BeauSoleil Avec Michael Doucet

Formed by Michael Doucet, a fiddler and singer immersed in Cajun music’s past and present, BeauSoleil is like a Cajun history lesson—only, you know, fun, what with its exuberant fiddle and accordion duels. Over the course of 20-plus albums in the past three decades, the band has blended other forms into the tradition, from Appalachian fingerpicking to Tex-Mex to New Orleans second-line jazz. The band won a Grammy in 2009 for the concert album Live At The 2008 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and its latest studio disc, Alligator Purse, features guest work from Natalie Merchant and The Band’s Garth Hudson.

Updated 11/02/2010