Page 12 - Sid Williams News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Popular all the time, but particularly busy on sundays after church. rice and gravy, fried fish, ribs and smothered stuffed turkey wings, which i am all over like a heat-seeking missile. damn. that looks serious. >> sid: mhmm. >> dave lemelle: when you say louisiana, they think of cajun. cajun is a big part of louisiana, but creole is a big part of louisiana too, you know. >> anthony: it used to be native to louisiana. >> herman fusiler: yeah. >> anthony: that was the original meaning as i understand it. >> herman fusiler: it still has hundreds of definitions, but for us, it's descendants of s...

Creole means, or has come to mean, a mixture of languages, peoples, and cultures. in louisiana though, it's usually used to describe members of the african-american or mixed-race french-speaking community. why do you think it's important that people still sing in french and keep that language -- that dialect alive? >> herman fusiler: that's what makes it zydeco. zydeco has always been influenced by mainstream music. but it started as french music as the creole music. and you totally remove that from the music, a lot of times it's just rap with an accordion. or rock & roll with an accordion. yo...

>> sid: mhmm. >> dave lemelle: when you say louisiana, they think of cajun. cajun is a big part of louisiana, but creole is a big part of louisiana too, you know. >> anthony: it used to be native to louisiana. >> herman fusiler: yeah. >> anthony: that was the original meaning as i understand it. >> herman fusiler: it still has hundreds of definitions, but for us, it's descendants of slaves and free people of color, and it deals with the food and the music. and the catholic church is a big part of it too. >> dave lemelle: trail rides and horseback riding is just a way of louisiana now. you know...

♪ >> sid williams: ash wednesday, man. that's the beginning of lent. got to get all the devil out of you. you know i drink a little whiskey every now and then. see a buzzard fly high, but he got to come down to drink. >> anthony: what is creole and what is cajun are increasingly difficult distinctions in this day of commercialization and appropriation. anything delicious and unique is going to end up slapped on a bag in front of the words "potato chips." creole means, or has come to mean, a mixture of languages, peoples, and cultures. in louisiana though, it's usually used to describe member...

Dialect alive? >> herman fusiler: that's what makes it zydeco. zydeco has always been influenced by mainstream music. but it started as french music as the creole music. and you totally remove that from the music, a lot of times it's just rap with an accordion. or rock & roll with an accordion. you still have that -- >> sid: hip-hop stuff. i'll tell you what, i can call my momma, she's 85, right now on the phone. and she'd want to talk to me in french. my grandma couldn't speak nothing else. >> dave: right. >> anthony: i'm having lunch today with historian and radio dj herman fusiler, creole c...