A Playboy's Life

Somewhere, work must have begun on Steve Riley's star on the Cajun walk of fame. Riley & The Mamou Playboys have been tearing up the Saturday night and festival scene since 1988 and are now as much a staple at a South Louisiana festival as steaming bowls of jambalaya and plastic cups of cold beer.

During their 14-year run, they have put out eight albums, some that stuck close to the heart of traditional Cajun and others that tried a more contemporary tune. On top of this, they have performed at countless festivals across the globe, bringing Cajun music to such unlikely places as Australia and Japan.

Speaking of festivals, The Playboys will once again take the stage at this year's Festivals Acadiens, an event that they have not missed since their inception. This year, The Times decided to pick Riley's brain about the importance of Festivals Acadiens, what it is like to be an ambassador of Cajun music and the possibility of throwing some metal into his set list.

The Times: How did you first get involved in performing?

Riley: I grew up in Mamou. I grew up hearing a lot of music. There were musicians on both sides of my family. Marc Savoy - I grew up hearing him play - he's my second cousin, and he and Dennis McGee would play at my grandmother's house. I learned to sing when I was about 3. (I) learned a few songs from my grandfather.

The Times: Was that in French or English?

Riley: French.

The Times: When did you get your first instrument?

Riley: I learned my first song when I was 7 from my great uncle, and I got my first accordion when I was 13.

The Times: And what kind of accordion was it?

Riley: Hohner. It was cheap; it wasn't handmade. It wasn't a Louisiana handmade; it was a German model. I learned really quick, so a year later, when I was 14, I got a Marc Savoy accordion.

The Times: How does that compare to the one you are playing now?

Riley: Well, the Marc Savoy accordion I got when I was 14, I am still playing on today.

The Times: It's seen some performances, eh?

Riley: Yeah, it's been through hell, but it still looks good and sounds great.

The Times: Other than family influences, what are some of the things you heard that shaped your music?

Riley: Well, at the beginning of my career, the biggest influence on me was Dewey Balfa, and I started listening to his music right off when I got my first accordion. I found one of his records in my grandfather's collection, and you know I thought it was the best thing I had ever heard. It was Marc Savoy playing accordion on the record - Marc Savoy and The Balfa Brothers. I met Dewey when I was 15 and started playing in his band as a substitute accordion player not long after I met him.

And he was my biggest hero, and it was just a great thing to finally meet him and connect with him. He kind of took me under his wing.

The Times: When was it that you first played Festivals Acadiens?

Riley: The first time I played Festivals Acadiens was not with my band, it was playing guitar with Dewey's band. I guess I was probably 16 or 17.

The Times: What was it like to walk onto that stage for the first time?

Riley: It was great. You know back then, when you were a teenager, it was a huge deal to play on that stage, especially with someone with as big a name and personality as Dewey Balfa. And it was great. I loved playing music and (I was) really kind of fearless to get up and play in any situation.

The Times: At that time, had you been performing a lot?

Riley: I had been playing for a while with other bands and musicians, but it was definitely one of the earliest highlights of my career ... to play at Festivals Acadiens with Dewey. The Playboys were formed in 1988 - early '88 - and I am pretty sure that was the first time we played Festivals Acadiens, was in '88, and we played there every year since.

The Times: Why do you keep going back?

Riley: The band's been together since '88, and I remember every year that we have played there we would showcase our new material. I would always make a point of giving the crowd something new, something that we hadn't done the year before.

Festivals means a lot because it really focuses on Cajun music, on the French language and keeping it close to home that way and keeping it real, and it is reflected in the bands that they get. So everybody that plays that stage needs to pay tribute to what the music and the language stand for.

The Times: Having played Festivals Acadiens for so many years, what are some of the changes you have seen from that stage?

Riley: I think the crowd gets bigger and bigger. What I really like to see is a lot of young people coming out and really digging traditional French music.

The Times: Back in 1988, Cajun music wasn't what it is today. There were no rumblings of a Grammy category. That was before Cajun was known the world over and considered "cool." What's it like now that it has become such a big deal?

Riley: Well, to me, Cajun music has always been cool. It is what I grew up with. I have always liked it. No one ever gave me shit for it. I wouldn't let them, because, like when I was in high school, I was listening to The Balfa Brothers when everyone else was listening to Foreigner, or whatever, and Kiss in the '80s.

But back then, when we first started playing, we were pretty much the only young band, or one of the only young bands, and now there are so many Cajun bands out, and there are so many young people interested in it. That was one thing that Dewey Balfa was worried about. He was worried about the music surviving because there weren't many young people into it. He passed away in '93, and I think he would be amazed as to what is going on now.

