Do-si-do, foot stomp with Hackberry Ramblers

Cajun ensemble to play on Thacker Mountain Radio and at Two Stick

CHASE FARMER
DM Senior Staff Writer

With a mean age somewhere between a petrified forest and the Ford Model-T, the Hackberry Ramblers have all the experience necessary to rock your socks off as they play two nights in Oxford this week.

The band boasts that it might be the oldest working band in America, with a line-up that includes no one less than 60 years old except for an almost-50 drummer. The Ramblers will play once on Thursday during "Louisiana Night" at Off Square Book's Thacker Mountain Radio and then again Friday at Two Stick Market and Sushi Bar.

The band was formed in 1933 with just two members, Edwin Duhon and Luderin Darbone, in Hackberry, La.

Originally a guitar and fiddle duet that boasted a versatile repertoire of pure country swing and Cajun string music, the band played dance halls and oil-field parties until they started recording in 1935.

Despite the popular country swing of the day, Cajun music has been at the roots of the group since their start and remains very much a part of their music even today.

No less than eight of the 15 songs on their Grammy nominated Deep Water album are sung in French. And while the band doesn't play just Cajun music, there is definitely a spicy flavor to all their songs, whether it be a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" or traditional Cajun French tunes like "Poor Hobo."

This band may be old, but don't get confused, this isn't your average nursing home tambourine-and-triangle Christmas Pageant band. The Ramblers still have all the wryness and humor today that they had 60 years ago. And while their voices and backs may not be what they once were, they definitely have just as much fun, maybe more than they had in the past. It certainly sounds like it.

If Deep Water, their last record, is any indication of their stage presence, then Oxford is in for a foot-stomping good time.

With the upbeat rhythms of the music and plenty of yips and hollers and yah-hoos from bassist Johnny Faulk, the record goes back to the days of Bob Wills and whoever that guy that was always yelling on his records was. A good time is to be had by all or as Cajuns say "laissez les bon temps rouler."

Perhaps it's the spices in the food in Louisiana that keeps them going because the Ramblers give a whole new meaning to longevity. Don't miss either of the two shows by the Ramblers and their good time fountain of youth music.

Thacker Mountain Radio starts at 5:30 Thursday night and is free to the public. The Two Stick show is slated for 10 p.m.