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Film, Video Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla from Louisiana

Transcript: TEXT

About this Item

Title

  • Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla from Louisiana

Summary

  • Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla performed traditional French-language music from Louisiana. Louis Michot is a fiddle player and lead singer for the Grammy-award-winning Lost Bayou Ramblers. He is passionate about Louisiana French and local folklore. These interests fuel his career as a musician. In addition to fiddle and vocals, Louis plays guitar, bass, ti-fer (triangle), and accordion--all the instruments of a typical Cajun band. He frequently collaborates with other musicians, including Leyla McCalla, accordionist Corey Ledet, the Rising Stars Drum and Fife Group, and one-man-band Quintron. Leyla McCalla was born in New York City to Haitian emigrants and activists, and her music draws inspiration from the past and present: three centuries of history and contemporary influences from around the globe. McCalla is a master of the cello, tenor banjo, and guitar, as well as a multilingual singer and songwriter. She is a founding member of Our Native Daughters (with Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah and Allison Russell), and has appeared at the Library of Congress as a member of the Grammy-award-winning Black string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops. Her solo work reflects the union of her roots and experience. This event spotlights the New Orleans-based Nous Foundation, co-directed by Scott Tilton and Rudy Bazenet, and their CCG project, "La Musique Nous Réunit: Documenting Louisiana French Music." "La Musique nous réunit" (Music brings us together) is a music recording and interview documentation project aimed at understanding how Louisiana musicians are adapting their cultural practice of performing traditional French-language music in the 21st century. In 2025, the Nous Foundation produced the "Musique(s)!" album and documentary film, as based on their CCG project, which features a number of musicians and musical groups, including award-winning artists Leyla McCalla and Louis Michot. You can learn more here: https://www.nous-foundation.org/studio

Event Date

  • March 26, 2025

Running Time

  • 1 hours 22 minutes 43 seconds

Online Format

  • video
  • image
  • online text

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla from Louisiana. 2025. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11672/.

APA citation style:

(2025) Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla from Louisiana. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11672/.

MLA citation style:

Louis Michot and Leyla McCalla from Louisiana. 2025. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/webcast-11672/>.