Louisiana House Party: Gumbo, Guitar and Flute
December 29, 2013
Lafayette, LA
It’s inevitable around here in southwest Louisiana. When guests show up for a house party, along with the gumbo and jambalaya, someone is going to bring along a guitar, accordion or something else that makes music. After dinner, said people will break out the instruments and an event will transpire that reminds you that music is as essential an ingredient to life in Lafayette Parish as what is referred to around here as the holy trinity of cooking – the onions, celery, and bell peppers that go into the gumbo.
This house party was no exception.
“I’ve wanted to be a singer since I was three years old,” guest Katy Richard says (pronounce Ree-shard, accent second syllable, you're in Louisiana, remember?).
The Hamilton Lab School in Lafayette had a rich program of arts and theater. Katy was all in, took flute lessons from grade four to eight, sang in the chorus for 12 years and found time to take piano lessons along the way.
All the kids in the music program rented instruments from Prof Erny’s Music Store, a mom and pop music store that found ways for every family to afford to pay. A Lafayette institution, the store’s been doing that since 1948.
When your father blasts opera or big band swing while he’s tending the Sunday BBQ, you know you’re in a household where appreciation for music runs deep. Saturday nights, Lawrence Welk ruled the airwaves at the Richard home in Lafayette. The four Richard sisters would gather around the black and white TV and put on a glorious floor show for their mom and dad, costumes, dancing, choreography, the works. About the time she was 15, Katy waited till the show was over before going out with her girlfriends, never letting on that she was taken, body and soul, with a program that was totally uncool with her teenage friends.
When it came time for college, Katy’s family steered her into dental hygiene school. Music, which she was dying to study, was not going to cut it as a practical way to make a living, they said. The twists and turns of life intervened, Katy opted out of Northern Louisiana University after two years, moved to New England via Austin, married a Yankee, and lived in New Hampshire until 2007.
Louisiana looks damn good when you’re shoveling several feet of snow every week in frosty New England. Katy and her husband Chris moved lock, stock and barrel (in this case, tools, cooking implements and instruments) to Lafayette. Chris continues work as a sought-after skilled carpenter. Katy started up the highly regarded “Taco Sisters” eatery with her sister Molly. Slicing and dicing took the place of shoveling. Katy was in her natural element.
Tonight Katy’s husband Chris Hinchliffe is playing a $2500 guitar he won at a raffle at the annual Dewey Balfa Cajun and Creole Heritage Week in 2009. He’s no stranger to French culture, having experience in Woonsocket and other New England towns into which Acadians from Nova Scotia emigrated after the “Grand Derangement” in which the British expelled them for not pledging allegiance to the English king. And, as Chris says, had their own way with language, with cars parking “side by each.”
VIDEO 1: "Please Tell Me Now"
VIDEO 2: "Your Cheating Heart"
VIDEO 3: "Summertime"
VIDEO 4: "The Bayou Blues" (Katy Richard original)
After watching these video clips, who wouldn’t want to invite Katy and Chris to a party? Katy sings with emotional authority and a stylist’s sense of interpretation with her voice and flute. This is music that’s been begging to be released since childhood.
Who would guess that Katy recently revived her flute playing after about 20 years (and bought a new flute from the same store that rented instruments to her and her classmates when she was in school in Lafayette)? And that Chris has taught himself to play that “Composite Acoustic” guitar, a one-of-a-kind signed edition made especially to be raffled at the 2009 Festival. A few more house parties like this and they could take their show on the road!
Music in southwest Louisiana is as deeply ingrained a part of the culture as red beans and rice and grillades and grits. And is part of the menu on many a Lafayette house party.
Photos and video by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
Great article about a great party . Thanks
Posted by: Ann Baker | January 08, 2015 at 07:02 PM
And the amazing thing is that this is not an exception to the rule down here, gives you an idea why I keep returning.
Posted by: Paul A. Tamburello, Jr. aka pt at large | January 08, 2015 at 07:04 PM
Did I tell you I went to Hank Williams' boyhood home?
Loved the video of your cheating heart. Honestly I liked her version better.
Posted by: K Jones | January 08, 2015 at 07:58 PM
Really nice coverage......had no idea Katy and her husband are such great musicians. Thanks for giving them to the world.
Posted by: May Louise White | January 09, 2015 at 09:35 AM