Backed by skinny Courtney Granger on fiddle and cowboy-hatted Jon Bertrand on acoustic guitar, Savoy had the young crowd spinning dance partners in the dusty grass.
Wilson Savoy stood center stage with his legs dramatically spread apart like Billy Zoom from the punk band X, but instead of an electric guitar, Savoy held a handmade button accordion, its bellows stretching and collapsing with the propulsive beat. On Saturday afternoon, for example, you could see the Pine Leaf Boys whip the crowd - smaller than the Avetts', but equal in enthusiasm - into a frenzy with thumping two-step dance tunes. If those kids will embrace Mumford & Sons and The Avett Brothers - as well as related bands like Old Crow Medicine Show, Uncle Earl, The Wailin' Jennys and Carolina Chocolate Drops - might they also embrace the new wave of Cajun bands that have emerged around Lafayette, La.? After all, bands such as the Pine Leaf Boys, Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole, the Lost Bayou Ramblers, Feufollet and the Red Stick Ramblers play their string-band instruments with the same contagious momentum as their better-known counterparts. These two bands, which performed together with Bob Dylan on this year's Grammy Awards telecast, have shown that young people can respond in large numbers to the combination of fiddles, acoustic guitars and doghouse bass played with the same energy as punk rock. Here was conclusive proof, as if it were needed, that a new wave of young string bands has broken out of the underground into genuine stardom.
The first day of this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival culminated in back-to-back sets by West London's Mumford & Sons and North Carolina's The Avett Brothers before a crowd more than 20,000 strong. The Pine Leaf Boys' members perform at the Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette, La.
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