A Cajun version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" featuring a family named Hébert rather than three bears.

Dave Robicheaux is back in this powerful New York Times bestseller that takes him into the underbelly of New Iberia’s mafia to solve the brutal murder of two teenage girls. When a beautiful teenage girl is killed, New Iberia police detective Dave Robicheaux senses that the most likely suspect, Tee Bobby Hulin, is not the actual killer. Though a drug addict and general neer-do-well, Hulin just doesn’t fit the profile for this kind of crime. He’s a Cajun blues singer (one of his songs is titled “Jolie Blon’s Bounce”), and he’s been raised by his grandmother Ladice Hulin, a proud and strong-willed black woman. But when there’s another, similar murder—this victim a drugged-out prostitute who happens to be the daughter of one of the local mafia bigwigs—the cries for an arrest become too loud to ignore. The mafia figure, however, prefers to take matters in his own hand and sets out to find—and punish—the killer himself. Once again, Tee Bobby Hulin seems the most likely suspect. Added to the mix of characters on the good guy side of the balance sheet is Clete Purcel, a long-time buddy of Robicheaux’s and a confirmed boozer and womanizer. Coming to New Iberia for a visit, Clete is quickly drawn into the struggle between the various forces of evil in the town: Jimmy Dean Styles, a black man intent on maintaining his empire of corruption; Joe Zeroski, a trailer-park mafioso with palatial aspirations—and of course Legion Guidrey, the devil incarnate.

The ideal handbook for every rock-n-roll pilgrim, Music USA tours the musical heritage of America, from New York to Seattle, stopping at all the shrines of sound in between. Coverage includes background on the development of local music styles, with details on clubs and venues, radio stations and record stores nationwide.

The virtual renaissance of all things Cajun and Creole has captivated enthusiasts throughout America and invigorated the culture back home. Who, just fifteen years ago, could have predicted that this regional music would become so astonishingly popular throughout the nation and the world? This new edition of a book first published in 1984 celebrates the music makers in the generation most responsible for the survival of Cajun music and zydeco and showcases many of the young performers who have emerged since them to give the music new spark. More than 100 color photographs, show them in their homes, on their front porches, and in their fields, as well as in performance at local clubs and dance halls and on festival stages. In interviews they speak directly about their lives, their music, and the vital tradition from which their rollicking music springs. Many of the legendary performers featured here--Dewey Balfa, Clifton Chenier, Nathan Abshire, Dennis McGee, Canray Fontenot, Varise Connor, Octa Clark, Lula Landry, and Inez Catalon--are no longer alive. Others from the early days continue to perform--Bois-sec Ardoin, Michael Doucet, D. L. Menard, and Zachary Richard. Their grandeur, humor, and humility are precisely the qualities this book captures. Featured too are young musicians who are taking their place in the dance halls, on festival stages, and on the folk music circuit. Cajun and Creole music makers, both young and old, still play in the old ways, but as young musicians--such as Geno Delafose and the French Rockin' Boogie, and Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys-- experiment and enrich the tradition with new sounds of rock, country, rap, and funk, the music evolves and enlivens a whole new audience. Barry Jean Ancelet, a native French-speaking Cajun, is chair of the Department of Modern Languages and director of the Center for Acadian and Creole Folklore at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Among his many books are Cajun Country and Cajun and Creole Folk Tales (both from the University Press of Mississippi). Elemore Morgan, Jr., is an artist and retired professor of visual art at University of Southwestern Louisiana.

James Lee Burke developed the character of Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux through twenty mystery novels published over three decades. Despite readers’ increasing interest in Detective Robicheaux, his habits and preferences originate from a culture still unfamiliar to many of the books’ fans. In Robicheaux’s Roots, Patricia M. Gaitely explores the music, food, language, and folklore of southwest Louisiana and illuminates the cultural sources that Burke incorporated into this gripping series. Part of Robicheaux’s appeal, Gaitely shows, rests in his connection to his hometown of New Iberia, with its faults, charm, and reliance on the old ways. Multiple cultural strands coexist in this region, including Creole and Cajun French dialect; African American folk sayings; swamp pop, zydeco, and blues music; and voodoo, Catholicism, evangelicalism, and faith healing. These aspects of Cajun life weave throughout Robicheaux’s world. The commingling of so many traditions provides multiple meanings for even the most common encounters—water can be both natural element and medium between living and dead; and gumbo, jambalaya, and crawfish may represent more than simply regional foods. Additionally, Gaitely demonstrates that beneath the pleasant veneer of southern hospitality, a persistent legacy of violence and vengeance leaves a lasting mark on the lives of Robicheaux and the other characters. Robicheaux’s Roots reveals how elements of south Louisiana’s culture signal a sense of belonging but also recall the area’s history of isolation. As a result, readers gain a deeper understanding of Robicheaux himself and an enhanced appreciation for Burke’s acclaimed series.

The tales of two very different southern families that come together in a marriage with children and grandchildren that each have a story to tell and parents that weave them into an anthology that is fun to read. Each are exciting new authors from 10 years old to 78 and each with something to say. The titles of their stories tell it all; Southern Innocence, Did You Ever See a Dog Smile, Cries In the Skies, or Blondes With Guns. If we had a mission in creating this book, it would have been to show that traditional southern grace and the simple elegance of southern family living have survived.

In 1946, Harry Choates, a Cajun fiddle virtuoso, changed the course of American musical history when his recording of the so-called Cajun national anthem "Jole Blon" reached number four on the national Billboard charts. Cajun music became part of the American consciousness for the first time thanks to the unprecedented success of this issue, as the French tune crossed cultural, ethnic, racial, and socio-economic boundaries. Country music stars Moon Mullican, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, and Hank Snow rushed into the studio to record their own interpretations of the waltz-followed years later by Waylon Jennings and Bruce Springsteen. The cross-cultural musical legacy of this plaintive waltz also paved the way for Hank Williams Sr.'s Cajun-influenced hit "Jamabalaya." Choates' "Jole Blon" represents the culmination of a centuries-old dialogue between the Cajun community and the rest of America. Joining into this dialogue is the most thoroughly researched and broadly conceived history of Cajun music yet published, Cajun Breakdown. Furthermore, the book examines the social and cultural roots of Cajun music's development through 1950 by raising broad questions about the ethnic experience in America and nature of indigenous American music. Since its inception, the Cajun community constantly refashioned influences from the American musical landscape despite the pressures of marginalization, denigration, and poverty. European and North American French songs, minstrel tunes, blues, jazz, hillbilly, Tin Pan Alley melodies, and western swing all became part of the Cajun musical equation. The idiom's synthetic nature suggests an extensive and intensive dialogue with popular culture, extinguishing the myth that Cajuns were an isolated folk group astray in the American South. Ryan André Brasseaux's work constitutes a bold and innovative exploration of a forgotten chapter in America's musical odyssey.