Longtime friends become Grammy nominees

Barry Ancelet and Sam Broussard have been friends since Lucille Mouton’s first-grade class at Mt. Carmel School. Six decades later, Ancelet, the retired professor, and Broussard, a musician’s musician, pass the time in a home studio, making Cajun music that’s not the usual dancehall two-steps and waltzes.

The old friends start to wonder what will become of their creations of French poems put to music.

“We were just gathering stuff without a whole lot of real intent,” said Ancelet, famed Cajun folklorist, author and songwriter. “One day, Sam says, ‘What are we doing to do with this?' He said, ‘I don’t know.’

“We got 10 songs, so why don’t we release them?" Ancelet said. "We could do it ourselves, but I don’t want to be in the record business. I don’t want to be a jobber, going around to racks. So let’s talk it around.”

The talk has resulted in “Broken Promised Land,” a 10-song CD nominated for the Best Regional Roots Album Grammy. The Ancelet-Broussard collaboration is one of three local nominees in the category, which also includes “Gulfstream” by Roddie Romero and the Hub City All Stars and “I Wanna Sing Right: Rediscovering Lomax in the Evangeline Country,” produced by Joe Savoy and Joshua Caffery.”

Hawaiian singer Kalani Pe’a is also in the running, along with Native American performers Northern Cree. The winner will be selected Feb.12 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Cajun music fans expecting to hear “The Back Door” and other standard fare may leave “Broken Promised Land” singing the blues. This concept album is filled with Ancelet’s poetic images of the devil, a werewolf, a broken heart, cathedrals and more. Ancelet also drifted into new territory as a singer on four songs.

Broussard arranged the music and played the instruments, with a little help from fiddlers Gina Forsyth and David Greely, drummer Danny Devillier and triangle specialist Christine Balfa. Singer Anna Laura Edmiston added a woman’s touch to “Coeur Cassé,” or “Broken Heart. “

Ancelet said the CD’s unconventional nature may have opened the ears of Grammy voters and veteran record producer Floyd Soileau of Ville Platte. Soileau published the album on his Swallow label.

“I told Floyd, before you start, this is really different,” said Ancelet. “He said ‘I can do different.’ He listened to the whole thing, all 10 songs, without saying a word.

“I’m thinking, ‘This could be a train wreck.’ We get to the end and Floyd looks at me, ‘Ancelet, you weren’t kidding. This is different. But,’ he points his finger at me, ‘we’re going to put this out. I don’t want to be the guy who didn’t put this out’.”

The Grammy nomination is a first for Ancelet, who retired in 2015 after nearly 40 years at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. An author and contributor to eight books on Cajun and Creole culture, Ancelet was a longtime host of “Rendez-Vous des Cajuns,” the live radio and TV show at the Liberty Theater in Eunice.

Broussard has enjoyed three nominations as a guitarist with Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. A highly-respected and well-traveled musician who has played and toured with Jimmy Buffett, Nicolette Larson and others, Broussard is pleased to get recognition for his own project.

Lack of recognition in the past fueled him through this recording.

“I’m accustomed to what I like being rejected,” said Broussard. “The Mamou Playboys got to be at the top of Cajun music by being very discerning. Not every idea I put on the table went through.

“Like any strong-willed person would do, I started to think my ideas were worthy of being heard. Barry didn’t have any doubt that it was worth being heard. I created this to be something I would want to hear. Then, I started wanting to hear it.”