Ann Savoy Preserves, Shares Cajun Music and Culture

By John Roos

It's hard to imagine anyone who has satisfied their soul more than Ann Allen Savoy.

As a mother, wife, artist, photographer, singer, songwriter, musician, and ethnomusicologist, Savoy has integrated all these challenging roles and skills into one very connected whole.

Savoy is the authoritative voice of Cajun music and history, having compiled and edited Cajun Music: A Reflection of a People, Volumes I and II, after spending years traversing the bayous and prairies of Southwest Louisiana researching and conducting hundreds of in-depth interviews with influential Creole, Cajun, and zydeco musicians and their descendants.

Yet, perhaps lesser known is that Savoy has family roots reaching back to Virginia in the 1600s, and she spent her formative years in Richmond as a burgeoning artist, photographer, and folk singer. Savoy also traveled abroad in her teens before eventually returning to Virginia where she earned her Bachelor's degree in French (with a minor in English Literature) at Mary Baldwin College.

A pivotal point in Savoy's life came in 1975 when she attended the National Folk Festival at the Wolf Trap Farm in Vienna, Va., to meet Cajun musician and master accordion builder Marc Savoy. Both their lives were forever changed when Marc invited Ann--who was playing funky country-blues guitar at the time --to his home in Eunice, LA, to sing the Cajun songs he'd known and loved all his life. With Marc on accordion and Ann on rhythm guitar and vocals, the couple started playing around the house and discovered the musical magic the two could generate together. Ann soon left her life in Richmond behind and the couple married in 1977.

"Things really came together for me when I met Marc," recalled Savoy during a recent phone interview. "The lure of Louisiana was strong, I found that culture and history to be fascinating."

What's more, in addition to learning to play Cajun music alongside her husband--and later as a integral part of the Savoy Family Band, Savoy-Doucet Band, Magnolia Sisters, plus as a solo artist--Savoy at the same time nourished all her other artistic pursuits.

"I was able to use every single thing that I had learned in my life when I moved to Louisiana, it was a huge culimination of all I had been doing up to that point," she added. "I've been involved not just in the singing, songwriting, recording, and playing, but the creation and design of our album covers, photos, liner notes, and artwork. I kept writing my journals everyday. It was a life full of wonder."

While much of Savoy's time and energy is devoted to the preservation of Cajun music and culture, last year's solo project, Another Heart (Smithsonian Folkways), takes listeners back to those folk/pop singer-songwriters who influenced her the most during her teen years, including Richard Thompson, Ray Davies of the Kinks, Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Donovan, and Carl Jones.

"These are songs that still mean a lot to me, and I'm so happy that right now in my life, I'm able to do personal projects like this that people are showing an interest in," said Savoy. "This recording is really just a continuation of the project (2006's Adieu False Heart ) Linda Ronstadt and I did many years ago, only without Linda. Another Heart is not a Cajun record, but (producer) Dirk Powell and I used a canvas where we've painted on instruments that you would otherwise not hear, like an accordion or the Cajun fiddle, on a British pop song like "Waterloo Sunset." So, having that artistic freedom to experiment with different textures like this allowed me to add elements of who I am now."

There are also three Savoy originals on Another Heart, including an homage to Savoy's husband titled "Cajun Love Song"; the heartbreaking “Triste Samedi (A Sad Saturday/A Hurricane Song),” which was sadly inspired by the personal and physical destruction caused by numerous Louisiana storms; and "Gabie's New Year's Eve Lament," a co-write with one of Savoy's daughters, Gabrielle. In fact, the collection features all four of the Savoy (adult) children, with daughters Sarah and Gabrielle singing harmonies, and sons Joel and Wilson playing fiddle and accordion, respectively. Other notable guest performers include Rhiannon Giddens and slide guitarist Sonny Landreth.

As for Savoy's partiality towards traditional Cajun music, look no further than the Magnolia Sisters, the all-female quartet that plays Friday night at the Ashkenaz in their first Bay Area appearance since Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2010. The current lineup, featuring lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist/accordionist Savoy plus multi-instrumentalists/vocalists Jane Vidrine, Anya Burgess, and Lisa Trahan, specializes in authentic ballads, waltzes, and two-steps with themes focused on love, heartbreak, family, fun, food, and friends. That is, everyday life in one's community.

"It's such a joy to play in the Sisters . . . we get to call our own shots, we switch around between instruments, and these are songs we can relate to as women," said Savoy. "We all have similar tastes in music so it's not hard to decide which (traditional and original) songs we want to add to our repertoire. There's a lot of poetry in these older, timeless songs, and the hauntingness of those old melodies just gives me a chill."

In addition to their selected originals, the Magnolia Sisters six (6) recordings offer heartfelt arrangements of source material from some of Cajun music's pioneers, including Alex Broussard, Dennis McGee, Canray Fontenot, Dewey Balfa, D.L. Menard, and Iry LeJeune, among others. Some covers, though, are rarer but equally worthy. Portions of the vintage source material used are archived at the Catherine Brookshire Blanchet Collection at the Center for Louisiana Studies in Lafayette and the Alan Lomax Collection at the Library of Congress.

"We listen to a lot of music, some made by people who went no further than three miles from their farms," said Savoy. "We have so many influences and we try to keep this music sounding pure but still put ourselves into it because music is all about self-expression. So, we make it as fresh as we can . . . take the songs out, air them out, and rescue them from obscurity."

Other Savoy highlights from a career spanning over 40 years include recording an album with Linda Ronstadt (as the ZOZO Sisters) titled Adieu False Heart (2006); producing a pair of crossover tribute albums, Evangeline Made (2002) and Creole Bred (2004); and appearing with her son Joel in the film Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002). A bit more recently, Savoy dipped into Django-style jazz with 2007's If Dreams Come True, an adventuresome, uptempo recording with Her Sleepless Knights, featuring fiddler Kevin Wimmer and lead guitarist Tom Mitchell, plus special guests including her sons Joel (octave violin, rhythm guitar) and Wilson (piano). Equally memorable, the Magnolia Sisters have received two Grammy award nominations in the Best Regional Roots Music Album category for their recordings Stripped Down (2010) and Love's Lies (2015).

As for the universal appeal of Cajun music, even for those who don't speak French, it comes down to power of the music, how the timeless vocals and instruments working in unison makes one feel, how it moves you.

"I believe people are drawn to the darker undertones, drones, and rhythmic drive of the music," suggests Savoy. "It's about getting your hearts touched. There's a certain sorrow--and magic--where it's both fun and sad, sort of that unique place where all hearts blend."

Reflecting on her life's journey, Savoy knows just how enriching her chosen path continues to be amongst her community of like minds.

"I cannot believe the gifts I've been given in my life," she asserts. "My music, my art, my children and husband. This loving community. When I was a teenager in Richmond, Virginia, I would never have imagined the heights I would reach, it's incredible, truly. I think about it a lot and am extremely grateful."

*Ann Savoy and the Magnolia Sisters perform Friday evening at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center, 1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley; (510) 525-5099. 8 p.m., free dance lessons start at 7:30 p.m. $20-$25 including fees. www.ashkenaz.com.