The Times: That's the thought behind Louisiana Folk Roots. Is that why you have been a part of that?

Riley: I think that's great. When I first started traveling with Dewey, we would travel around and teach and play these camps in New York state and West Virginia and teach Cajun music to people. I think it's great that Christine (Balfa) is finally making that thing happen here. I think that is the logical thing that should be happening.

The Times: When did you realize that Cajun culture was something special and limited to this area?

Riley: When I started traveling with Dewey, when I was 15 years old, and he would always tell me how lucky we are to have the culture that we have, because not many people have a culture as rich as ours. When you travel you see that, you see some amazing things, you see some great cultures, you see some great parts of the world, you hear some great music.

But what we have here is amazing and traveling really makes you appreciate that, and you also realize that people in general want to belong to something. They want to be a part of something. I think that's why you have so many people from outside of Louisiana come down to this festival, who love the culture, love the people - because we are really warm-hearted people.

We open our arms to outsiders, and we are very giving with what we have. Dewey was that way. It was reflected through him, through the people down here, and people just want to belong to something. They just want to be part of something, and Festivals Acadiens just enables that.

The Times: You are one of the biggest names in this area's music scene, and probably considered a "poster boy" for young Cajun music by a lot of folks. Does that create any pressure on you?

Riley: That's kind of the first time I have heard of that really. The Playboys, we love what we do. We are able to play music for a living, work hard at what we do, work hard at our music, work hard at what we write and we just try - when we do records - to record stuff that sounds good, record songs that are good, and we just take a lot of pride in what we do. And if everyone else thinks that's great, well, that's great for us.

The Times: What makes a Playboys' record a Playboys' record?

Riley: We experiment a lot in the studio and a lot in our writing. Because of that, there is a lot of different sounds that come from this band. Most of us play different instruments, and it is just a wide range of sounds that comes from the stage when we play, and we put that on our records. We have done a lot of straightforward traditional Cajun music. I think that it is just a lot of depth as far as musicianship in this band and as far as the songwriting goes, and I think it comes across on our records.

The Times: Speaking of range, I am pretty sure I saw you at the Hank Williams III show at the Rinky-Dink. Is there any chance you might get into a little hellbilly or thrash anytime soon?

Riley: I doubt it! Actually the point that we are at right now, the last two records we have kind of taken a left turn and done a lot of different things. We did Bayou Ruler, which is a more rocking album, more swamp pop. But at this point in time, we are really more tuned into doing more traditional stuff. You can hear it in the stuff we are writing lately and the way we sound on stage. You got Sam (Broussard) playing more acoustic guitar and just doing more traditional stuff, more acoustic-sounding stuff.

The Times: What do you think the climax of your career was?

Riley: Oh, Lord, there's so many of them, you know. That is hard to say. One of the highlights of my career that I always tell people about is when I went up to New York City and recorded with Paul Simon and Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. It was actually Edie Brickell's record. Paul Simon was there playing guitar, and that was a highlight.

Closer to home, Festivals Acadiens is a highlight for us every year. We love coming home and playing that festival. It is the end of the summer and we are usually home for a while at that point, and it is always a challenge because we play it every year, and every year we want to give the people something new.

The Times: How did the band appearing on ABC's Fourth of July special come about?

Riley: ABC called up and said that one of their producers came to this festival that we play every year on Labor Day weekend in Rhode Island. He saw us play, and he wanted to get us on the special. So they called up and said, "Are you playing anywhere on the Fourth?" I said, "No, not right now, but by tomorrow at this time I'll have us playing somewhere."

So, I just called around to see what was happening in Louisiana because we were going to be home that weekend and found out about the Erath festival and figured that would be the best place. The town of Erath made a time slot for us, and ABC came down.

It was crazy, man, right before we went on air, just getting the sound right, it was really kind of manic. But it all came together at the last minute, and I think it all came across pretty good.

The Times: It was something to see Erath broadcast all over the nation.

Riley: Yeah, I think it was a great shot in the arm for Cajun music and South Louisiana, and I think it made even Erath look pretty good.

The Times: Speaking of gigs, what is the farthest out you have played?

Riley: We have been to Australia a couple of times. We have been to Japan and throughout Europe.

The Times: How do fans receive you in those places?

Riley: Great, man. This music is accepted great everywhere we play. I think - especially when you go to faraway places like Japan and Australia - it is just something that is so different and so exotic to people who don't know what it is. It is like something you have never heard. And it is really upbeat music that is played with a lot of soul and a lot of energy, and it is hard not to get a response from people when you are playing music that sounds that way.

Nick Pittman is staff writer for The Times. Phone him at 237-3560, ext. 140, or e-mail him at nick.pittman@timesofacadiana.com.