In the living room of the house he shares with his four band mates and one other musician, Wilson Savoy unfolds a couple sheets of legal-sized paper and points to the layout for The Pine Leaf Boys new CD, La Musique. There, on the back of the CD, is a tiny guitar shape with the word Arhoolie running across it.

"It meant a lot to see this symbol on our CD," says Savoy.

For the band it's the high-water mark of a year where, despite their incredibly laidback ways, they've begun aggressively burning their brand into the side of Cajun music.

Before April, the band only could be heard playing either on campus or in the parking lot of Gallagher's, near the Lamar Street house where members Jon Bertand (guitar), Savoy (accordion and vocals) and Cedric Watson (fiddle, vocals) lived. The line-up, which varied depending on who was available and whether they wanted to wait until then-performer Chris Segura was out of class, might take in a total of $20 in tips. They would scarcely make it past Papa John's with their bounty.

Then in April the best thing that possibly could have happened to a young band happened to The Pine Leaf Boys: An authority figure took issue with them. They Pine Leaf Boys were kicked off University of Louisiana's campus where they had been playing since August 2004. The story ran in area media outlets and locals began calling The Pine Leaf Boys for gigs.

"Back in April, it was kind of a joke," says Savoy, citing their Web site that contained humorous bios and nonsense quotes. "Then people actually liked our music ... at first it was a joke for us to get together and play some music. We never honestly thought we'd start traveling with the name Pine Leaf Boys."

Now, they've played a nine-day tour of California, gigged in Ireland and are playing the Chicago University Music Festival in February. Next year also will feature The Pine Leaf Boys at an instructional dance camp in Edgewater, Md., and Festivals Acadiens. More important and impressive, Arhoolie Records has signed on to release, distribute and promote La Musique. This Friday, they release a limited amount of the CDs and shoot a promo DVD at The Blue Moon Saloon.

Arhoolie Records is the product of Chris Strachwitz and was primarily formed to record his musical hero, lightning Hopkins. In the label's 45-year history, Arhoolie has moved records by Hackberry Ramblers, BeauSoleil and was the first to record both Country Joe & The Fish and Clifton Chenier. Although not a household name, its focus on heritage and roots music rightfully earns Arhoolie clout, and its domestic and European distribution and promotion muscle is a viable asset for a band on its way up. La Musique's early march entry to the Arhoolie catalog puts them in elite company along side Joe Falcon, Nathan Abshire, "Bois Sec" Ardoin, Amede Ardoin, Dewey Balfa, DL Menard and Harry Choates. Currently, The Pine Leaf Boys are the youngest band on the label's Cajun and zydeco roster. With their oldest member Bertrand only being 24 and their youngest Blake Miller (bass, fiddle, guitar) only 19, they may be the youngest for the label's entire catalog. The record is the first Cajun release -- especially not a compilation -- in some time.

Though Strachwitz has known Savoy all his life, he didn't hesitate to tell the young musician what he thought of The Pine Leaf Boys' first demo. He hated it. It was schlock, it was horrible. Arhoolie would never release it.

To record the demo, the band walked into Lafayette's La Louisianne studios with what was left of $300 from a beer and whiskey run. They didn't know what they were going to record and pulled in a bunch of friends, including Chris Segura and Anna Laura Edmiston of La Bande Feufollet. The extra help pushed Watson's role on Pine Leaf Boy Two Step to drinking whiskey, beer and hollering. His hollers can be heard on the track, which is a rare salvage from the session that made its way to La Musique. The crowded session caused Strachwitz to question "who is the band?"

But with his negativity, he pointed out the records faults and told Savoy what could make it better.

"It was because of him, though, he gave us this guidance, how to go make a better record. It meant a lot to us," says Savoy. "The important thing was we realized, 'My God, we have a lot of work to do. Let's take it back to the drawing board.' We needed a unique sound. We need some kind of sound that when you hear it, (you say) that's The Pine Leaf Boys. We didn't have that back then. We were just a generic Cajun band. I think we finally ... Jon (Bertand) made the comment last week, I think we finally got that sound where you hear it after five seconds, if you know Cajun music, you think, 'Oh that's The Pine Leaf Boys.'"

La Musique was recorded a month ago at Savoy's brother's studio and originally slated for a self-release. Savoy, Watson and Bertrand went to California for a series of gigs. While there, Strachwitz caught their first show and swiped a CD from them. He'd took them to eat crabs and put them up at the apartment that adjoins the Arhoolie store. At the store, he let them take whatever CDs they wanted -- netting about 40 discs from traditional Cajun to Haitian music -- and gave them free reign of his DVD collection.

As he rubs his belly, Watson says they ate all his cheese and drank his beer. Before Drew Simon (vocals, drums and accordion) headed to Accupress to have La Musique made, Savoy called him and said to hold off -- Strachwitz wanted to put it out on Arhoolie.

