Louis Michot & Leyla McCalla

Together with Louis Michot, she explores the music of Creole, Cajun and Haitian cultures – spirited, danceable melodies influenced by the sounds of the American South, yet retaining a character all their own. Louisiana remains the most distinctly French-influenced of all US states. Named after King Louis XIV of France, traces of its French past can still be found throughout the region, from the bayous of the Mississippi Delta to the coastal city of New Orleans.

Louisiana is also home to a significant francophone population. It includes Creoles, descendants of enslaved people and migrants who arrived from former French colonies in the Caribbean, such as Haiti, as well as Cajuns, descendants of French settlers who were expelled from Acadia by the British in the mid-18th century and eventually settled in Louisiana.

It is these two cultural traditions that Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla bring together in this programme. Michot performs on instruments associated with traditional bayou music and is the lead singer of the Grammy-winning band Lost Bayou Ramblers. McCalla plays cello, tenor banjo and guitar, and sings in several languages. Together with Rhiannon Giddens, she co-founded the group Our Native Daughters and previously performed alongside her in the celebrated old-time band Carolina Chocolate Drops.