One of the few glaring musical deficiencies here is the absence of Louisiana music besides a few New Orleans-related R&B sets. I, for one, would buy and use a few good zydeco sets. Ditto Cajun sets with a choice of waltzes and 4/4. A good accordion soloist option would be mighty fine, too, as lagniappe, if I'm making a wish list.

Laissez les faire les bon temps rouler, y'all, and thanks in advance if this catches the eye of anyone at PG Music.

+++ HERE +++ is a nice write-up about Zydeco.

Cajun Zydeco RealTracks Percussion

Thanks for the response, but all we've got here is a big, gaping hole and a number of folks who would like some enterprising soul at PG Music to fill it.

Jeez - trying to make Cajun and Creole music with existing MIDI and samples is a dog that won't hunt, it's got to be live musicians like a few good RealTracks sets.

This sure seems like a good business opportunity. Oh....was that a hint that I dropped?

You can contact some players directly like here
ReaTracks Artist Chris Nole UserTracks, and it could be a business opportunity for them.

There are a lot of styles that are under-represented with BIAB, especially something as regional as cajon and creole. However, that's just because there are a bajillion different styles and variations of those styles out there. There's no way the people at PG Music could keep up with everything.

But I do appreciate that they try, AND that they allow users to make their own tracks as well. That's fantastic.

I personally think an authentic Cajun Music style would really go over well. I have gone through the Zydeco styles in the software and they are NOT authentic to the true Cajun roots music. Cajun and Zydeco music are literally 2 totally different genres.

If PG Music ever wanted to come to Louisiana and record authentic Cajun musicians, I would be more than happy to steer them to the best players here as I am a professional musician with 3 Grammy Certificates. **Note- I wouldn't be one of the players on the project. Also, if it is something I could record on my end and PG Music can convert on their end, that may be a good solution as well. I am set up to do such a project.

Cajun Accordion (Melodeon) is one of the few instruments that lends itself well to transposition. In other words, being a diatonic instrument, a "C" Accordion is normally played in "C" position and "G" position with limited notes in each position. A professional accordion player thus needs to own at least 6 accordions to reproduce all 12 keys onstage. But, in a recording studio, the backing track can be sped up or slowed down, recorded in one key, and end up in the correct key when brought back to pitch. This would greatly reduce the amount of recording time needed for PG Music.

As TexasMusicForge stated, it is a glaring omission, considering Cajun Music is represented in the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville due to its influence on American Country & Western Music's roots.

I've placed a +++ LINK ++++ to this thread in the Styles and RealTracks Wishlist forum section.

Hi acadian21, thanks for the post. Can you expand more on the difference between cajun & zydecco? As I understand it, the two genres emerged more-or-less together, but with cajun being performed more by white musicians and zydecco being performed more by black musicians, and so there were definite stylistic differences in the early days. But, over the years they seem to have more-or-less fused together and expanded so that there isn't much of a difference today.

That being said, this is with somewhat limited research, and I'm absolutely not an expert on the topic. In addition to expanding on the difference, can you also post youtube links of modern musicians playing where some are absolutely "cajun" and others are absolutely "zydecco"?

Our Acadian ancestors in Nova Scotia played traditional fiddle music, very much akin to Celtic style fiddle. Following the expulsion when the Acadians arrived in Louisiana, it wasn't until the 1890's that German settlers passing through on the way to Texas introduced the Melodeon or diatonic Cajun Accordion as it is now known. The Cajun Accordion is a one row button accordion, meaning a different note on the pull and the push. Cajun music pretty much remained in the folk realm until the early 80's, at times partially blending with the string band music of the western swing era. The introduction of steel guitar into Cajun music kept its roots closer to country music.

Creole and Zydeco music evolved from the French speaking black culture. Clifton Chenier was the most well known pioneer of Zydeco. Zydeco blended elements of R&B, Soul, and Blues. Unlike traditional Cajun music, it was played on a chromatic piano accordion...same note on the push and the pull. Steel guitar is not usually associated with Zydeco, but a rhythm rubboard is. Quite a few younger Zydeco artists have gotten away from the piano accordion in favor of the diatonic accordion, but keeping the R&B elements of traditional zydeco.

In the mid-80's Wayne Toups blended the roots of Cajun and Zydeco culture to form what is termed, "Zydecajun". Tobin, the two genres never fused together as you wrote above. Zydecajun was about as close to a merging as it came. But note, I have described THREE different genres that are all sonically and rhythmically separate from one another and still exist to this day.

Examples:

Traditional Cajun Music (Folk-Roots Oriented)

https://youtu.be/Tlgn-B1bKio

https://youtu.be/2FFVOELUIrs

https://youtu.be/ZZrU55Erw7g (Drums Added)

Traditional Cajun Music (Modern Country Influenced)

https://youtu.be/itQwbOx_M5c

Zydeco (Clifton Chenier)

https://youtu.be/kZ8iWgWwqG4

Zydeco (Modern R&B Influenced)

https://youtu.be/dUGhdmJ3b6w

https://youtu.be/8QcLL2Znd3I

Zydecajun (Wayne Toups)

https://youtu.be/nvWUkdexyBc

https://youtu.be/muJtsh6tLbI

I think after listening to the bass lines and rhythm elements of the drums, you will agree that duplicating the genres cannot be confined to a one size fits all beat.