Arts

Squeeze Bayou: A Hot Time!

Story by Mitchell Tropin
Photos by Julie Wiatt

On a bitter cold night in downtown Takoma Park, people inside Taliano's restaurant and bar are burning up. They are aglow from Squeeze Bayou's infectious brand of authentic Cajun music. The band plays traditional music from Southwestern Louisiana and the compelling rhythms make it impossible not to move your feet. Soon everyone is feeling the beat from the music's waltzes and syncopated two-steps.

Squeeze Bayou's founders, Karen Collins and Fred Feinstein, are two Takoma Park residents who have been linked musically and romantically for about 25 years. They come from unbelievably different backgrounds: she's a coal miner's daughter and he grew up in Greenwich Village. Traditional music was the catalyst that brought them together.

Collins manages the band and has kept the aggregation moving for over 10 years. Along the way Squeeze Bayou has built a symbiotic relationship with its fans—the band can continue performing thanks to a sizable core of loyal listeners, and fans can enjoy traditional Cajun music thanks to Squeeze Bayou, which remains one of the few bands around Baltimore and Washington that plays authentic versions of Cajun songs.

While Cajun is close to other musical styles, it has a distinctive sound thanks to the combination of accordion, fiddle, drums—and in the case of Squeeze Bayou—steel guitar. Cajun music is not Zydeco, although both types of music come from Louisiana and make heavy use of the accordion.

"Cajun is mostly acoustic and is white culture, while Zydeco is electric and black culture," Collins explained.

Cajun bands have a fiddle, while Zydeco has distinctive click-clack sound that comes from a rub board, she added. Zydeco has blues influences, while Cajun is closer to old time and country music. Cajun music also should not be confused with the rhythm-and-blues influenced music favored by New Orleans' Neville Brothers.

As the evening progresses, Taliano's is nearly filled. Many have come to hear the band even after spending the afternoon outside of Baltimore in Catonsville at another concert. The band plays a waltz and couples glide in a circle in 3/4 time. Then the music changes to a rocking two-step; the dancers are so whipped up that people are sweating. There are smiles all around, showing the irony in Cajun music.

"People look so happy listening to Cajun music, even though the songs are about love lost, people dying, or someone going to jail,'' said Linda Schoenbrodt, a fledgling musician and Squeeze Bayou fan.

"Everyone was a coal miner's kid where I grew up; that was all the work there was,'' Collins said.

Growing up, Collins' main source of music was the radio. Her parents liked country music, but she preferred rock Ôn' roll.

A big change took place after Collins moved to Washington. Along the way she started playing fiddle, and she discovered that the country music she used to find appalling was starting to sound pretty good."

I was a typical teenager who did not like country-western music. Then as I got older it Ôsunk in' and I saw country music had it all," Collins said. " Country & western is probably the reason why I fell in love with Cajun music."

Feinstein grew up in Greenwich Village. The son of a dentist and author on several books on Africa, he spent Sundays at Washington Square jam sessions. Folk and rock music was exploding in Greenwich Village and Feinstein's neighbors included Bob Dylan and John Sebastian of Lovin' Spoonful. Becoming a full-time musician was not part of Feinstein's plan. Instead he started out on a career as a labor lawyer.

Feinstein went to Winston-Salem N.C., to work for the National Labor Relations Board. While there he grew to love old-time music, learning how to play the fiddle. From there Feinstein departed for Washington, where fate stepped in.

A mutual friend in September 1978 invited Collins and Feinstein to come to Georgetown to play fiddle tunes. They have been together ever since that first meeting.

"There is no question our backgrounds could not have been more different,'' Collins said.

"But we shared the same values and saw the world in the same way," Feinstein adds.

While they connected romantically, Collins and Feinstein did not initially become music partners. Feinstein started playing with an old-time music band, Hambone Sweets. Within the next six months, Collins joined the band. But the band's repertoire had a serious flaw, Collins said.

"I got tired of playing old-time music because there was not enough singing'' she said.

Collins left the band, and a different kind of music, Cajun, caught her ear.

"I fell in love with the music and said, ÔThis is what I am going to play,' "Collins said. "I spent years listening. But there was no one to teach me, so I had to pick it up on my own.''

She later joined what was probably the first Cajun band in the DC area: Allons-Y (which means "Let's go"), which was lead by Baton Rouge native Will Dawes.

Feinstein was not so easily won over. "Cajun music did not immediately grab me, but after listening to it every night for several years, I finally said Okay. If you can't beat it, you've got to join it.''

Collins and Feinstein then hooked up with accordion player Kevin Bell, and the trio started performing in 1990 as Squeeze Bayou. The timing was astute; Cajun music was starting to develop a local following and venues were becoming available for concerts and dances.

