Spotlight: BeauSoleil

It's 8am, a seemingly ungodly hour for a musician, but BeauSoleil's Michael Doucet is on the phone, wide awake and full of good humor.

"It's either 'good morning,' or it's been an extra-late night," chuckles the 57-year-old fiddler. Doucet is particularly jolly in regards to Alligator Purse (Yep Roc), the latest in BeauSoleil's long line of indelible Cajun dishes.

"It's the only record I've ever heard of ours," he claims. "I never listen to our stuff. I always think we can do something better, but this one was actually so much fun that I actually listen to it, and it still makes me laugh. That's how I judge our records, how much it makes me laugh."

Lafayette, La.'s BeauSoleil has been making records since the mid-1970s and is widely regarded as the foremost Cajun band of our day. They made the unusual choice of using film/television producer Michael Pillot to produce Alligator Purse and recorded it in Rhinebeck, N.Y., in the Hudson River Valley.

"Pillot is an old buddy of mine," Doucet relates. "He once told me, 'If you ever want to get somewhere in this business, sing in English.' That was in 1972. We graduated from high school together in 1969."

Pillot was responsible for 2005's Build the Levee benefit for victims of Katrina and Rita and invited BeauSoleil to participate. That led to the new LP, which features New Yorkers such as Garth Hudson, Natalie Merchant, and the Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian.

"He invited those people. That's what a producer is supposed to do," the Louisiana legend explains. "Music is a different language. There are so many things you can say and so many ways you can say it, and I love when it's spontaneous. We cut this whole thing live. It's a very humorous conversation about what was in our heads."