Sarah Savoy Band (USA/FR) headline Dunmore East 2019

Anyone who saw and heard Sarah Savoy and the Francadians at the 2018 Shannonside Midwinter Music Festival will welcome this news from Mick Daly, organiser of the Dunmore East Bluegrass Festival (22-25 Aug. 2019) in Co. Waterford. Full details of the lineup will be announced in early April. For now, Mick sends the image (above) to appear on road signs for this year's event, together with the following press release on the headline artist:

From a legendary traditional music family from Louisiana we bring you the Sarah Savoy Band - guaranteed to conjure up images of smoky bars, dangerous men and women, beer and cigarettes, dance, and the heady inspirational eras of Louisiana music. Born and raised in Eunice, Louisiana, in a family considered ‘Cajun royalty’ - father Marc makes the Acadian brand accordion, considered to be the finest single-row diatonic in the world; mother Ann wrote the reference [sic] on Cajun music, Cajun music: a reflection of a people - Sarah is a certified chef and has been executive chef of three different restaurants in Paris, published a cookbook on Cajun food, The Savoy kitchen: a family history of Cajun food, and has performed cooking demonstrations around the world, including the US, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, France, and Morocco.

Playing music from the heart of Cajun country and damn fine too, Sarah Savoy has been referred to as a ‘Louisiana singer with hell-raising credentials’, singing and playing as multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, doing mostly traditional Cajun music, spiced with a fairly rough rock-'n'-roll attitude, then toned back a bit by country ballads and blues, covers by Johnny Paycheck and George Jones, and then simmering all that down with some sexy Zydeco numbers.

From accordion to guitar to washboard or triangle, Sarah's vocal style has been compared to that of Patsy Cline, Patti Smith, and Wanda Jackson; her musicians are all multi-instrumentalists as well and thoroughly enjoy switching around on stage.

She's also led conferences in both English and French on the history of Louisiana's francophones, the history of the accordion in Louisiana music, and Louisiana culture and folklore.

‘La voix des Cajuns’ (Rolling Stone)
‘The Princess of Cajun’ (Blues Magazine)
‘The Queen of White Trash Cajun’ (fRoots)