David Greely – Fiddle Player

I was told by my wife that she was taking fiddle lessons with a really well known New Orleans based fiddle player.His name was David Greely. I did some research and found out that he plays with an amazing group ‘Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys’. They have been around for 20 years and have won numerous Grammy nominations. According to the Mamou Playboys site “David Greely is one of Cajun music’s most eloquent voices on the fiddle, and has been a human search engine and musical bloodhound for the Mamou Playboys since the day that he and Steve Riley formed the group. Consumed with a hunger for knowledge and harmony, he revels in archival research, rare melodies, linguistic arcana and historical prose and poetry with which he can create songs that marry the distant past to the future, and then sing them in a rich, full baritone. His fiddling is inventive and witty, searching out and flowing into each opening and angle in a song that needs a splash of color or a blues inflection.”

Last week David and fellow New Orleans fiddle legend Joel Savoy had a performance scheduled in Brooklyn. My wife insisted I go and see David play. I haven’t been a fan of cajun music or bluegrass until recently. The location for this performance was a studio located in an industrial building in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The studio belonged to percussionist Scott Kettner. He has an amazing resume of work as well. Thats another blog entry later. Scott performed a few songs with the duo as well. Amazing musician!

A friend once introduced me to DelMcCoury Band at BB Kings. This was an experience to see that group play. It could have been jazz. It could have been Bluegrass. It was amazing Bluegrass! All the players were virtuoso musicians. That brings me back to David and Joel. Virtuoso fiddle!

David and Joel sang songs from his new album SUD DU SUD and other original cajun classics. It was an great evening of incredible musicianship and talent. I was fortunate enough to get a few songs on video that night. I look forward to seeing David perform again in the near future.

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