"I was sleeping in my room and Wilson called Drew, and Drew walked in my room and said, 'Hey we are gonna be on Arhoolie, I flipped out," says Miller. "That's a huge thing."

Adds Savoy, "For him (Strachwitz) to say we were the best Cajun band in centuries, that just blew us away, 'cause he hates everything."

If Bertrand and Savoy's original roommate wouldn't have found the Lord, it's likely Arhoolie wouldn't have found The Pine Leaf Boys. Fed up with their good-timing ways, the roommate moved out, leaving an empty room in the house. Watson, a young Texas fiddler who came to the area to reconnect to his Creole roots, moved into the room after crashing at the house when he had too much of a good time. Miller, a UL student, knew Savoy and spent time at the Lamar house. At one point, the housemates nearly charged Drew Simon, another UL student, for groceries because he spent so much time there. Now, he has his own mini-fridge, so, Bertrand says, he can drink out of the carton.

The housemates would jam causally together and eventually started playing in Gallagher's parking lot. Sometimes' they'd head to campus and, before adding Simon and Miller, play with Chris Segura when he got out of class.

On Christmas Eve, they went caroling to Pine Island, Bertrand's hometown. In the cold blowing wind, Savoy saw one sole leaf in a pine tree. He says he thought it was interesting, unique and beautiful, "much like us." He called Watson and said they'd have to name the band The Pine Leaf Boys.

"We don't know if that actually happened or not," says Savoy.

"It could have all been a dream," adds Bertrand.

By April 2005, The Pine Leaf Boys were in their second semester playing at UL. They commandeered the corner of St. Mary and Rex streets, an area frequently used by student groups. To get access to the corner, the dean of students requires that an organization must be a student group and fill out a form. For the sake of expression, or perhaps just in line with their own laissez faire ways, The Pine Leaf Boys didn't apply.

Bertrand recalls thinking, "What would happen if we played Cajun music on campus?"

For Savoy, it was simple enough: "It all started just 'cause the weather was beautiful and we wanted to go outside and jam. There's a bunch of cute girls, the weather is nice, people hanging out. We just wanted to do it because we were playing traditional, acoustic music. We wanted to show all the young people who go to campus that there are still young people who do this and it's not just old man, boring yankee-yankified music."

The band didn't pay their ejection from UL much mind, but the music community in Lafayette certainly did. Before long, The Pine Leaf Boys were fielding calls asking them to join bills and being booked into their own gigs. Their name spread, and music fans wanted to come see the band UL brushed off campus. Savoy reports that he was asked about the incident as far away as Michigan. Now, they laugh, it was the best thing to happen to them.

Living in the house, The Pine Leaf Boys have built a camaraderie often possessed by roommates. They've got their inside jokes and their own brand of humor, adorning the house with merchandise of modern Cajun music. In the living room, an autographed Hunter Hayes poster is pinned up on one wall. Two sweat towels hang above the sofa -- one embroidered with an accordion and the name Steve, likely belonging to Steve Riley; the other is one zydeco musician Keith Frank sells. On top of the entertainment center, there's a Jamie Bergeron bobble head. On the front porch, a faux political sign declaring "This is Keith Frank Country" has been marked out to read "This is Pine Leaf Boy Country." The band jokes about them, saying they are razzing the merchandise and branding of Cajun and zydeco music.

Although their shenanigans make for diversions, The Pine Leafs Boys commune helps their music. Playing together on top of living together doesn't seem to bother them, as they get along and enjoy the same things and the same music. Between all six musicians in the house (their other roommate plays fiddle), there's always music in the house, whether an impromptu front-porch jam or the old Lomax and Blind Uncle Gaspard recordings that lull Watson to sleep at night. This Tuesday afternoon, a rare occasion when they are all at home at the same time, music by Clifton Chenier -- now their label mate -- drifts out the screen door.

"Its just great 'cause a lot of bands have to get together and have to practice. They have to say, 'Hey, we are going to practice this Wednesday,'" Savoy says. "But when you all live together, you just play. We don't even call it practice. Everyone's always jamming."

Though only together just more than a year, the band's individual résumés put them as some of the brightest young Cajun talent on the Acadiana music scene.

Simon, whose grandfather played swamp pop guitar, grew up listening to Cajun music. His housemates joke he has lived his life backwards, first playing drums with Acadien, which also included his brother, before learning accordion and starting his singing. Miller, though the youngest, has more years of experience than most of his housemates. His grandfather, Larry Miller -- an accordion maker in Iota -- gave him a cheap accordion and told him if he learned to play 10 songs, he would build him a nice one. After earning a Bon Tee Accordion, he learned the guitar -- sneaking time with his father's axe when he was offshore -- and then the fiddle.

