I had met Clifton Chenier several times with my husband Marc, who was a good friend of Clifton. Marc used to go to listen to Clifton at various venues and Clifton would always ask him to come up on the stage and play his “little accordion” (in contrast to Clifton’s piano key accordion!). Clifton had a friend named Helen Faulk and she was the daughter of Claude Faulk, the man, Clifton said, who taught him everything.

So of course I had to meet and interview Claude Faulk. Helen and Clifton took me to his house. He was a lovely, gentle man and had his buddy Dupré, his rubboard player, with him. So I interviewed him and then they sat on the sofa and played me some tunes, in the style they called Lala.This was the music from which zydeco developed, a non-electric, soulful, bluesy style. I also filmed them at his house the same day.

-Ann Savoy