Lost Bayou Ramblers

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The Lost Bayou Ramblers are a Cajun music band from Pilette, Louisiana.

Growing up in Pilette (between Broussard and Lafayette), Louis Michot (fiddle and vocals) and his brother Andre (accordion), grandsons of entrepreneur Louis J. Michot, Jr., were immersed in roots Cajun music from birth, primarily since their father and uncles were already touring the world playing traditional songs as the band Les Freres Michot. After a decade of "initiation" on triangle, guitar, and bass, Andre and Louis took on the lead instruments of Cajun music, accordion and violin. When the brothers matched up with Chris "Oscar" Courville's bass-stomp centered drumming, Alan LaFleur's heavy-thumping upright bass and Cavan Carruth's hard-chocking rhythm guitar, the band began to play their "deep swamp beat" around Acadiana and eventually all over the United States. Since 1999, they have added dozens of original songs to complement their vast Cajun repertoire of hundreds of early accordion dancehall tunes, pre-century fiddle tunes, and Cajun swing.

The Lost Bayou Ramblers have toured through much of the United States, including performances at the International Country Music Conference in Nashville, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens' Chile Pepper Fiesta, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and historic Preservation Hall. The Ramblers had their first international performance in Lyon, France in November 2004, and their debut release, Pilette Breakdown (Swallow Records) has received critical acclaim across North America and Europe.

Whether performing in their native Louisiana or abroad, the Lost Bayou Ramblers passionately embrace their cultural and musical heritage, playing music intimately linked to the agrarian, working class lifestyle. Their music stems from a time before electricity, when the Gulf Coast's incapacitating heat only amplified the backbreaking stresses associated with the toil necessary to sustain a successful farm. Indeed, south Louisiana's work ethic was the natural force that ground through the Cajun ego, liberating in song the fervor and spirit of a people. The Lost Bayou Ramblers are like a snapshot of a bygone era. Their music is emotionally raw, intense - in a word, authentically Cajun.

In 2008, the Ramblers were nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Zydeco or Cajun Music category (a new category for that year) for their album Live A La Blue Moon. The award went to Terence Simien & the Zydeco Experience.

”They make you feel like they're bringing you back home. Kind of like if you are out of town for a long time, getting homesick and then you hear a song from Louisiana, it makes you homesick. That's how their band makes me feel when I hear them at home: homesick.” -Lisa Stafford, Programming Director, Festival International, Lafayette, LA.