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In honor of the elusive Ivory Billed Woodpecker, currently evading extinction here in Louisiana, this red and black marble pressing brings awareness to the movement to keep the majestic birds' habitat protected.
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Ivory Billed Woodpecker T-shirt
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Limited Edition "Boscoyo Fleaux" T-shirt with tour dates, and the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.
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Every year on my birthday, I have gotten in the habit of taking a solo trek, either south across the Prairie des Femmes, or north into the Coulee des Marks swamp. In 2022, I went North, deep into the swamp, getting lost and finding new and beautiful dry coulee beds full of ancient cypress tress, who knees, or Boscoyos, were as plentiful across the ground as flowers in the spring, some of them surpassing my own height, and others joining together to make a throne in which I could sit and watch the kingdom of nature. This year on my birthday, I brought a tiny “field notes” all-weather writing pad, and began recording my thoughts and observations, feeling the rhythm and rhyme as it came. I wrote of where I was going, both literally and metaphorically “J’apres marcher, au long de la coulee” into the solitude of blazing my own trail “il y a rien, mais il ya tout, pas personne sur ce route”, and where I had been “je suis née dans la neige, en traverse le basin; Istrouma”. I went deep into my own psyche, and into the rituals and experiences that have informed me, and into the symbolism of nature that inspires me, reflected by the bird-totem of tattoos that adorns my back.
In ‘Boscoyo Flo’, I also add to a theme that has played out in this series of songs, inspired by the current events that came to a head in America and the world throughout 2020 and 2021: racism and immigration. I am reminding myself and my listeners that we have all been immigrants at one time, and that to not put oneself in the shoes of another human going thru harsh situations in search of a better life, is missing the opportunity to live in empathy and understanding of the human condition, and the quest to find peace and prosperity if it doesn’t exist (enough) where one is born; to sacrifice place and familiarity, for newness and uncertainty.
As I searched thru the hidden swamp for myself, and the beauty of nature, I was reminded of my father, Tommy Michot, who has been searching for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker for almost 5 decades now. Thought to be extinct since the 1940s because of loss of habitat due to deforestation of the old-growth forests cut for lumber, there are those, such as my father, who believe the majestic woodpecker is still alive and breeding, hiding from humanity to keep it’s species alive. My father and his colleagues have recently published recordings of the call of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, recorded in an undisclosed location in Louisiana over the last few years.
The Ivory Billed Woodpecker has been given musical references for centuries now, with John James Audubon describing the call of the Ivory billed Woodpecker in 1831 as “resembling the high false note of a clarinet”, and in 1932 ornithologist Frank Chapman used the analogy of “a nasal yap sound of a tin trumpet”.
I asked avant-garde saxophonist Dickie Landry, who lives only a few miles down Bayou Teche in Cecilia, if he would lend his freestyle interpretation in his signature “quadrophonic” delay style to this Louisana French nature-rap track, to which he agreed, driving up and perfectly melding his sound onto the rhythms. I then sampled the 1934 recording of the Ivory Billed Woodepecker by Arthur Allen, and layed it in the track, an appropriate accompaniment to Dickie’s performance.
lyrics
Apres Marché
Au long de la coulee
Y a rien, mais y a tout
Personne sur ce route
Cypre
Boscoyo
Latanier
Aragnier
Perdu dans la mar
Cypriere dans le noir
Personne peut pas me trouver
Entre raciness
J’suis cacher
Les vents pres siflé
Sur mes mains congelée
Saute desous l’eau pour trouver mon throne
Boscoyo
Tu peut pas me suivi
Trop silent
Trop privée
Mes pensées endoré
En dedans
Pas Brillé
Moi je passé dans le noir
Ton desire est trop clair
Je regard en avant
Me souviens d’en arriere
O ouais je dit mes prieres
Moi tout seul
Par chandel
Je prie a ma grandmere
Je suis né dans le neige
En traverse le Basin
Istrouma
Moi je pourais pas te dit l’histoire
Mais mon Pere, conte li donc
Comme il dit le conte
On est tous dans la cage
Si c’est pas plus mauvais
Si c’est pas un chose c’est l’autre
Pas rien compliqué
Si je te dit mes espoires
Veut tu que je m’explique
C’est pas la peine se lamenter
Si tu va pas travaillier
Je m’en ai retourner
Pour te montrer mes feelings
Pour changer ton idée
Pour ’chapé ton avis
Viens oir ici
Moi j’ai vu un Hibou
Qu’etait après me regarder
Mon tattoo, les ailes itou
Il ‘tait pas bien schoqué
La lune et plein
Pour un moment
Dedans tes jonglements
De quoi tu reve
Pendant le jour
Ton cervelle au courant
C’est pas chanceux
C’est beni. Tout les Jours.
