Bayou Seco

Bayou Seco are from Silver City, high up in the New Mexican mountains with a limitless catalogue of songs, tunes and stories from the American South West. Think old western hoe-downs, New Mexican fandangos, crawfish boils and vintage cowboy songs around a campfire! Wielding fiddles, accordions and banjos, Jeanie McLerie and Ken Keppeler move their audience to dance, laugh and cry (sometimes all at the same time!) with their inimitable blend of music and humour.

New Mexican band Bayou Seco celebrate the music and dance traditions of the American Southwest by delving into the rich stew of traditional music that’s been simmering for centuries. A Bayou Seco dance or concert is a lively night of that spans Cajun and Zydeco, Norteno (Tex-Mex), Chicken Scratch, New Mexican colonial dance tunes and cowboy songs served heavily spiced with the hot chilli spirit of the territory.
 
At the heart of Bayou Seco are Ken Keppeler who sings and plays sizzling accordion, fiddle, banjo and harmonica and Jeanie McLerie who plays soaring 5-string fiddle and sings in English, French and Spanish.  For over two decades they have been collecting and learning music from generations of traditional musicians. ‘The fun thing about learning from older people is that it comes with such a history," McLerie said. "Each song has a story behind it. "Received from the people along bayous, in mountain cabins and adobe houses, the music of Bayou Seco sings out from every corner of the heart. For centuries this music has sustained the families of farmers, ranchers and workers. Its harmony is a reminder that love and work and heartbreak and laughter - that song and dance and friendship - endure.

Ken and Jeanie met in Louisiana in 1978 where they discovered a common love of Cajun music. There they met and learned from the Cajun musicians Canray Fontenot and Dennis McGee who started playing dancehalls in the 1890s. Since then they have traveled down many a dirt road to learn and absorb indigenous music first hand from the oldest masters. In New Mexico they learned old Spanish colonial dances from violinist Cleofes Ortiz and Native American music from the Tohono O’odham fiddlers to name but a few inspirational meetings. Bayou Seco began in 1982 as a way of serving up this rich and spicy Chilli-gumbo of music that Jeanie and Ken had found. Bayou Seco is now celebrating over 20 happy years of making music and passing on the traditions of the past.

 ‘Bayou Seco have already won me over on past UK tours with their defiantly
down homey New Mexico potpourri.’ Brian Peters, fRoots

‘Whoever coined the term roots music must have had the uncanny Bayou Seco in mind.’ Dan Willging Dirty Linen

‘A complete feeling of being at home with the music and having a ball.’
Ian Anderson, fRoots reviewing CD ‘Home on the Great
Divide’.

‘That’s what Bayou Seco do ….. learn wonderful but neglected music
from old timers, have extraordinary fun playing it, and inspire others to
pass it on.’ Ian Anderson, fRoots reviewing CD ‘The Little
Pleasures of Live’.

Upcoming Appearances

25th Jul 2010 - Rhythms of the World