The 2009 Festival du Mardi Gras is a foot-stomping success!

Dennis Stroughmatt & Creole Stomp and Paul Gregoire & Roux du Bayou performed to a full house at the Bishops Ball on Saturday night February 21st at the Fortnightly Club in Vincennes, Indiana.

Dennis & Jennifer Stroughmatt perform Midwest French Creole songs in French television documentary

Dennis and Jennifer Stroughmatt are featured musicians in the French television documentary "Voyageur 1608 - 2008".

Click on the following songs to watch each music video:

La Guiannee

Boyer Stomp

Jai Passe Devant Ta Porte

Chevalier de la Table Ronde

Ste. Genevieve Stroll

Dennis Stroughmatt releases "Cadet Rouselle" his new French Creole Fiddle Tunes & Ballads CD

French Creole Fiddle Tunes & Ballads from Old Upper Louisiana, Volume 2

"With “Cadet Rouselle,” we continue to pay homage to the French Creole music and culture of Old Upper Louisiana that includes the present day states of Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.

Music only becomes a part of history if it stops being played, and I don’t intend to stop playing anytime soon. We are fortunate that the cultural and musical links to our early French ancestors still remain and I feel blessed to have a musical journey with such a unique and almost secret American culture.

It is my goal and the goal of the French Creole population here to share that secret with the world and reunite the French Midwest with the entirety of North American French heritage: Canada and Louisiana. We hope you enjoy the musical journey from Volume I to Volume II, and beyond." -Dennis Stroughmatt


"Cadet Rouselle" includes four songs that have been performed in Vincennes since 1732. Visit Flattown Music's website to listen to samples of all the great songs on the new CD.

Click here for a positive review of "Cadet Rouselle" at Blog Critics Magazine.

"Cadet Rouselle" and Dennis' other CDs will be available for purchase at the Festival du Mardi Gras Vincennes "Bishops Ball Concert" on February 21st for $15.00 each.

Paul Gregoire & Roux du Bayou return to Vincennes for the Festival du Mardi Gras

Paul Gregoire is the accordionist and lead singer of the Cajun band “Roux du Bayou” that also features Jerry Prevost on drums and Al Henderson on bass. The Nashville-based Roux du Bayou is known for pumping out high energy Cajun and Zydeco, and their performances always provide a memorable evening of great Louisiana dance music.

Originally from Dulac, Louisiana, Paul is a Native American and a member of the Biloxi-Chitimacha tribe based in Terrebonne Parish near the Gulf of Mexico. Growing up in Cajun Country Paul began to play music on a number of instruments by the age of 12.

In 1989 Paul moved to Nashville and began playing the accordion while also strumming the frottier, or scrub-board, for Cajun music legend Jimmy C. Newman. A star and member of the Grand Ole Opry since the 1950s Newman quickly became Paul’s musical mentor. Eventually Paul began subbing for Newman’s acclaimed accordionist Bessyl Duhon on the Grand Ole Opry stage and radio show.

In 1999 Paul formed Roux du Bayoux with Prevost and Henderson and the band has toured throughout the eastern United States. While Roux du Bayou performs all types of dance music from Cajun waltzes and swamp pop to the two-step and Zydeco, Paul personally prefers traditional acoustic French music. "It sounds more real and has a sweeter tone especially when a fiddle and an accordion weave together an unforgettable melody," notes Paul.

Currently Roux du Bayou is recording their first CD that includes vocal duets with Jimmy C. Newman and features guest appearances by musicians including Festival du Mardi Gras performer Dennis Stroughmatt of Creole Stomp. Roux du Bayou's CD will be available for purchase later in 2009. For more information visit www.rouxdubayou.com

Welcome to the FduMG Blog/Bienvenue au Blog de FduMG

Zachary Richard, the Cadien/Cajun songwriter and musician, refers to the Quebecois - the French inhabitants of Quebec - as a "Conquered People" and the Cadiens/Cajuns - the French speaking non-Creole inhabitants of Louisiana - as a "Deported People".  Meanwhile, the handful of French Creole communities located in the "Illinois Country/Le Pays des Illinois" - Illinois, Indiana and Missouri - could be called the "Forgotten People". 

In Quebec and Louisiana today only academics and those interested in history are aware that centuries old French Canadian culture and language live on in isolated pockets of the central Midwest.  To cultural anthropologists the Midwest French Creole people are indeed "Living Fossils" as they maintain traditions that have now disappeared in French speaking Louisiana and Canada.

For over a century researchers from the Smithsonian Institution, and American, Canadian and French universities have recorded and documented the disappearing culture of the Midwest French Creole communities of Cahokia, and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois; Vincennes, Indiana; and St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, and Old Mines, Missouri.

To thwart the potential disappearance of one of America's oldest cultural treasures the French Creole communities in the Illinois Country continue to expand their French Colonial theme festivals and resurrect long dormant traditions that were once key components in the rich cultural tapestry of life in the large expanse formerly known as New/Nouvelle France.

In February, 2007 the Festival du Mardi Gras was launched as part of the 275th Anniversary celebration honoring the founding of Vincennes, Indiana in 1732.