"Joyeux Noël, Bon Chrismeusse" from Lafayette with Chas Justus

Twelve Songs of Christmas

Chas Justus' musical taste ends around 1965, he says, and he has made his living playing in roots music bands in Southern Louisiana--the swing band The Red Stick Ramblers, and more recently in The swamp pop band The Revelers. Last fall, he brought together a number of his musical friends to record Joyeux Noël, Bon Chrismeusse, an EP of classic Christmas songs sung in Cajun French. He talks about how the project came about, and how COVID-19 helped make it possible.

Along the way, he turns me on to a couple of tracks--Belton Richard's Cajun French version of Buck Owens' "You're All I Want for Christmas," and Chicago guitarist Joel Paterson's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

I first interviewed Justus in 2015 for MySpiltMilk.com. Here's that story on The Revelers.

In this week's episode, I also talk about My Holiday by Mindy Smith, a Christmas album that I think merits more far attention than it gets.