Among the band's favorite places were Cherry Hill Park in College Park and Tornado Alley in Wheaton, owned by Marc Gretschel, the man behind Bethesda's Twist and Shout and current owner of Half Moon BBQ in Silver Spring.

Times were golden. Squeeze Bayou was performing regularly in the midst of a vibrant and active dance scene that had embraced Cajun wholeheartedly. Feinstein and Collins often saw familiar faces in the audiences.

"The same people who did contra and square dances also started following Cajun music and dancing,'' Feinstein remembers. "There was a lot of migration and overlapping.''

Squeeze Bayou started recording, releasing Soleil Couche ("the setting sun") in 1991. The album "brought the band to a higher level and opened doors of opportunities," Collins said. "Agents will not take you seriously unless you have a recording," she said. "We started playing weddings and private parties.''

Squeeze Bayou followed up with a second album in 1996, the award-winning Steppin' Fast. Like the first album, Steppin' Fast was released on Azalea City Recordings, a label founded by Takoma Park musician/recording engineer/producer Charlie Pilzer.

The second album put Squeeze Bayou in the forefront of the local Cajun music scene. By that time, the time had expanded into a quintet. The musicians in Squeeze Bayou included Collins on fiddle and vocals, Feinstein on guitar, Bell on accordion, Matt Levine on lap steel guitar, Kevin Enoch on bass, and David Lopez on drums. Except for Bell's departure, Squeeze Bayou's lineup has remained intact.

Steppin' Fast also impressed people from the heart of Cajun music country. The CD was honored by the Cajun French Music Association of America, which presented the band with its "Le Prix Dehors de Nous" (" the prize away from us"). The annual award, a trophy in the shape of Cajun triangle, goes to the best Cajun band outside of southwestern Louisiana.

The award caused others to take notice of the band. Squeeze Bayou was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. Articles appeared in the Washington Post and other local newspapers. Out-of-town papers from as far away as Colorado started writing about the group.

To create the Squeeze Bayou sound, Karen Collins brings an appreciation of old-time Cajun music, and Brian Simms brings modern Zydeco style.

Collins and Feinstein continue their strong ties with Cajun Louisiana, visiting Lafayette, the birthplace of Cajun music, at least once a year. The sojourns give them the chance to maintain a connection with the Cajun community, which is encouraging and supportive of their music, Feinstein said. "People are open and like having other people learn their music," Collins said.

Often staying with local families, Collins and Feinstein always find time to jam with other musicians. Later in the year they will return the favor by hosting Cajun musicians who visit Washington.

Since Steppin' Fast, the band has undergone somewhat of a change, mostly due to the influence of the group's newest member, accordion player Brian Simms, who favors a more modern style. Simms appears at 50 to 60 percent of the band's performances and contributes a little more oomph by playing Zydeco tunes.

"We have evolved a little, and are not as totally traditional as we were,'' Collins said.

During the performance at Taliano's, Simms' influence on Squeeze Bayou is clear. The band strikes up a Zydeco version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode'' with Simms singing in French. The harder Zydeco beat gets the band rocking, the crowd moving, and the place shaking.

Squeeze Bayou occasionally brings an instructor to their dances. At Taliano's, however, nobody seems to need lessons. As long as the band keeps playing, couples fill the dance space. It is a friendly environment. Many in the audience know each other. Even an outsider, such as this reporter, is made to feel at ease. Before the evening is gone, I find myself waltzing with new acquaintances.

More recently, Collins has been dividing time between Squeeze Bayou and a second band, the Blue Moon Cowgirls, which gives Collins gets the chance to pursue her long-time passion for harmony singing. Simms also plays for the Junkyard Saints, a New Orleans-style band from Baltimore.

Collins is looking forward to March 4. She has a tradition of joining Brian Simms and playing at a Mardi Gras celebration in Ellicott City at Tersigeul's Restaurant, where they get the chance to be "roaming Cajuns.''

The story behind how Squeeze Bayou acquired its name is worth repeating. As Feinstein related, he was sitting on a piano bench one day when Ginny Snow, a bass player, walked by him and asked, " May I squeeze by you?'' The rest is history.

Outside of Squeeze Bayou, Collins teaches computer programming electives at Montgomery Blair High School. Feinstein is a senior fellow and visiting professor at the University of Maryland, where he teaches labor policy. Prior to that he was the general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board and counsel for 17 years for the House Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations. While on Capitol Hill, he played a key role in facilitating passage of the Family Leave Act.

Collins and Feinstein have a daughter, Emma, who attends Amherst College. Their son, Sam, is a junior at Blair.

Squeeze Bayou will be appearing soon at Taliano's. The band's schedule can be found at its website, squeezebayou.com.