Join us every Sunday for live tunes in the courtyard by your favorite local musicians! This week we’re taking a trip to the Big Easy and getting down with the Aux Cajunals, featuring Suzy and Eric Thompson. Scroll for more about the band!

The Aux Cajunals, featuring Suzy and Eric Thompson, play the kind of old-fashioned Cajun dance party music which has been an integral part of celebrations in southwest Louisiana for over 100 years. Suzy Thompson fiddles up a storm, squeezes her Louisiana-made one-row accordions, and brings the Cajun and Creole songs to life with her powerful vocals. Eric Thompson's acoustic rhythm guitar chops keep the dancers up and hopping. Agi Ban plays lead fiddle while Suzy plays accordion, and her fiddle duets with Suzy are truly show-stoppers. Allegra Thompson (daughter of Eric and Suzy) adds her strong lead singing and solid upright bass playing to anchor the sound of the band.

Eric, Suzy and Agi have performed and recorded with many of the most respected names in Cajun and zydeco music, including Michael Doucet and Beausoleil, Marc & Ann Savoy, and Queen Ida. In the early 1980s, Suzy apprenticed with master fiddler Dewey Balfa in Louisiana (under an NEA Fellowship) and was also mentored by Cheese Read and Dennis McGee.  Later, she learned to play Cajun accordion while playing her fiddle alongside the late, great Danny Poullard in the California Cajun Orchestra. In addition to working with the musicians mentioned above, Suzy has also performed and/or recorded with the Magnolia Sisters, with Joel Savoy and Jesse Lege, with Ray Abshire, with David Greeley, and many other major Cajun artists.  She appears in the film "J'Ai Etais Au Bal" (on PBS as  "French Dance Tonight")  with D.L. Menard and with Queen Ida.  Eric and Suzy spent 18 years as mainstays of the California Cajun Orchestra; the band's two CDs on the Arhoolie label both won national awards.