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Dan Willging
robbie dupleix
B UT B UTCH WASN'T PLAYING ON HIS OWN . H E WAS ACCOMPANIED THAT NIGHT BY ANOTHER SINGER, A WOMAN CALLED M ARCE L ACOUTURE, AND THE MOMENT THE SHOW STARTED MY MOOD WAS LIFTED . T HEY SOUNDED TERRIFIC TOGETHER, THIS PAIR, AND IT SEEMED LIKE A SMALL MIRACLE THAT TWO THROATS AND ONE ACOUSTIC GUITAR COULD TRANSFORM THE DRAFTY (AND FRANKLY THREE-QUARTERS EMPTY) PUB INTO A PLACE WHERE NICE THINGS COULD HAPPEN .
-- Nick Hornby, from the chapter "So I'll Run," Songbook [Penguin Press (2003)]
"I was like a born-again Cajun. I was like a Cajun, who never got to be a Cajun, that finally got to be a Cajun," Marce Lacouture explained about her lifelong return-to-roots crusade. For much of her life, Lacouture -- one of the leading modern-day practitioners in the often over-looked tradition of Cajun unaccompanied singing -- has lived the tale of two cultures.
"My great-great-great grandfathers were two brothers who were a cappella singers," Lacouture said, explaining her diverse family tree. "They each hosted German a cappella men's choirs, singing societies in their homes once a week in Texas."
Though her ancestral forebears on her mother's side may have been early German immigrants settling the Lone Star State, it was her father's side who were as red-blooded Cajun as they come, with aunts and uncles tagged with humorous nicknames like Buddy and Giggy. "Cajuns are famous for having nicknames," she said with a laugh.
From an early age, she felt the irresistible pull of her father's culture, especially when the Austin-based Lacoutures visited family in Beaumont, the southeastern Texas city situated on the edge of the Cajun triangle. The Lacouture clan originally hailed from Louisiana Cajun country, but relocated in 1912 after centuries in Louisiana. It was these visits that would connect Lacouture with her generationally removed culture, especially when older relatives conversed in Cajun French and Cajun-accented English, weaving in and out of both languages seamlessly.
As a youth, Lacouture sang in choirs and musicals. Though she possessed a startlingly pure voice, she never fashioned herself a singer -- not until that transformative day in the early 70s when she and a...