Simiens led fight for Cajun, zydeco Grammy category

• By JOHN WIRT
• Music critic
• Published: Apr 18, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Watching the annual Grammy Awards telecast one year, zydeco musician Terrance Simien and his wife and business partner, Cynthia, wondered why there was no category for zydeco or Cajun music. After all, there’s a great tradition of indigenous music among the Creole and Cajun people of south Louisiana. Since the early 20th century, too, the music has been documented in commercially released recordings.

Cynthia Simien told her husband — an internationally known zydeco musician who performs Wednesday at the Manship Theatre as part of Baton Rouge Blues Week — that she’d find out what needed to be done to establish a Grammy category for Cajun and zydeco music. She contacted the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, Calif., and the Memphis chapter of the Recording Academy, which covers Louisiana.

At first, there was much skepticism.

“Well,” the Lafayette-based Terrance Simien said last week, “everybody’s reaction when we first approached them was like, ‘We’ll help you any way we can, but the reality is it’s almost impossible to do.’ And some people tried to convince us that this would never happen.” 

But the Simiens were determined to bring Cajun and zydeco music the added validation of a Grammy category. John Hornyak, executive director of the Recording Academy’s Memphis chapter, guided them through the steps. First of all, they had to build Louisiana membership in the Recording Academy. Secondly, they had to ensure that Cajun and zydeco CDs were entered into the Grammy awards process each year. 

“We did that for the past 6‰ years, until the final proposal that Cynthia wrote was accepted by the trustees and they granted us the category,” Simien said.

The unanimous affirmative vote came last year.

“They could tell that we wasn’t gonna go away, that it was either now or next year or the year after that,” Simien said. “We were committed to this, we stayed the course and we got it.”

Prior to the creation of the Cajun and zydeco Grammy category, south Louisiana musicians most likely competed in the traditional folk and contemporary folk categories.

“That was almost impossible,” Simien said. “We were up against people like Bob Dylan. Big names, man, that are really known for folk music. And there’d been a couple of occasions when Buckwheat Zydeco ended up in contemporary blues and traditional blues, but that’s another category where we don’t quite fit.”

After the Simiens won their category, they faced more drama when Lisa Haley, a California-based act who Louisiana musicians describe as a non-source musician, was among the 2008 Cajun and zydeco Grammy nominees.

“People here in the community were a bit shocked that she even got nominated,” Simien said. “But, you know, it’s a voting process. The L.A. chapter is a big chapter and she plays a lot around L.A.

“But when we first started this campaign, I guess you can call it, to get this category, we told our local artists that, if you qualify, it’s important to become a voting member of the Recording Academy. It’s all about supporting the category and making sure that the people who know the most about this style of music are voting for it. That’s the people who make it, the Creole and the Cajun source musicians from south Louisiana.”