Bertand jokes he was found on the steps of La Poussiere in Breaux Bridge but was actually raised in Elton, where Louisiana music legends were all around him in his Jefferson Davis Parish surroundings. Canray Fontenot loaded feed in Welsh; Bois Sec Ardoin bought chicken feed from his family. However, he rarely heard them play. When his parents bought him a guitar as a youngster and forced him to learn, he refused the instrument. Cory McCauley, of the Evangeline Aces, offered him to get him into a bar where he performed if Bertrand could play. Since then, he's toured with The Lost Bayou Ramblers.

Savoy was born into the upper levels of Cajun hierarchy, the son of Marc and Ann Savoy, and grew up watching Denis McGee play at his house. Though trained in piano, playing boogie woogie, Savoy felt he could not play the accordion his father made him from a sassafras tree. One morning while in Baton Rouge attending LSU, the morning light shone on the accordion as it rested on a shelf. The beauty inspired Savoy to take it into a wooded area of campus and squeeze until he got it right. He's traveled with his family across the country and internationally.

When Watson came to Louisiana from the Houston area, he says he was a gypsy. Savoy adds he had a penny in his pocket and was always borrowing money. Watson learned guitar at 14, but later started playing fiddle, fueled by the tapes of KRVS and trail rides. In addition to being a member of The Pine Leaf Boys, he plays with C.C. Adcock and the Creole Cowboys -- and now has his own car.

"Now he's a millionaire" Savoy jokes.

With that much recognizable talent, it's easy for The Pine Leaf Boys to make their mark. With their versatility -- fluent on different instruments -- they take it a step further. Switching up instruments and duties gives the band a fresh, multi-faceted sound. Between the emerging trademark Pine Leaf swap and with three singers -- Savoy, Watson and Simon -- in one move the band completely morphs from a modern-yet-rooted Cajun band with Savoy at the helm to pre-zydeco Creole when Watson takes charge. The sound is reflected on La Musique, a CD that could pass for a three-band compilation instead of a solo effort.

"Everybody has different ways of approaching singing," says Bertrand. "Everybody's into something different. Drew's really into Lawrence Walker and Belton Richard. That adds a really different dimension, as opposed to just strictly Wilson singing this Cajun stuff and Cedric singing this Creole stuff."

Savoy adds, "We look at playing these gigs more like a jam session, 'cause at a jam session we play real loose. We play whatever we want to play. Everyone plays all their instruments so well. We get different sounds. It makes a good mix ... it changes the whole sound of the band."

"That's the biggest problem with this music," chimes Watson. "Everything's the same. Everyone's pretty much covering the same songs. But we have our own little thing that we do, and we add other songs that other people don't even play, because why pay this much to go see this person when you gonna go pay to see the other person play the same thing?"

The band straddles a dichotomy of maintaining traditional sounds yet making their own way. On some arrangements, the band employs twin fiddles and accordion. While it has a place in history, with use by The Balfa Brothers and Lawrence Walker, today the beautiful sound is scarce, save for performers such as Balfa Toujours and Ray Abshire.

"That's a beautiful sound for the fiddles to play with each other, kind of have this helix of interweaving fiddle ride," says Savoy.

Although they love Dewey Balfa, their Web site contains a satirical lesson on how to sing like him. Simon's advice is to think of the saddest thing possible and then dig your fingernails into your thigh. Though it carries Balfa's name, it's a dig to performers who try to copy the late legend.

"We're definitely not trying to poke fun at old masters or anything," says Miller. "We all go through the Belton (Richard)-slash-Dewey-slash-Lawrence-(Walker) phases ... master everybody's style, then come up with your own."

"One of the best comments I ever got on my singing was that you sound like yourself," says Simon.

La Musique's 14 cuts perfectly capture their spirit, shattering any self-effacing generic tag Savoy once put on the band. Their looseness comes across as effortless talent as they switch up duties and play what can best be described as rollicking back-porch music. With the subtle changes in their style and the three vocalists' distinct sounds, the album never lags as it crackles along, recorded on analog. It's remarkably adherent to old styles, with its roots running deep, yet it is incredibly fresh and resoundingly vibrant.

"All of us love Dewey, but we find that today too many musicians want to copy his style to the very 100 percent. And we don't like copying," says Savoy. "It's nice to take influences from different sources, but don't try to be the guy. ... As a joke we went and started writing this thing how to sing exactly like Dewey Balfa. And some people get offended by some things we do, like maybe that, but it's all in good fun.

"Hopefully we are living examples that you don't need to copy. You can take a little piece from each guy."

Nick Pittman is entertainment editor of The Times. To comment on this article, e-mail nick.pittman@timesofacadiana.com.