By Jordyn Holcomb

news@americanpress.com

Photos Special to
the American Press

The Lost Bayou Ramblers, the Grammy-award winning band from Louisiana, are the subjects of Worklight Productions, a New Orleans-based production company, debut film: “On Va Continuer!”

The band was founded by brothers Louis and Andre Michot in 1999 in South Louisiana and has grown to include Kirkland Middleton, Eric Heigle, Bryan Webre and Johnny Campos. The brothers were surrounded by the sounds of traditional Cajun music growing up and said they sought out to preserve the sounds of their culture.

“The music has been our vehicle to help continue the culture and the language,” says Louis Michot. “The music keeps the creative spirit alive, giving people a reason to embrace their own culture, and celebrate the unique languages and customs of South Louisiana.”

For more than 20 years now, the band has been bringing the sounds of Cajun music combined with their own unique musical sound to audiences all across the country and introducing them to the culture and sound that makes Louisiana so unique.

With the release of their album “Mammoth Waltz” in April 2012, which featured guest artists such as Scarlett Johansson and Dr. John, the band began to gain some traction. They then went on and collaborated on the score for the Oscar-nominated film “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

Louis Michot said the film “was a huge surge for the band’s international recognition.”

In 2017 they were featured in the award-winning documentary “The American Epic Sessions,” where they recorded “Allons à Lafayette,” originally performed by Joseph and Cléoma Falcon in 1928 and officially known as the first Cajun song to be commercially recorded, on a restored electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. Lost Bayou Ramblers then went on to win the Grammy for Best Regional Roots Music Album for their “Kalenda”in that same year.

Bruno Doria, the director of the “rockumentary,” first met the brothers in 2016 and said she quickly realized there was something about the band and their music — a magnetic force that pulls people in.

“Listening to the music of LBR, it’s clear how it’s not just ‘Cajun’ music they’re playing — they get into the rhythms and sounds across many genres and really rock out or punk out or dance party out or whatever sounds good,” Doria explained. “The energy at their shows is insanely infectious and you’re drawn in whether you can understand the French words of the lyrics or not, you always know exactly what they’re talking about through the energy of the music.”

Throughout 2017, Doria and his crew — producers Lizzie Guitreau and Lee Garcia — filmed the band as they recorded “Kalenda,” went on tour, and were in New York when the band received the news they had won their
first Grammy.

Louis Michot said when they got the news, they were in “complete shock” and then went on to an Irish pub to celebrate before taking a subway to their producer Korey Richey’s studio.

He said they were “hanging on the subway bars acting like it was Mardi Gras in NYC.”

Guitreau said she rediscovered her roots and Cajun music throughout the filming of the documentary and through the band. She said Cajun music was always around her growing up and even though she never “gravitated towards the music at the time, it was always a part of who I am, where I came from.”

As filming continued, Guitreau said she began to learn more about Cajun music through the Lost Bayou Rambler’s performances.

“Seeing the raw energy in their performances and then learning about the foundations, traditions and history behind the music and instrumentation of traditional Cajun music was what really fascinated me.”

She said she hopes the film inspires the young people of Louisiana to “try and reconnect with their roots, re-evaluate where they came from, and appreciate this rich culture we were born into.”

The film premiered at the New Orleans French Film Festival, one of the longest-running foreign language film festivals in the country, on Feb. 29, 2019. Since its premiere, the documentary has played to audiences not only in Louisiana, but internationally as well, such as at film festivals in Canada and on broadcast television through the French International Television network, TV5MONDE.

The film is now available to stream on iTunes, Amazon Video, and Google Play. The film can also be purchased on DVD at onvacontinuer.com and lostbayouramblers.com.

The documentary itself is a love letter to Louisiana, Doria said.

“The film celebrates not only the Lost Bayou Ramblers and their Grammy win, but it also highlights the approach to life in South Louisiana — canoes on the bayou, a house made of cypress — how you can embrace the traditions of the past and shape and apply them to contemporary life.”

She said the hope of this film is to show viewers the importance of embracing one’s own cultures and traditions as well as show a side of Louisiana that not many are accustomed to seeing.

Cajun culture is the very heartbeat of Louisiana, always beating and never ceasing despite the fact that many believe that the culture and Louisiana French Language is dying out.

“On Va Continuer!” is the visual proof that it is still very much alive, Doris said.