ABOUT | DRY BONES

BEHIND THE BONES

From the archive to the screen

Dry Bones began deep in the heart of the pandemic.

The original thought was a modest one—that we would share audio files from the Center's archive with musicial collaborators and ask them to re-record their new takes. We had received some seed funding for archival projects, and we thought it might be a good way to support local musicians stuggling due to the anemic return of live music work.

As we began the work and thought more about it, we decided that the concept was worth a more professional realization. In conversation with filmmakers Abby Berendt Lavoi and Jeremey Lavoi of Lavoi Creative, and musician/producer Chas Justus, Dry Bones was born—a web series focused on archival exploration and re-imagination of Louisiana songs, each episode culminating n a live in-studio performance.

As the project evolved, the bones began to stir, and things took on a life of their own, luring us down new, sometimes hilarious, surprising, and devastating paths into the still barely charted backwaters of Louisiana's musical complexity. What you'll find here is less an academic exercise (though we do bring in a few talking heads), but rather an impassioned plunge, with some of our favorite people, into the deep end of the archive's dark waters.

-Dr. Joshua Caffery, Center for Louisiana Studies, June 2026

About the Team

Dry Bones is a collaboration between the Center for Louisiana Studies, Jeremey and Abby Lavoi's Roots of Fire project, and musician/producer Chas Justus.

Roots of Fire

The Roots of Fire Project is a multimedia series dedicated to capturing and sharing stories of South Louisiana roots music, encompassing Cajun, Zydeco, and Creole traditions (among others). Through feature documentaries, short films, digital shorts, and live performance pieces, we aim to showcase the richness of Louisiana's French music heritage.

The Center for Louisiana Studies

Founded in 1973, the Center for Louisiana Studies is a cultural hub within the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's College of Liberal Arts. It's the university's oldest research center. The Center oversees the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press and houses the Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore, the largest collection of materials on South Louisiana's vernacular culture.

Chas Justus

Chas Justus is a Louisiana-based musician, songwriter, guitarist, and producer known for his deep work in Cajun, country, blues, swing, and South Louisiana roots music. A founding member of the Red Stick Ramblers and longtime member of The Revelers, he has toured nationally and internationally and brings a musician’s ear and producer’s judgment to projects grounded in Louisiana sound

About the Musicians

Cedric Watson and Tiff "Teddy" Lamson

Episode One features Cedric Watson, a Grammy-nominated fiddler, accordionist, singer, and songwriter whose work is rooted in Cajun, Creole, and zydeco music. He is joined by Tif “Teddy” Lamson, a Lafayette-born drummer, percussionist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist who co-founded GIVERS and has worked with Shania Twain, Peaches, Mike Dillon, LCD Soundsystem, and others.

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Steve Riley, Peter Schwartz, and Burke Riley

Steve Riley is one of the most recognized Cajun accordionists of his generation and co-founder of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. For Dry Bones, he appears with Peter Schwarz, a longtime former Mamou Playboys member on bass and fiddle, and Burke Riley, Steve’s son and a multi-instrumentalist in the next generation of Cajun music.

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Megan Brown and Kelli Jones

Megan Constantin and Kelli Jones are both central voices in contemporary Cajun music. Constantin, a member of T’Monde, is known for her work with Louisiana French songs and narrative ballad traditions, while Jones, also known as K.C. Jones, is a fiddler, singer, guitarist, and songwriter whose music moves across Cajun, old-time, country, and indie roots settings.

Thor Ahlgren and Friends

Thor Ahlgren is a Swedish musician, producer, accordionist, vocalist, and bagpiper whose work has long explored the relationship between Swedish/Scanian folk music and Cajun music. His projects include Alligator Gumbo, a Swedish Cajun band, and Lo å Lä, a Sweden-Louisiana recording project involving musicians, repertoire, and translations from both places.

Nokosee Fields

Nokosee Fields is a widely respected old-time fiddler, bassist, and traditional musician with a devoted following among players and listeners. The great-nephew of Cherokee fiddler Sam O’Fields, Fields has won major fiddle contests and performed and taught at traditional music festivals and workshops around the country.

Lisa Leblanc

Lisa LeBlanc is an Acadian singer-songwriter from New Brunswick and one of French Canada’s major contemporary artists. Known for moving between folk, rock, country, funk, disco, and her own “trash folk” sound, she also has strong musical ties to Louisiana and a longtime following in Lafayette.

Joel Savoy and Linzay Young

Joel Savoy and Linzay Young are Cajun fiddlers, longtime collaborators, and founding members of the Red Stick Ramblers. Savoy is also a Grammy-winning producer and engineer, founder of Valcour Records, and member of the Savoy musical family, while Young is a singer, fiddler, accordionist, songwriter, and one of the central voices associated with the Eunice-area Cajun repertoire.

The Williams Family

Episode Nine features Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Chas, one of the major bands in contemporary zydeco, alongside Williams’s sons Lil’ Nate and Naylan Williams. Nathan Williams formed the Cha Chas in 1985, and the family’s work now spans multiple generations of zydeco performers, producers, and Grammy-nominated artists.

Sabine McCalla and Trey Boudreaux

Sabine McCalla is a New Orleans-based Haitian American singer-songwriter whose work draws from folk, gospel, soul, blues, Caribbean music, and American roots traditions. She appears with Trey Boudreaux, one of Louisiana’s most in-demand upright bass players, whose work spans Cajun, swamp pop, old-time, jazz, roots music, and the broader New Orleans and South Louisiana music scenes.

Feufollet with Julie Aubé

Feufollet has played an important role in the contemporary Cajun music scene, beginning as a young Cajun band in Lafayette and later expanding into a broader Cajun/Americana sound. This Dry Bones performance also acknowledges the legacy of founding member Chris Stafford, who died in 2024, and brings together a special version of the band that includes past and present members and close musical kin, including Joshua Caffery, Mike Stafford, Elise Riley, Anna Laura Edmiston, and others. They are joined by Julie Aubé, an Acadian artist from New Brunswick and member of Les Hay Babies.

THANK YOU

The Dry Bones team would like to thank these supporters,

whose generosity has made this work possible:

Charlie and Lynne Terr

The Acadian Families Fund

The Sage Foundation

If you would like to support future seasons of Dry Bones,

please contact Dr. Joshua Caffery at josh.caffery@louisiana.edu

Gifts in support of the project

may be made through the UL Lafayette Foundation,

a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and are tax-deductible

to the extent allowed by law.