Bon Dieu reveil
Encore, encore, encore
On s’a croiser trois fois
Mais c’est pas la premiere
Qui m’apporte les instruction
Pour la vie
comment tu crois
Viens oir ici
va pas la bas
Mettre les freines
tiens bien les renes
Et s’il faut
Arête drête
Au milieu du chemin
Moi j’ai vu le Pelican
Qu’a avalé les gros poissons
Et rejeté pour ses enfants
En donnant
De son corps
Les a nouri avec le sang
Et les Franco-militants
Fremer les ports aux immigrants
Sans penser a le moment
Qu’y du traverser la Front
-iere
Apres s’en fuit de la guerre
ENGLISH
Walking
Along the coulee
There’s nothing, it’s everything
No one on this path
Cypress
Boscoyo
Palmetto
Spider
Lost in the tide
Cypress grove in the dark
No one can find me
between the roots
I’m hidden
The winds are whistling
Across my frozen hands
Jump across the water
To find my Throne
Boscoyo
You can’t follow me
Too quiet
Too private
My thoughts are Golden
Inside
Not shining
I pass in the dark
Your desires are too clear
I look ahead
While remembering behind
O yes I make my prayers
Me Alone
By candle
I pray to my grandma
I was born in the snow
Across the basin
Istrouma
I can can’t tell you the story
But my dad, tell it right
Like the story goes
We’re all in the cage
If it’s not worse
If it’s one thing it’s another
It’s not complicated
If I tell you my hopes
You want me to explain
It’s not worth lamenting
If you’re not gonna work for it
I brought myself back
To show you my feelings
To change your mind
To throw out your opinion
Come see here
I saw an Owl
Who was watching me
My tattoo, the wings too
He wasn’t shocked to see
The moon is full
For a moment
In your thoughts
What do you dream
During the day
Your brain is current
It’s not luck
It’s a blessing, Every day
God wakes you up
Again and again and again
We crossed paths three times
But it’s not the first time
He brought me instructions
For life
Can you believe
Come see here
Don’t go there
Push the brakes
Hold the reins tight
And if you must
Stop right
In the middle of the road
Me I saw the Pelican
Who swallowed the fish
And threw it up for it’s babies
Giving
Of it’s body
Nourished them with the blood
And the Franco-militants
Close the door to immigrants
Without thinking of the moment
They had to cross the Border
Escaping War
credits
from Rêve du Troubadour,
released September 22, 2023
Music and lyrics by Louis Michot
Louis Michot – vocals, Syndrum, 808 kick and snare, steel guitar
Dickie Landry – saxophone
Ivory Billed Woopecker recorded by Arthur A. Allen, 1935, Singer Tract, Louisiana
Engineered by Louis Michot. Additional Engineering by Kirkland Middleton
Louis Michot, most recognized as fiddle player and lead singer for Grammy award winning Lost Bayou Ramblers, channels his
passion for local folklore, sustainability, Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline into a new solo creative expression, Rêve du Troubadour.
Rêve du Troubadour is an epic feast of Francophone songwriting, specific to Louisiana, inspired by one man’s wild, fantastical dreams....more
supported by 28 fans who also own “Boscoyo Fleaux feat. Dickie Landry”
The is the real electric hoodoo here. I am of the belief that you can't make make this music proper unless you're raised up in all the tradition. This is all the way right! veenstar
The 4 tracks (and 2 remixes) on this EP reflect the host of global sounds David Walters has spent a lifetime absorbing, set to brisk beats. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 7, 2022
