Savoy Family Cajun Band comes to Stuart's Opera House Friday

Stuart's Opera House is hosting an evening of Cajun music and dancing with the Savoy Family Cajun Band at 8 this Friday. Savoy plays honed-down, hardcore Cajun music laced with an earthy sensuality, according to a news release.

Though the old tunes have been revived and returned to new life intensity in their hands, the Savoy Family Cajun band doesn't play from a studied angle, according to the release. Band members Marc and Ann Savoy and their sons, Joel and Wilson, each hold his and her own as strong individual group members, making up a tight, intense sound.

Marc and Ann, as the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, have been performing and recording together since 1977, recording five CDs on the Arhoolie label. They have traveled all over the world, appearing in venues such as the Newport Folk Festival, the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Festival at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Concert Series, and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The Getty Museum in Los Angeles featured the Savoy Family Band in a special concert presentation.

Although the Savoy Family Cajun Band insists upon maintaining an acoustic approach to Cajun music, the band can hold its own among Cajun music lovers everywhere, the release said.

Their repertoire includes popular dancehall tunes interspersed with soulful ballads, fiddle or vocal duets, or blues.

For tickets or more information call 740-753-1924 or visit www.stuartsoperahouse.org.