Rounder Records has announced the release of Louisiana Cajun and Creole Music: The Newport Field
Recordings.

Due September 28, this CD release encompasses 27 tracks on one disc, and is comprised of recordings made over
the
years 1964-67 by Ralph Rinzler, working under the auspices of the Newport Folk Foundation and at the
suggestion of board member Alan Lomax. Rinzler, who later came to head the Festival of American Folklife at the
Smithsonian Institution, arrived in “Cajun country” in southwest Louisiana at a time when the very existence of
Cajun
music was under threat as the forces of the surrounding English-language culture pressed in upon the Cajun
people.

Among the artists included in the set are the Balfa Brothers, Bois-Sec Ardoin and Canray Fontenot, Austin
Pitre, and Adam & Cyprien Landreneau. In subsequent years, Dewey Balfa and Bois-Sec Ardoin were
both recognized with National Heritage Fellowships awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

This release contains numerous photographs, many never before published, and extensive liner notes by a number
of
authors which run over 80 pages in the PDF embedded in the disc.