In Acadiana there are a lot of things that differentiate us from the rest of the country. The biggest of all of them is music.

You can live in Kansas and learn to make a gumbo. You can live in California and row a pirogue. But there’s no way in the wide world that you can convincingly play Jolie Blond on the accordion or Bosco Stomp on the fiddle, unless you’re born and raised here.

Typically, in a Western capitalist economy, a rare resource is worth a lot of money. However, when it comes to our treasured musicians, we tend to under value them. Most Cajun and Zydeco musicians are working a second job to subsidize their music career.

Wilson Savoy plays in the Grammy Award winning band Courtbouillon, and crowd favorite Pineleaf Boys. He’s also a carpenter, building and renovating homes.

Danny Devillier is a musician. And he’s come up with a new angle on a traditional way musicians often subsidize their careers: giving music lessons. Danny is a drummer. He plays in the Grammy nominated band Bonsoir Catin, and he’s played with everybody who’s anybody in Cajun and Zydeco from Michael Doucet to Roddie Romero. But Danny doesn’t just give drum lessons. He teaches people to play all kinds of instruments, including guitar and fiddle, at his music school, The Music Room, in Lafayette.

Photos over lunch at Cafe Vermilionville  by Lucius A Fontenot.