Balfa Toujours revel in the vitality and richness of the acoustic Cajun tradition on this project, recorded at the Balfa home in La Pointe, Louisiana with vintage analog equipment. Both the original offerings and ancient classics shoot straight from the heart, leaving us with a sense that the music has been taken off the pedestal and put back into everyday life where it belongs. Balfa Toujours are looking to the center of the culture for emotional power and depth. In doing so they arrive at La Pointe (The Point) in more ways than one.

Some thoughts from the band about this exciting project...

La Pointe. The Point. Such was the name the Acadians gave to their first settlement along the banks of Bayou Teche in 1765. This initial group, led by the legendary Joseph Broussard, had survived deportation, starvation, guerrilla warfare, and rampant disease; they had endured surrender and imprisonment; they had faced the bitter cold of the North Atlantic and the tropical heat of the Caribbean; in truth, they had suffered more in the ten years since their exile than many people could endure over a lifetime. Upon their arrival in Louisiana, these determined souls immediately began creating a life for themselves that was at once new and old, learning how to make the most of their surroundings at an astonishing rate. Their culture was intact, breathing and evolving, and family members scattered across the globe soon received the invitation to reunite with their loved ones in New Acadia. Within a generation, the culture was as entrenched in La Louisiane as it had been in L'Acadie.

Today La Pointe is home to Christine Balfa, whose ancestors, such as great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Guilbeau, were among the original settlers of the area. La Pointe is still living up to its promise. It is a place where descendants of the original Acadians revel in the culture that their ancestors struggled to maintain. It is also a place where outsiders are welcomed and brought into the fold, a practice without which the Acadians could not have survived. Many nights of impassioned, timeless music have occurred at the Balfa home here. A strong spirit, one that honors the past and assures the future, seems to reach out to those who venture to La Pointe.

In thinking about this project, we decided it was that vital spirit we most wanted to capture. We took the music off the stage and brought it back home, literally recording in the living room and kitchen. Recording in La Pointe, on banks of the Bayou Teche, enabled us to capture a feeling that often evaporates in the clinical environment of the studio. Not only were we at the very spot on which Cajun culture tried its new legs in the 1760's, we were also at home, where the soul of the music is strongest. The glare of the spotlight has been removed and the sheer joy of playing for its own sake shines through. We return to La Pointe, reminded that its been here all along, that we never really left. We hope you will come along for the ride. Together we can honor what happened here two centuries ago, revel in what is happening here now, and dream about what might lie in store as the Cajun legacy continues. Looking inward to the heart and soul of the tradition, we find ourselves, physically and spiritually, at La Pointe.

This site created and maintained by Kevin Wimmer (kwimmer@aol.com).
Copyright 1998, 1999 Kevin Wimmer and Balfa Toujours. All rights reserved.
Last updated 6/14/99.