had recorded at his home, houseboat studio. The album’s title, “Rêve du Troubadour” — “The Troubadour’s Dream” in English — refers to the manner in which Michot pulls his music from dreams into daylight, then fills it with storytelling. Though Michot has published over 100 songs, he feels that Rêve du Troubadour is his first collection of “writing” as these songs tell their stories in much greater depth than he’s achieved before and utilize words peculiar to Louisiana French which seldom appear in musical compositions. 2023 marked the start of Louis Michot touring under his name, as a trio featuring Kirkland and Bryan on drums, bass, synths, and samples. The year started with a four show residency at New Orleans’ iconic music venue The Maple Leaf, and continues with a debut at Festival International de Louisiane, and tours of the Midwest, East coast, and West coast later in the year. Louis’ solo trajectory started while tracking his original songs in 2022, starting the recordings in his dry-docked house boat named “Sister Ray”, and completing the tracking at Mark Bingham’s Piety Studio, the album being engineered and mixed by Kirkland Middleton. 2021 brought special challenges for Michot, from restarting his live music during the pandemic, to doing hurricane relief work as noted in Rolling Stone (Can This Cajun-Punk Musician Protect His Culture From Climate Change?, September 16, 2021) while raising funds to get solar generators and panels to residents of Terrebonne Parish affected by Hurricane Ida, as written about in New Yorker magazine (The Lost Bayou Ramblers Get Lit, January 3, 2022). Louis was named Louisianian of the Year in 2020 along with his brother Andre, and their band Lost Bayou Ramblers was named Entertainers of the Year by New Orleans’ Big Easy Awards in 2019. 2017 brought the Lost Bayou Ramblers’ first Grammy award for their 8th LP release, Kalenda, and 2019 marked the bands 20th anniversary along with a live album release “Asteur” and a documentary aired internationally on TV5 Monde, “On Va Continuer”. In 2012 Louis’ violin and vocal work was the main feature for score of the Oscar nominated film Beasts of the Southern Wild, and that same year the band’s 6th release, “Mammoth Waltz” was named 2nd most important Louisiana album of the 21st century by nola.com and won New Orleans’ Best of the Beat Award.
