David Doucet + Bébé La La Opens

Come celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at Outpost with great folk and Cajun music by two-time Grammy winner, guitarist/singer David Doucet who, along with his brother Michael Doucet, is a founding member of the renowned group, BeauSoleil, which has toured and performed in all fifty states, most of Europe, and the Middle East and earned 11 Grammy nominations, two Grammy wins, and several Big Easy and Best of the Beat awards. In 2020, the band received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Folk Music Awards in New Orleans. Doucet has recorded two solo albums, Quand J’ai Parti, and 1957 as well as a Christmas Album, Peace Stories, with New Orleans musicians John Fohl and Theresa Andersson. His repertoire includes Cajun-French ballads from the Alan and John Lomax 1934 recordings as well as guitar adaptations of standard Cajun songs, classic American tunes, and Blues standards. Craig Harris of All Music writes, “The acoustic guitar has been transformed into an important voice of southwest Louisiana’s Cajun music by David Doucet. The younger brother of Cajun fiddler Michael Doucet, he has used his distinctive hybrid of folk-style fingerpicking and bluegrass-like flatpicking to strengthen the performances of BeauSoliel . . . and with the release of his debut solo album, Quand J’ai Parti in 1991, Doucet successfully stepped into the spotlight.” Having toured Hawaii, where he studied Hawaiian music from George Kuo and Ledward Kaapana, Doucet employs ‘slack-key’ guitar tunings and also incorporates Delta Blues style learned from the recordings of the legendary Mississippi John Hurt. Opening the evening is New Mexico’s own award-winning Indie Folk Français duo, Bébé La La, featuring singer-songwriter, guitarist, and violist Alicia Ultan and vocalist, accordionist Maryse Lapierre originally from Quebec. Combining Lapierre’s French influences with Ultan’s original folk-inspired “art” songs, the duo, formed in 2010, is touted for their signature “stunning” harmonies, intelligent lyrics, and delightful and engaging performances. Bébé La La recently earned three nominations, including the Singer-Songwriter award for Ultan’s song “Rosie” off of their November 2022 release, A Curious Series of Unexpected Events. Music and art critic James Mahoney described their music as “Wild—Alternative—Magic!”