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Michael Doucet | |
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 Michael Doucet at the Minnesota State Fair, 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Michael Louis Doucet |
| Born | (1951-02-14)February 14, 1951 (age 74) Scott, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Genres | Cajun |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, musician |
| Instrument | Cajun fiddle |
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Labels | Arhoolie,Swallow,Rounder,Smithsonian Folkways,Compass,Yep Roc |
| Website | www |
Michael Louis Doucet (born February 14, 1951)[1] is an American singer-songwriter and musician best known as the founder of the Cajun bandBeauSoleil.
Doucet was born inScott, Louisiana, to aCajun family.[2][3] Family parties in the 1950s always included "French music." Two of his paternal aunts sang ballads, and many family members played musical instruments.[4] He learned banjo at age six, guitar at eight, and belonged to a Cajun rock band with his cousin,Zachary Richard, at twelve.[5]
In his early 20s, Doucet and his cousin went to France, and when he got home he added violin to his music studies. Violin became his primary instrument, though he also plays accordion and mandolin.[5]
In 1975, he started the Cajun band Coteau, and two years later he startedBeauSoleil with Kenneth Richard and Sterling Richard. BeauSoleil plays an eclectic combination of traditionalCajun music, blues, country, jazz, andzydeco. Doucet has been a member of a more traditional Cajun band, the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band withAnn Savoy andMarc Savoy, and Fiddlers 4 withDarol Anger,Rushad Eggleston, andBruce Molsky. He began teaching in 1977 at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.[5]
Although Doucet did not originally intend to pursue performing Cajun music, a turning point came when he was awarded a Folk Arts Apprenticeship by theNational Endowment for the Arts. "I had planned to go to graduate school in New Mexico to study the Romantic poets," he recalls on theVanguard Records web site. "Instead I tradedWilliam Blake forDewey Balfa."[citation needed] Doucet sought out every surviving Cajun musician, including Balfa,Dennis McGee,Sady Courville,Luderin Darbone,Varise Conner,Canray Fontenot,Freeman Fontenot and others. He studied their techniques and songs and encouraged some to resume public performances.[6]
In 1975, Doucet received an NEA Folk Arts Apprenticeship Grant to study Cajun fiddle styles from masters such asVarise Conner, Hector Duhon,Canray Fontenot, Lionel LeLeux, andDennis McGee.[2]
In 2005 Doucet received aNational Heritage Fellowship awarded by theNational Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[7][5] Two years later, he was named a USA Collins Family Foundation Fellow and awarded a $50,000 grant byUnited States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists.
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