Explore the Visionary Worlds of David Greely
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- David Greely
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to David Greely via these people per these categories:
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Who I Am & Where I Live
- Name: David Greely
- City: Breaux Bridge, Louisiana
- Country: United States
- Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
My Life & Work
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Bio:
David Greely’s French Louisiana music is opening a new wing in his tradition. David has taken the swampy syncopations of Cajun music and its renaissance French dialect to new level of sophistication without losing its urgency and texture. In solo acoustic performance, he sounds like two or three fiddles, weaving accompaniment to his vocals as if it’s someone else singing. Presenting his concerts in English or French, he embraces all the aspects of his heritage that a fiddle and voice can reach- ancient ballads, cane field blues, yearning waltzes and fiery two steps, and melds his ancestral legacy with his own adroit compositions and stories of the rich souls who kept this music and language alive.
David was born in Baton Rouge of Cajun and Irish ancestry, and learned Cajun music on dance hall stages throughout South Louisiana, in the archives of Cajun and Creole music at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, and from his apprenticeship to Cajun fiddle master and National Heritage Fellow Dewey Balfa. As a founding member of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, David toured Folk Festivals worldwide for 23 years, and was nominated for four Grammy Awards. He has received the Louisiana Artist Fellowship Award for Folklife Performance, and is an adjunct instructor of Cajun fiddle at the University of Louisiana.
Contact Information
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Management/Booking:
For Booking:
David Greely
david@davidgreely.com
216 Martin Street
Breaux Bridge, Louisiana 70517
My Media & Markets
- ▶ Book Purchases: http://davidgreely.com/books
- ▶ Website: http://davidgreely.com
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-j4ekuGxnAebh1_epOjqfg
- ▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UC-xn0a5DkyWazJKY4fcggcw
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/2EPhpTh5w1o38CGIVoKofc
My Writing
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Publications:
Books
The Balfa Brothers Play Traditional Cajun Music
A French/English Interlinear Translation- 22 songs
The Songs of Iry Lejeune
A French/English Interlinear Translation- 25 songs
Transcriptions and Translations
by
David Greely
These books contain transcriptions and translations of the Cajun French language found in the lyrics of the Balfa Brothers’ magnificent two first albums, and Iry Lejeune’s classic recordings.
Transcription and translations for these recordings are already available elsewhere, but these books take a radically different approach.
Here the translations are interlinear (between each line) and painstakingly literal. The reader will immediately know the meaning of each word as well as the syntax of the French spoken by the Cajuns of South Louisiana.
For example, lines like :
O, bébé, oublie pas, viens me rejoindre
Oh baby forget not come me rejoin
…have always been translated elsewhere on the page, in smooth English, with all the foreign arrangements of the words converted to the accustomed English ways of expression, like this :
Oh, baby, don’t forget, come back to me
The interlinear method may seem awkward, but it gives a much clearer picture of the structure of French expression, such as reflexive phrases like viens me rejoindre, normally translated as come back to me, when the French words are actually in this order, come me rejoin.
There are parts of words in subscript to highlight letters that are uniquely silent in the Cajun French dialect. Liquid syllables like the re in rejoindre are not often pronounced in this dialect, and are usually rendered as r’joind’. The subscript highlight leaves the word properly spelled, to help the singer learn how to write and read French, and at the same time clearly helps the singer pronounce Cajun French convincingly and helps the words fit the rhythms of the song as intended by the original singers.
The song titles are numbered according to their appearance on the track list of the CD, The Balfa Brothers Play Traditional Cajun Music Volumes I and II (SW-6011,) minus the instrumental tracks.
The Iry Lejeune lyrics are for all his recordings, and the book corresponds to the CD, Iry Lejeune: The Definitive Collection (Ace CDCHD 428)
It is highly recommended to learn while listening to the Balfa Brothers, or to Iry Lejeune’s recordings, so that you can imitate their accent and pronunciation, and thereby create a convincing Cajun French vocal.
