Cajun country, the prairie region of central Louisiana more historically known as Acadiana, takes hold of certain people who visit. I made my first trip there in the 90s and found myself in magical territory, experiencing late night zydeco dances, live local radio featuring old-time Cajun music sung in French, and of course magnificent food. I think about it all the time. The region had the same allure for Nashville singer-songwriter Miss Tess, who’s been visiting and making musical connections there for more than a decade, especially at and around October’s annual Blackpot Festival and Cookoff, hosted by the progressive Cajun band The Revelers. So it was perhaps inevitable that the sound and feeling would inspire her own work, as it has on the new album Cher Rêve.
“Right away it becomes obvious just how open and generous and participatory people are down there, you know, and how woven into the culture music and food and dancing is,” Tess says in Episode 318 of The String. “And I've just come to really appreciate people who live their lives joyfully. They don't take those things for granted, because I think those things are very integral to the human experience.”
As for the album, the concept side of it started in a conversation with Tess’s partner in life and music Thomas Bryan Eaton. “He had this idea,” she relates. “What if you did a regionally based thing, since we've been traveling for like 20 years and we have these little hubs scattered in various places. What if we did an album in somebody else's community?” And the obvious first choice was Lafayette, LA, the host town of Blackpot, given their longstanding ties and passion for Louisiana sounds. “All the musicians there have a similar love of Cajun music and honestly classic country too. And some spillover from New Orleans like swamp pop, and Fats Domino and Bobby Charles, and all the music that was happening in the 50s and 60s.”
So they took three long days at the studio run by regional fixture Joel Savoy, who engineered and played fiddle. They came up with a charming nine-song set that’s regionally inspired but not genre-bound. Brush strokes of accordion and pulsing fiddles are complimented with Tess’s long-established love of old R&B, classic country and rock and roll, as on rollicking “Ride That Train,” a remake of an original song she debuted on her 2016 project Baby, We All Know. Another even more ambitious (and regional) song revival finds Tess singing her 2020 album title track “The Moon Is An Ashtray” in French as “La Lune C’est Un Cendrier,” and her story of how that got inspired and translated is a highlight of the interview.
My favorite songs include the opening track “Louisiana,” a somewhat anthemic ode to the state and its spirit, set to a comfortable sway and featuring some crafty composing as the chorus hits. “Learning Not To Care” is a timeless American song like an unearthed 45 from the early 60s. And the closer finds Tess singing in French again and tapping Cajun textures directly on the danceable “La Valse D’asteur.”
“It means, like the “waltz of the current moment,” and it was co-written by me and the accordion player on the album (Blake Miller), who was fluent in French,” Tess says. “It was still in (the) pandemic. And I was like, oh the world's falling apart - a kind of apocalyptic waltz. And (Blake) sort of arranged the lyrics in French to make it make sense.”
Tess took piano lessons growing up in Maryland, but she studied graphic arts at college in Baltimore, just as she was starting to get interested in the guitar and songwriting. She was drawn to Boston where she deepened her passion for jazz through select classes at the Berklee College of Music. There she was recognized by the Boston Music Awards, and she made friends with a network of traditional and progressive acoustic musicians. Then it was on to New York City, where she met Eaton, and eventually on to Music City, where the slower pace and little things like being able to park in a driveway after tour won her over.
Tess tells all this well. We range across her varied musical experiences and explore how wanderlust has shaped her life. Besides ample selections from her new album, we hear songs from other chapters and special settings. I hope you’ll take it as inspiration to listen back through her catalog and to catch her live at Dee’s in Madison on May 8.
